A Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist held an orthodox Jewish passenger at knifepoint before releasing him and escaping near Beitar Illit, on the western edge of Gush Etzion, around 8 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT) Sunday night. Watch the video here.
The death threat and apparent hostage attempt follows three murders and two attempted murders by Palestinian Authority terrorists in the past four weeks.
The attacker was an illegal worker who had boarded the No. 148 bus in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, and demanded that the bus driver let him off at an illegal stop before the IDF checkpoint along the security fence that borders Judea and Samaria.
The driver refused, and the illegal worker drew a knife and held it a passenger’s throat, taking him hostage. The terrorist then proved he was serious in his death threat and cut off the “payos” (sidelocks) of his victim, prompting the driver to answer the attacker’s demand and stop the bus.
The attacker then left his hostage and jumped off the bus. The army is searching the area, and a helicopter reportedly has joined the search.
A military spokeswoman told The Jewish Press the attacker took the knife with him.
Earlier in the day, rock-throwing Arabs injured one passenger near Beitar Illit, a large Haredi Jewish city, and shares with Maaleh Adumim the distinction of being the largest cities in Judea and Samaria.
Israeli media have almost totally ignored Sunday’s night’s death threat, which apparently was not considered serious since no one was killed or hurt.
The lack of reportage is part of a mass media agenda to downplay terrorist attacks. Evidence of the agenda was the coverage of last week’s tractor terrorist and the previous week’s murder of retired IDF soldier Col. Sraya Ofer in the Jordan Valley.
In both instances, the major Israeli newspapers and the Voice of Israel radio network took pains to point out that it was not certain that the attacks were related to terror, even though an IDF spokeswoman told The Jewish Press shortly after the tractor terrorist attack that the driver “was a terrorist” who tried to run over a soldier.
Terror is not good for the peace talks.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama have repeatedly said that Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has put a stop to terror, a non-fact that agenda-oriented journalists repeat like parrots. Just to prove the point, one of the more astute reporters covering the U.S. State Dept. totally ignored the tractor terror incident and the murder of Ofer at the State Dept.’s daily briefing, while asking why the Obama administration does not stop Israel from announcing more building projects for Jews in Judea and Samaria.
The reporters never even mention daily rock-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks, which endangers the lives of thousands of Israeli drivers and passengers who travel the roads in Judea and Samaria to Jerusalem and metropolitan Tel Aviv.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, when people are returning home from work, a Palestinian Authority terrorist in the area of Shechem hurled a firebomb at an Israeli driver, whose car was not hit.