Tractor attacks hours before Obama visit

I was just cruising back into Jerusalem this afternoon after a whirlwind visit to Beirut when I started seeing police cars zipping past me and heading towards downtown.

Pretty soon, the messages started peppering my cell phone: Another Palestinian had gone on a rampage using a construction vehicle.

This time, the attack took place within view of the five-star Jerusalem hotel where Barack Obama is scheduled to stay tonight on the final leg of his Middle East visit.

Police were still closing off the scene when I got there. One white car had been totally crushed by the backhoe. Another was flipped on its hood.

At least 16 people were injured in the rampage before the attacker was shot dead by a driver and police officer.

Since this attack comes about two weeks after the first bizarre construction vehicle rampage in Jerusalem, it is certain to stoke the debate here about whether this is a new strategy being used by Palestinians - and what can be done to stop these attacks.

Since the first attacker acted alone and had no known ties to militant groups, it was thought that the rampage might be a strange anomaly.

But, as newspaper editors always tell us, it only takes three to call something a trend.

Now we have two.

"You can't say this is an isolated incident," said Jerusalemite Kenny Lerner, who was having lunch at a nearby restaurant when the attack started. "Not the second time."

Lerner, 67, rushed into the street with his wife and started running after the rampaging backhoe.

Then he saw a driver get out of his car and open fire. Soon an Israeli policeman arrived and opened fire.

Lerner said Israel needs to figure out who is staging these attacks - and why.

"Are they being brainwashed?" Lerner asked. "Are they being blackmailed?"

Police said the driver was a 29-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem who had a criminal record they declined to detail.

Conservative politicians are quickly calling on Israel to demolish the family homes of these attackers, revoke the citizenship of their relatives and possibly expel them.

"There is no doubt that destroying houses and expulsion are the most effective sanctions against terrorism," Avi Dichter, Israel's public safety minister, told Israel Radio after the attack.

Eyewitnesses were stunned when they saw the backhoe slamming into cars and flipping vehicles on one of Jerusalem's busiest streets - one that runs right by the King David Hotel where Obama is scheduled to stay Tuesday night.

The driver apparently slammed into a bus on a side street yards away from the hotel and then started smashing into cars on the road running past the King David.

Obama aides have said that the US Senator has no plans to change his schedule.