International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Nov. 28, 2002

Over 400 Israelis narrowly escaped death in the wake of simultaneous terrorist attacks in Kenya Thursday morning, thought to bear the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

More than a dozen people were killed when suicide bombers rammed a jeep packed with explosives into the lobby of an Israeli-owned hotel north of Mombassa, many of them local Kenyan dancers welcoming the tourists. Five minutes earlier an Israeli airline on the return trip from the coastal Kenyan city came under surface-to-air missile attack shortly after take-off. The plane landed safely in Tel Aviv at 12.40pm.

Israeli Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the attacks "a dangerous escalation of international terrorism" and Likud leadership rival, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, appeared deeply shocked speaking to Israeli television shortly after casting his ballot in today's crucial party primaries.

Latest reports indicate that at least thirteen died in the Paradise Hotel explosion shortly after 8.30 am local time, including three Israelis, two of them young children. The hotel, which had just received a bus-load of 60 Israeli tourists from an incoming Arkia charter flight, was completely destroyed, but many of the 140 guests escaped without injury, having left the lobby for their rooms minutes before the attack. Eighteen Israelis are among the 80 wounded, but the 200 local Kenyan workers bore the brunt of the casualties. The force of the explosion could be heard in Mombassa over 25 km away.

Just minutes earlier crew members aboard an Arkia charter flight leaving Mombassa airport spoke of two bright flashes of light passing the left side of the plane at 500 ft. as it climbed steeply after take off. Pilot Rafi Marek said the missile smoke trails could be easily seen "not very far" away from the cockpit. Israeli F-15 jets escorted the plane to Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport, checking the fuselage for damage, and relieved passengers broke into applause and singing as the flight touched down on Israeli soil.

"It means that terror organizations and the regimes behind them are able to arm themselves with weapons which can cause mass casualties anywhere and everywhere," a concerned Netanyahu told a Foreign Ministry press conference, all thoughts of today's crucial party election swept aside. "Today, they're firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they'll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country's aircraft."

Relieved holiday-makers alighted the Mombassa flight in Tel Aviv, beginning to grasp the reality that Israelis - many of whom who went to Africa to escape the ongoing terrorist violence at home - can no longer be guaranteed security abroad.

"It's impossible to turn the whole world into a garrison state" Ron Prosser, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said after the attacks, highlighting the fact that Islamic terrorists are increasingly choosing "soft" civilian targets that cannot be adequately defended. "Civilian aviation is directly in danger from international terrorists," he added.

Reuters is reporting that a previously unknown group calling itself the "Army of Palestine," has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But the highly complex organization required for this kind of coordinated strike has led many to echo the belief of the Kenyan Ambassador to Israel who, speaking to the BBC, said he "had no doubt" that al-Qaida was responsible.

"You will be killed, just as you kill, and will be bombed just as you bomb," a voice which US intelligence believes to be that of bin Laden said in a taped threat received last month, adding, "Our kinfolk in Palestine have been slain and severely tortured for nearly a century."

Al-Qaida has struck in East Africa before, being widely held responsible for the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania which left 437 dead. Defense analysts indicate that the supposed use of shoulder-held heat-seeking "Stinger" missiles could point nowhere else. Such missiles were used effectively against the Soviets by the Afghan Muhajadeen in the eighties, of which bin Laden was a prominent member. Since about 200 of those stingers are unaccounted for, the irony is that the weapons used in today's attack may have originally come from the US.