A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli rabbi in Arab East Jerusalem on Tuesday, emergency services said. The rabbi, 49, was stabbed in the neck but his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, ambulance workers said.
The emergency service said he was walking with a bodyguard in Jerusalem's walled Old City, where his seminary is located, when he was attacked. The bodyguard gave chase but the attacker escaped, leaving behind a blood-stained knife. A police spokesman described the incident, near the Old City's Damascus Gate, as politically motivated.
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the movement's leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in the territory and in the West Bank, according to a poll published on Monday. The survey by the West Bank-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research indicated that if new presidential elections were held, Haniyeh would gain 47 percent of the vote compared with 46 percent for President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah faction.
According to Reuters, the centre's previous poll in December 2007 gave Gaza-based Haniyeh just 37 percent of a potential presidential vote compared with 56 percent for Abbas.
The survey found that if new parliamentary elections were to take place, Hamas would receive 35 percent of the vote and Fatah 42 percent, compared to 46 percent for Fatah and 34 percent for Hamas in an opinion poll in January.
© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
