Israel Channel 2News:Peace Now Org threatened, Bomb Injures Professor/Activist

"A prize of 1.1 million shekels ($500,000) is offered to anyone who kills a member of Peace Now." This was the opening line of a flyer found near the Jerusalem home of Professor Zeev Sternhell, who was injured by a pipe bomb early Thursday morning.In the wake of the bombing Israeli police dispatched a detail to protect Peace Now Director General Yariv Oppenheimer, and a special task force was formed to find those responsible. Israeli police suspect a right-wing Jewish terrorist group.

Peace Now is not being targeted by chance, Professor Galia Golan said Thursday. "The settlers target Peace Now because we are the most active group in society who bring the whole [range of] settler activities to the public eye... They definitely see us as harmful to their cause," she said. Former Education Minister Yossi Sarid echoed this assessment. "Peace Now is undergoing a renaissance," he wrote in Haaretz. "All those wondering where the movement is today, where it has disappeared to, have received a thundering Zionist answer. The movement is here, alive and well and exerting an influence - and it's really bothering someone up there on the hilltops."

Condemnations of the incident were issued by politicians across the political spectrum.
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert condemned the act of terrorism in strong terms at yesterday's cabinet meeting: "It is impossible not to see a direct line between the murder of Emil Grunzweig [who was killed at a 1983 Peace Now demonstration], the awful murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the attack on Prof. Sternhell," said Olmert. "An evil wind of extremism, of hatred, of malice, of violence, of running amok, of breaking the law, of contempt for the institutions of the state is blowing through certain sections of the Israeli public and threatens Israeli democracy, the ability of those entrusted by the State of Israel to make decisions and the ability to freely express one's views without fear of being attacked by wild, violent law-breakers, who disregard all frameworks of proper, democratic life," he added.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to Thursday's attack quickly, saying that "this is a case where an intellectual came under attack because of his views. We are returning to a dark period."

"We won't allow anyone, of any dark corner of Israeli society, harass people," Barak added.
Statements like these were not accepted at face value by some observers. "Let no one tell us stories or try to sell us a load of nonsense," wrote Eitan Haber in Friday's Yedioth Ahronoth. "Since 1967, there has never been any prime minister or defense minister who sought to confront Israeli lawbreakers in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The opposite is true: every prime minister, Likud and Labor alike, ignored and made light of the reports that were laid on their desks about illegal organizations and rioting. In the war against the Israeli lawbreakers in the territories, some prime ministers and ministers were the first to blink. The sad truth: they were afraid of the people in the territories."
Haber continues: "Israeli residents of the territories deliberately killed Palestinian children and youths, destroyed their homes and trees and even organized for terrible underground activity—and not one of them is behind bars today. ----more at links BELOW------------
http://www.peacenow.org/mepr.asp?rid=&cid=5416
This video is in Hebrew....
here is some more of the story and english version of this video report...for some reason, it would not load.....
http://peacenow.org/video.asp?rid=&cid=5405
and the story http://www.peacenow.org/mepr.asp?rid=&cid=5416 yopu can start to read it here......