Israeli Attack Victim Dies as US Warns Israel on East Jerusalem

Richard Lakin, a dual US-Israeli citizen who was shot in the Palestinian terrorist attack on a bus in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood two weeks ago, died of his wounds, making him the third Israeli to die in that attack and the 11^th since the wave of Palestinian stabbings and shootings began. In a Facebook page his children announced his death.  “Dad passed away this morning. He was 76 years old, and had eight grandchildren. He was butchered by Muslim terrorists who shot him in the head and stabbed him multiple times during an attack on Bus 78 in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.” The attackers came from the nearby Palestinian village of Jebel Mukaber in east Jerusalem. More than 50 Palestinians have also died, about half of them were assailants and the rest were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers. At the same time, the US has warned Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against taking unilateral steps in east Jerusalem. Netanyahu has said he is considering a law to revoke the benefits and travel rights of Palestinians in some neighborhoods on the “Palestinian” side of the barrier that Israel built to separate from the West Bank. During a cabinet meeting Netanyahu said, “There is no enforcement there, no law. We need to examine the possibility of cancelling their residency.” A State Department spokesman said “If it was true it would certainly be of concern to us,” and a White House spokesman said that as far as the US government knows, the Israeli government is not yet considering this change.