Today in Burgas, Bulgaria, a bomb was detonated on a bus full of Israeli tourists, leaving 7 dead and over 20 injured. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is on his way to the scene right now, as is his Bulgarian counterpart.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has already pointed the finger at Iran and Hezbollah, with very good reason. In the past few months several potential attacks on Israeli targets around the world were foiled, in places such as India, Georgia, Cypress, Azerbaijan, Greece, and Turkey, with Iranian agents and/or nationals arrested in all of these incidents. Furthermore, today is the 18th anniversary of the bombing of the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentina’s version of a JCC) building in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hezbollah, a terrorist organization from Lebanon who takes its orders from Iran and collaborated with Iran on the Argentina bombing has issued a denial of responsibility for this incident. That denial is not credible in Israel’s eyes.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has already promised to punish the perpetrators of the attack and if there is sufficient proof linking Hezbollah and Iran, then tensions in the Middle East (which are already high) could boil over.
I will keep updating on this as events unfold.
Matt Goldberg
Community Relations Director
(502) 238-2707
mgoldberg@jewishlouisville.org