Pale and wincing in pain, Gene Goldstein recalled trying to steer a car with his dead son in the driver's seat after a Palestinian ambush on a West Bank highway. Despite his tragedy, the American said Sunday that Israel should not retaliate.
The 73-year-old New Yorker said he feared Israeli action might set off another round of revenge attacks amid escalating violence that is threatening a US-backed peace plan just weeks after it was launched at a June 4 summit in Jordan.
"I don't want to be responsible for any more Jews being killed," he said. "I only hope that maybe this could be the catalyst to signing a peace agreement."
PHOTO: AP
Goldstein, who was shot three times, described the attack from his bed at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital while waiting to learn the outcome of surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his wife's mouth.
The Goldsteins, both 73 and from Plainview, New York, had been staying with their son, Tzvi, and his wife, Michal, at their settlement of Eli in the West Bank since Tuesday.
Eli is one of about 150 Jewish settlements in the West Bank that Palestinians see as illegal encroachments on their land; the 220,000-odd settlers frequently are targeted by attacks.
It was the Goldsteins' third visit to Israel, where their son settled 15 years ago and acquired Israeli citizenship.
Tzvi Goldstein, 47, was driving Friday as the family headed to a celebration dinner in Jerusalem, the day after his son's wedding.
Near Ramallah, Gene Goldstein, a man with a graying beard and pleasant face, noticed two men in black garb, their backs turned to the vehicle.
"I paid no attention to them until they turned around, and they had weapons in their hands, and they started to fire at us," he said, speaking softly but steadily in a sunlit room decorated with bunches of yellow roses and other gifts from well-wishers.
"I was sitting in the front passenger seat, and my son was dead, and I couldn't move him, so I was just steering the car as best I could, because I was wounded as well."
As the car careered down the road, Gene Goldstein slammed on the horn to draw the attention of passing military trucks. But they had no idea what he was trying to convey.
Israeli rescue services said he managed to steer the car for about 10km after the attack before the vehicle overturned.
"I don't know how I survived the bullets, but to survive that crash ... there has got to be a God up there," he said.
A Hamas-linked Web site claimed responsibility for the shooting on behalf of the militant group.
As he finished recounting the tale, a nephew arrived with the news that his wife's surgery had been successful and she was in stable condition. Gene Goldstein smiled for the first time.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese