Israel’s south has been somewhat quiet recently. Meryl wonders if it’s because a deal for Gilad Schalit is near.
The north was quiet over the weekend. And that was fortunate.
A 200-pound car bomb malfunctioned near a crowded mall in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Saturday night, averting what could have been one of the largest such attacks in Israel in the past several years, police said.
A bomb squad was called to the Lev Hamifratz shopping center after a small explosion, possibly a detonation charge, inside a Subaru in the mall’s parking lot, according to police.
Police found what an official said were roughly 200 pounds of explosives that had failed to detonate. The amount was enough to have caused a devastating blast at a time when the popular mall was crowded following the end of the Jewish Sabbath. The device was packed with ball bearings, according to police. There were no reported arrests as of late Sunday night.
Shmuel Rosner writes that though officials are uncertain of the group claiming responsibility for the attempt, its name should give Israel pause.
In 2006, when Israeli diplomats started talking about the possibility of Israel evacuating Shaba’a Farms, Michel Rubin rightly commented on the inadvisability of whetting Hezbollah’s appetite. And as we’ve seen this weekend, it’s an appetite backed by deadly action.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
