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Lady 'Luck' Leaves Bus Before Bombing
Reuters ^ | September 20, 2002 | Reuters

Posted on 09/21/2002 6:37:05 AM PDT by Tancred

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - An Israeli woman whose name means "luck" said she had her third brush with death when she got off a Tel Aviv bus after spotting a man who looked like a Palestinian suicide bomber about to strike.

The woman, named Mazal, told Israel's Channel 1 television the blast Thursday tore through the number 4 bus on the coastal city's tree-lined Allenby Street seconds after she disembarked. It killed at least five people.

"I was sitting in the middle section, and he was near the door," said Mazal, who declined to give her last name. "He was wearing a black blazer and jeans, and he had a mustache and black hair.

"The blazer was buttoned up and I thought: 'In this heat'?"

"He was standing right behind me. All he did was look around all the time -- right, left, up, down. He had a very strange look on his face."

She said she disembarked at the stop just before the blast.

Mazal said she warned the driver before getting off, but "he took no heed." According to other witnesses, the driver died in the blast, which wrecked the front part of the bus.

Police called the attack a suicide bombing, a tactic favored by Palestinian militants in the uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any Palestinian group.

Thursday's close call was nothing new for Mazal -- which is Hebrew for "luck."

"It's the third terrorist attack I've been through," she said, her hands shaking as onlookers crowded around. "I was in one in Jerusalem half a year ago and the one in (Tel Aviv mall) Dizengoff six years ago. Talk about trauma."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: israel; palestinians; suicidebombs
Think about it: living through three such attacks in less than a decade! I hope that in the next few months, Arafart's luck will finally run out and a building will fall on him, or something......
1 posted on 09/21/2002 6:37:05 AM PDT by Tancred
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To: Tancred
It would have been nice if she had warned others.
2 posted on 09/21/2002 7:09:54 AM PDT by Great Dane
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To: Great Dane
How? If she'd have said anything more, the bozo could have detonated the bomb early.

Imo, she did all that she could do...

3 posted on 09/21/2002 7:11:49 AM PDT by Gemflint
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To: Tancred
Some might make a case that she's bad luck. I believe one of President Lincoln's sons was present at THREE presidential assassinations: his father's, Garfield's, and McKinley's. (Robert Todd Lincoln, I think it was).
4 posted on 09/21/2002 7:13:50 AM PDT by TrappedInLiberalHell
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To: TrappedInLiberalHell
She must be blessed with the right name or she has Gary Hobson's sixth sense that tingles just before something happens.
5 posted on 09/21/2002 7:16:56 AM PDT by goldstategop
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To: Tancred
Racial and other types of profiling is a very serious issue...because if used correctly, they work for the good in most circumstances in favor of the 'good guys'. That's why the 'bad guys' hate profiling so much.

This womans story is a prime example of what we should be doing at every airport(and restaurants?) in the United States...if we had the guts to take the heat from the PC crowd.

6 posted on 09/21/2002 7:24:11 AM PDT by Van Jenerette
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To: Tancred
WHat? Profiling works!?
7 posted on 09/21/2002 7:41:15 AM PDT by BrooklynGOP
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To: Great Dane
It would have been nice if she had warned others.

She did warn the driver.

a.cricket

8 posted on 09/21/2002 8:05:40 AM PDT by another cricket
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To: TrappedInLiberalHell
She has "strange luck", unlucky enough to be there, lucky enough to make it through it only shinged.
9 posted on 09/21/2002 8:22:38 AM PDT by MissAmericanPie
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To: another cricket
She did warn the driver.

Did she, I hadn't heard, thank you for the clarification.

10 posted on 09/21/2002 9:23:52 AM PDT by Great Dane
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To: Great Dane
No problem. Here is the quote.

Mazal said she warned the driver before getting off, but "he took no heed." According to other witnesses, the driver died in the blast, which wrecked the front part of the bus.

From her description the driver was either not very observant or in on it.
adjusts tinfoil hat with stylish copper lining

a.cricket

11 posted on 09/21/2002 9:32:34 AM PDT by another cricket
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To: another cricket
I read that the bus driver actually tried to prevent him from getting on the bus.
12 posted on 09/21/2002 9:37:27 AM PDT by agrace
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To: another cricket
She did what she could. If she had warned the whole bus in a loud voice, no doubt the man would have blown it up on the spot.
13 posted on 09/21/2002 9:37:40 AM PDT by Cicero
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To: another cricket
adjusts tinfoil hat with stylish copper lining

LOL, Nice spin on tinfoil hat.

14 posted on 09/21/2002 9:39:41 AM PDT by Great Dane
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