Aftermath of Palestinian Terror Rampage Through Jerusalem

I see that the Palestinian terrorist's family is claiming this was all just a big misunderstanding. It was an accident. He didn't mean to drive that front end loader down Haifa Street purposefully running over cars, flipping buses, and killing 3 people and wounding 57 (some of whom are still in the hospital in critical condition).

The lawyer representing the family of bulldozer driver Hossam Dawyyat of east Jerusalem, who murdered three people and injured dozens during a killing spree in Jerusalem on Wednesday, said Thursday that had the police cuffed the terrorist's hands and legs and removed him from the vehicle, the incident would have ended at once and "life would have been spared."

The terror attack's third victim, Jean Relevy, 68, of Jerusalem, was laid to rest on Thursday afternoon.

Issam, the terrorist's brother, said the Dawyyat family refused to believe that their son carried out a terror attack.


"My brother did not belong to any organization. He wasn’t even a religious person. After terror attacks he always used to say, 'What is this nonsense? Why do we need this?'"

His family is trying to keep from watching Israel blow up their home and prevent them from holding a mourning tent. And it's not a very convincing job either. They're throwing out all manner of excuses, such as this was an accident that went out of control. Right.

This terrorist could have ended things quite easily. He could have simply turned off the vehicle and surrendered to authorities. That would have spared lives - Israeli lives snuffed out at the hands of this cold blooded murderer.

Instead, this terrorist did nothing of the kind - and rampaged down Jaffa Street leaving a wake of devastation and carnage.

10 of the victims are still in Jerusalem hospitals.

UPDATE:
The terrorist apparently had a Jewish girlfriend at one point, but he also was convicted of assaulting her and served 20 months in jail.

"Maybe a domestic dispute led him to this," saod the woman, who asked to remain nameless, "he did a foolish thing; he wrecked his family and ruined the lives of his children."

In February 2001 Dawyyat was convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court of assaulting her and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. He admitted to threatening her, including telling her he would kill her if she refused to marry him; and physically assaulting her on a number of occasions, despite the restraining order that had been issued against him. The couple broke up eight years ago.

The ex-girlfriend said Dawyyat's life could have been spared: "Why did they have to put those two bullets in him (after the attack was over)?" she said. "I'm very sad today. At first my parents were angry with me because I cried over his death, but now they are consoling me, because the media are harassing me. I'm reliving the entire episode after eight years.

Why couldn't Dawyyat have spared all those Israelis from being murdered? I feel sorry for the parents of this woman, who is suffering for having known and dated this man, and who was assaulted by him. It seems that she's once again suffering at his hands.