Sorry about that, Carol C. I didn't mean to put you as a Guest, just typed your name in the wrong place.

Carol C.

It is you who sounds racist, perhaps anti -semetic. It's this kind of Israel bashing that scares the crap out of Jews everywhere because it is now coming from the left-wing.

Sorry, it is Palestinians I am talking about. Here is from today's Chicago Sun-Times. I am sick of PALESTINIANS blowing themselves up in the name of religion. It is sick. It is murder. It is FUCKING IGNORANT!

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip -- A Palestinian blew herself up Wednesday at the Israel-Gaza border, killing three Israeli soldiers and a private security guard and signaling a new tactic by Hamas militants, who had never before dispatched a female suicide bomber.

Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said the use of a woman was unique for the Islamic group, but holy war ''is an obligation of all Muslims, men and women.''

Israel said it would temporarily close the crossing to Palestinians, preventing thousands of workers from reaching an Israeli-Palestinian industrial zone that is one of the last vestiges of cooperation between the two peoples after more than three years of violence.

The army said four of the seven people wounded in the attack were Palestinians.

The bombing came as efforts to restart peace negotiations remained stalled, with Israel's leaders threatening to impose a new boundary between Israel and the Palestinians if no progress is made soon.

Violence over the last 39 months has killed 2,618 people on the Palestinian side and 909 on the Israeli side.

At the Erez crossing Wednesday morning, a woman identified as Reem Raiyshi, 22, told soldiers she would set off a metal detector because she had an implant to repair a broken leg. She was taken to a special room for a search, where she set off the bomb, said Maj. Sharon Feingold, a military spokeswoman.

''I heard soldiers screaming; the blast was very strong,'' said a Palestinian who identified herself only as Amena.

After the explosion, a makeshift checkpoint structure of corrugated metal had a large hole in the roof, and destroyed desks and computers were scattered nearby.

Two of the dead were immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The bombing was claimed by Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Before the attack, Raiyshi made a video standing before two Hamas flags.

''This is an indication that resistance will continue,'' Yassin said.

Using a woman as a bomber was aimed at piercing Israeli security, which mainly focuses on men as possible attackers. Other militant groups have used women to carry out bombings, but Hamas had not done so.

''It is possible that the fact that today's attack was carried out by a woman could mean Hamas is having trouble using men to carry out attacks on Israeli targets,'' said Boaz Ganor, an Israeli counterterrorism expert.

Raiyshi had a daughter, Doha, 18 months, and a son, Obedia, 3. Her brother-in-law Yusef Awad said Raiyshi and her husband got in a fight with the rest of the family two months ago and had not been seen since.