CNN Sanitizes Palestinian Car Ramming Terrorism

For people looking to get a quick understanding of terrorist attacks, many turn to the global media companies like CNN’s ”Fast Facts” section. It is there that much of the world gets an alternative view of terrorism, sanitized of the evils of Palestinian anti-Semitism.

CNN has a section called “Terrorist Attacks by Vehicle Fast Facts” devoted to global car ramming attacks. The site leads with a story of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch calling for the use of cars as death machines in 2010 and ISIS doing much the same in September 2014. The website then pivots to a “Timeline” section which recounts 15 terrorist attacks using vehicles since 2006. There is only a single incident in Israel listed and there, CNN quotes the Palestinian terrorist’s family as denying the killer had any involvement with Hamas.

The untold reality is that, like airplane hijackings, Palestinian Arabs are at the forefront of this form of terrorism too.

In July 2008 an Arab took a bulldozer through a crowd on a busy street in Jerusalem killing three and wounding 40. The attack flipped over a city bus, reminiscent of the Second Intifada when Palestinians blew up city buses full of civilians. A few weeks later, another Arab construction worker took a bulldozer through a crowd and injured sixteen civilians.

Neither account made it onto the CNN website.

The paucity of Palestinian terrorism on the site is particularly shocking because there were dozens of Palestinians using cars as weapons against Jews during the media company’s timeframe, along with the active incitement and encouragement of Palestinian leadership.

Fatah, the party of the acting-president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, posted on its Facebook page several cartoons encouraging Arabs to run over Israeli Jews in November 2014, shortly after a Palestinian Arab ran over and killed a few people at a bus stop.

Fatah website promoting running over Jews

The cartoon’s language of “Run over, friend, run over the foreign settler!” and “hit the gas at 199 [km/h] for al-Aqsa,” made the murderous motives abundantly clear.

The Palestinians loved the cartoons so much they began to make their own videos calling for car ramming attacks the following week. The song, “Runaway oh Zionist” is described by ADL:

“The song, preformed in Hebrew with Arabic and Hebrew subtitles, says, “Runaway oh you Zionist, Runaway…Minutes, and a car will run over you” and depicts a Jewish man singing about running away from cars. In the part of the video where the Jewish man gets hit by a car at a bus station and thrown into a cemetery, the lyrics are, “A car will attack you from each direction to give you a ride to the grave.” The song closes with “Runaway Zionists because you will be killed by all means.“

Screenshot of Palestinian video “Runaway oh Zionist.”

Another song circulated online at this time titled “Run-over this settler” was performed by a Palestinian duo with lyrics: “Ran-over a Jewish settler…did it, with his limited resources, for his country.” The song called upon Palestinians to “wait for them at the intersection, let the settler sink in the red blood. Terrify them don’t be merciful.” Jordan-based Al Yarmuk satellite TV station aired the song on its channel as well.

Fatah officials joined the chorus for vehicular homicide with statements like “We will pursue you [Zionists] with car rammings and kill you with rocks.” None of this was covered by CNN.

A thorough review of vehicular terrorism was conducted by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose University in November 2019 in a study called “Smashing Into Crowds” — An Analysis of Vehicle Ramming Attacks.” It’s an important work designed to review how transportation officials should prepare for acts of terrorism.

According to the report, 22% of global vehicular terrorist attacks on civilians since 2010 were committed by Palestinian Arabs. That figure EXCLUDED attacks on police and military personnel which approached 1,000 incidents according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It included all attacks by a broad range of individuals such as those suffering from mental health issues (the 22% Palestinian figure would be over 50% if just focused on jihadists). But, again, CNN could only mention a single occurrence by Palestinians and fail to describe any of their incitement.

The Mineta report captures the essence of car-ramming attacks by jihadists, especially for Palestinians:

“The emergence of groups inspired by religion-based ideologies contributed to the escalation of violence. The substitution of God’s will for political constituency eroded self-imposed constraints, such as killing large numbers of innocent civilians, including children. Religious fanatics count only on heavenly approval for their actions. Condemnation by those regarded as unbelievers or infidels matters little, and undiluted commitment guarantees paradise. Among religiously inspired terrorists, suicide attacks became common…. 

“The change in recruiting methods [using social media and online postings] produced changes in the local terrorist population and also affected tactics. The Internet attracted individuals—it did not create local groups. Terrorist campaigns were replaced by one-off attacks; there was no institutional learning, no improvement in operational skills over time. Instead, jihadists remained mostly unconnected individuals operating alone with limited resources. When they did reach out to join others, they risked being taken in by police undercover operations. Isolated jihadists could not sustain terrorist campaigns or inspire sufficient numbers to create a high volume of violence. 

“The use of vehicles as weapons is an ideal tactic for today’s circumstances. Vehicles are a readily available “weapon.” Limited skill is required, and the ability to drive is widespread. Little preparation is required for an attack. Cities filled with people and vehicles provide ample targets which cannot easily be protected, and high body counts are potentially achievable. It is not surprising, then, that the number of car-ramming attacks has increased…. 

“Ramming attacks did not become a terrorist tactic until the 1990s when Palestinians started carrying out vehicular assaults in Israel. Many of the attacks targeted off-duty soldiers waiting at bus stops—a ubiquitous sight in Israel—but some of the attacks were directed against both soldiers and groups of civilians. 

“Car ramming did not become a major feature of the Palestinian terrorist campaign until a decade later. The 2001 bus attack was the only vehicle ramming attack to occur during the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005, during which there were hundreds of bombings, armed assaults, and rocket and mortar attacks. Occasional vehicle ramming attacks occurred during subsequent years, especially in the summer of 2008, but the sharp increase in Palestinian vehicle attacks did not begin until after 2014. Still, HAMAS and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were the only Palestinian groups to call for such attacks. By 2016, vehicle ramming attacks had evolved from a statistically rare event to reportedly become the second most common form of attack in Israel and the second deadliest form of attack carried out by Palestinians, behind only stabbing. 

“The increasing difficulty of smuggling explosives into the West Bank after the construction of the West Bank Barrier built in response to the Second Intifada and increased border barriers and controls between Gaza and Egypt is offered as at least a partial explanation for the subsequent increase in car rammings by Palestinians. Car rammings increased as preferred modes of attack became more difficult. Palestinians may also have found inspiration in exhortations from global Jihadist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS.”

The report – which was not about Palestinian terrorism – had no difficulty clearly pointing out that the origin of car ramming terrorism came from Palestinians, that Palestinian leadership specifically calls on people to use vehicles to kill Israeli Jews who are treated as less than human, and that Palestinians are the leading users of such terrorist tactics – even more than all other jihadists around the world combined.

Yet CNN would have its readers believe otherwise.

Most people will not look up an 18-page report compiled by transportation experts at an American university to learn what actually happened around the world from jihadist terrorism and rely on readily-available media like CNN which, unbeknownst to viewers, attempts to sanitize the crimes against humanity executed routinely by Palestinian Arabs. Not only does truth die in the hands of mainstream media but innocent victims suffer a second-time from the failures of memory and justice.

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