El Al employee, religious Jew killed in LA airport shooting

Ha'aretz ^ | July 5 2002 | Benny Landau

[veronica]

Ya'akov Aminov, a religious Jew from North Hollywood, was struck by three bullets. (Photo: Reuters)

Victoria (Vicky) Chen, 25, from Los Angeles was working at the time of the shooting. (Photo: AP)

Victoria (Vicky) Chen, 25, from Los Angeles was working at the time of the shooting Thursday at the Los Angeles International Airport at the El Al ticker counter. She was hit in the chest by two bullets and died instantly.

Ya'akov Aminov, a jewelry merchant in his forties from North Hollywood came to the terminal to escort a friend - and was hit by three bullets.

The death of Aminov, a religious Jew, shocked the Jewish community in North Hollywood, and hundreds of people, most of them Israelis, visited his home to pay condolences to his family.

His brother-in-law said Friday that Aminov "did many things for the community, but stayed away from politics," and that he would be buried in Israel.

Victoria Chen was born in Rishon Letzion and raised in Be'er Sheva. Her parents, Avinoam and Rachel emigrated to Los Angeles 12 years ago. Chen also leaves behind two younger brothers.

"She was daddy's girl," her uncle said Friday. "The first time her father wasn't next to her, she caught two bullets in the chest."

Chen's family believes beyond doubt that the shooting was a politically motivated act of terror. "They will attack us any place. In Argentina, in Los Angeles, in Israel," a relative said Friday.

[TLBSHOW]

Bush is wrong about Islam. 100% wrong! Islam is the enemy we are at war with.

[Catspaw]

Do we even know whether the limo driver was Muslim?

He has a bumper sticker on his door that says, "Read the Koran." Do Coptics read the Koran? How about Baptists?

[KantianBurke]

"Different cultures have a terrible attraction to difference"

Once again you ignore my central point which is that all cultures have the ability to cause great harm. Islam is unique in the world in that it has caused little if any good. PLENTY of harm has been perpetuated and is smiled upon even today by its adherents.

"Most of the Jews killed in Brooklyn just happen to be on the wrong side of the Mafia."

Hitting the jack daniels a little late after the 4th huh.

"By the way, Arabic art and culture are quite stunning"

I think it was the English novelist Robert Graves who said it best when he remarked that while the Sphinx was an amazing piece of art it and the pyramids were given birth to as monuments of suffering and barbarity. So while I'm sure us uneducated rabble would be impressed with the artistic endevours of Islamists, I would consider such work putrid as the parties that created them were NOT "stunning."

[Catspaw]

President Bush was simply trying to calm down irrational people such as yourself and the rest of the JDL.

Ah, the JDL mantra. Are all Jews and supports of Israel members of the JDL? If so, prove it.

[harrowup]

I've spent more time in the ME than I care to remember. Some Muslims and some Arabs hate me and some have good reason.

Most, however, get along with me and my work just fine. Some Jews and Catholics hate me as well...and they're family. I know some Baptists that won't talk to me because I'm not a Baptist...not because I'm Jewish.

I've had Mormons turn their backs on me when I was a child not because I was a Jew but because my grandfather was a Catholic and the boss.

I am sick to death of religious antagonisms. If we all believe in God, then it is time to stop the silliness and hate. We have to exert more time and energy into the equation, because we are better than average.

Anyway, I'm more inclined to want to go after the organized crime thugs and the drug lords...they're the real terrorists...and have been ever since J. Edgar Oreck gave them the green card.

[Pharmboy]

You could not be more wrong. What bothers many of us is the DEAFENING SILENCE of the mainstream Muslim people about all of the artrocities committed.

Your take on this is not only wrong, but allow me please to add disgusting, and belies a hatred for this great country. Dreadful--just dreadful. You should feel shame for defending these horrors.

[Diogenesis]

Please elaborate if your statement is true.

[harrowup]

No, your central point is that President Bush is guilty of giving comfort to a people you hate. Tough tookies.

[KantianBurke]

Eh. If thinking that all those that disagree with you are ignorant racists then one should pity you rather than debate you.

[harrowup]

You should feel shame for defending these horrors.

Try to follow along here, boy...I am defending President Bush against undeserved criticism by irrational hateful members of my tribe...now if you would like to show me where I have defended any horror please point me in that direction...if you can't, then shut up and stop preaching to the choir. Your pompous blather makes you sound stupid.

[harrowup]

What? Who called you a racist? You are an irrational hateful person. Stay on the subject for a while. You have made a silly childish slur against President Bush and you should be ashamed of yourself.

[constitutiongirl]

The difference is that in the year 2002, we don't have groups of the other people you mentioned killing innocent Americans for the crime of being American. I've spent alot of time in the ME also and I find it hard to believe that anyone who has spent a significant amount of time there did not notice the strong current of anti-Westernism, particularly anti-Americanism, that exists there. A Muslim hating someone personally is quite a bit different than one hating collectively. A taxi driver in Cairo hating American tourists because they don't tip enough is quite different from Islamists who everyday preach the downfall of America, the collapse of the West and the murder of millions of infidels.

[VOA]

How does one crazy Egyptian killer make Islam guilty?

You're right, it doesn't.

If true, the reports on KABC radio news here in Los Angeles that NOT ONE Muslim cleric has called
El-Al or the Israeli consulate to express condolences over the LAX incident
speaks volumes more than one Egyptian that did what many more like him long to do.

All I know is the world won't miss the puke who did this; I applaud the
security guard whose good shot assured this terrorist didn't get a chance to
grandstand at some court trial.
But someone will miss Ms. Chen and Mr. Amirov.

[harrowup]

Look around you...the proof is in the characters.

[constitutiongirl]

According to news reports today, the shooter had a note on his door stating 'Read the Q'uran'. Coptics are usually always tattoed with crosses on their wrists and the media would have jumped on that in order to prove that it was an isolated incident.

[KantianBurke]

First the very fact that you're pleading innocence to deriding myself and others as racist is silly. Thats basically your argument. We who are bashing Islamists are just ignorant KKK folks in disguise. See your quote "You are an irrational hateful person."

Second, if anyone hasn't stayed on topic its you. I'm still waiting on a resposne regarding my comments on any non terrorist activities Islam has produced over the past millenium. Pharmboy I'm sure is breathless with anticipation over an answer to his question as to why Islamic communities in the US have been so silent over the terrorist acts. Instead you just go off and rant

Finally as for making a "silly childish slur" against Bush you still haven't given a reason why, your attempts at cultural equivalence aside. Once more, Islamic nuts have killed thousands of innocent folks. The burden is on THEM and not within Bush's right to prove that they're not animals.

[harrowup]

Of course there is hatred disgust and envy of the western world...we did our best to own them lock stock and sand dune for two centuries. In case you haven't travelled anywhere else I have a clue for you...nearly every culture is angry with us just because we are the United States. Nearly everyone is infected with anti-Semitism because we've an attitude problem. It is similar to the Irish and the Italians...they don't mix except in marriage and then they make great families.

The Mafia and drug lords are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans a day...

[veronica]

NOT ONE Muslim cleric has called El-Al or the Israeli consulate to express condolences over the LAX incident.

Pathetic. But not surprising.

[FormerLurker]

What? Who called you a racist? You are an irrational hateful person.

Are you muslim?

[harrowup]

You would do better if you understood either of your namesakes' philosophy...and better still if you tried Hegel. You've lost the argument so now you want to toss it around and see where it goes? Nope...I suffer fools not.