The suicide bombing at a bakery in Eilat, Israel yesterday was unique in both it’s supposed purpose and its location.  Eilat is a resort town that sits on the Red Sea in the southern most tip of Israel, but it is also a resort town where most tourists are Arabs and presumably Muslims.  Why would Palestinian Islamic Jihad choose to perform a so-called ‘martyr mission’ in a resort town where fellow Muslims vacation?

It’s a perplexing quandry as to the decision of the location of the bomb, a bakery where there were only three people present at the time, but it makes perfect strategic sense to target an Israeli resort town when such a bombing could cripple the economy within Eilat.  Will vacationing Egyptians, Saudis or Jordanians visit Eilat after this bombing, knowing full well PIJ has the town within its sights?

The attack on an Arab vacation destination also doesn’t stray too far from the stated goals of the Islamist movement.  The Egyptian Sinai has been the scene of terrorist attacks previously in resort towns, though at least one of the resort town hit was a popular Israeli vacation locale.

For their part, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad stated the reason for the bombing was to stop the fighting between Hamas and Fatah.   Also with a similar claim was the Fatah faction known as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

“We wanted to send a message to Hamas that there is only one enemy – Israel – and we must concentrate our fight against Israel,” said Abu Ahmed, leader of the Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip. “It is time to take the conflict from an internal dispute to where the dispute really belongs, fighting the Zionist crimes.”

PIJ is a Fatah terrorist group, meaning the likely result of the suicide bombing will be Israel will cut off any aid it was sending to Mahmoud Abbas and scrap any plans in trying to prop up Abbas over Hamas.  The statement of the bombing made by PIJ indicates they wish to unite all Palestinians behind their common foe, rather than continue to act like savages in an undeclared civil war (where’s NBC News when you need them?).

Islamists have it both ways when it comes to terrorist attacks against designated targets.  On numerous occassions, Islamist groups have condoned the act of suicide terrorism to which they claim results in ‘martyrdom’ against Infidels.  An unwritten rule however is that when Muslims are caught up in the bombings, those innocent Muslim victims are just more ‘martyrs’ to throw on the blessings delivered down by Allah to the ummah  in the form of a terrorist attack. Islamist therefore can attack anywhere they please and kill anyone they want with the same heavenly outcome.  How convenient a doctrine Islamists adhere to.

What may end up achieving the supposed goal of ending the fighting between Hamas and Fatah has little to nothing to do with Palestinians on the two different sides have an epiphany of who they feel should hold their ire, but rather through an Israeli retaliation; a retaliation, I should add, Israel has full reason to follow through upon.  It was therefore the future Israeli retaliation that the bombing was intended to trigger, thus putting both Hamas and Fatah on the defensive as opposed to the offensive against each other.

The suicide bomber missed the rush hour breakfast, deciding to attack the bakery at 9:40 a.m. local time.  Instead of choosing other more populated areas, the terrorist walked into the bakery after hitching a ride with an unsuspecting IDF reservist, Yossi Waltinsky, following entry into Israel through the Egyptian border.

Waltinsky thought that the man was suspicious, as he was wearing heavy clothing - probably to protect him from the desert chill during the night - and carried a bag. Nevertheless, Waltinsky dropped him off near a gas station, about a kilometer from the area where he carried out the attack.

According to southern district police chief Uri Bar-Lev, who rushed to Eilat immediately after hearing of the attack, Waltinksy then telephoned the police station in the town and said that he suspected the man was a terrorist. Two patrol cars rushed to the scene, but seven minutes after Waltinsky made the call, the bomber carried out the attack.

As a result of the bombing, no matter how much of a failed attempt it may prove to be, Eilat police chief Bruno Stein told reporters, “our assumption is that it’s not one bomber, and there might be more bombers in Eilat right now.”