Arlene Kushner On The Fogel Family Massacre--And What WE Can Do

The following is from Arlene Kushner's From Israel series, and is reposted here with permission

March 13, 2011

"Truth Be Told"

There is no shying away from this ugly truth, just because it's unbearably painful to contemplate. It's time to face it square on.

I began my report on the family slaughtered in Itamar late last night. Here I continue:

It was members of the Fogel family who were slain in their home on Shabbat. Rabbi Udi Fogel, 36, who taught at the Itamar yeshiva. Ruth Fogel, 34. Yoav, age 11. Eldad, four. Tiny baby Hadas.

Here you have a picture of Eldad, with the beautiful (unabashedly I say, kissable) face of a happy child. Look well, and then understand that he was stabbed in the heart. His baby sister had her throat cut.

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There is a fence around Itamar, and I'm receiving conflicting stories about how the terrorists got in. What seems to have happened is that some alarm was set off by the fact that the fence was touched, but as the Itamar security guards did not find a break in the fence -- it apparently had been jumped --they assumed it was an animal and pursued it no further.

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Inside the Fogel home, the parents fought their attackers; there is evidence of this. The murderers missed two of the children sleeping in another room: Ro'i, eight, and two-year-old Shai.

The Fogel's twelve-year-old daughter, Tamar, was out at a Shabbat youth group gathering. When she returned, she found her slaughtered family.

Can you imagine?

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Brace yourselves, but don't spare yourselves. See here photos of what Tamar found when she entered her home:

https://picasaweb.google.com/picsyesha/Itamar

When there have been terrorist attacks here in Israel it has not been the norm to put out photos like this because of a sensitive desire to protect mourners. But these pictures were released by the Yesha Council with the permission of the family, because it's time to take off our gloves. It's time for the world to "get it" with regard to what Jews here endure.

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With the help of neighbors who came running at her piercing screams, Tamar brought out her two live siblings.

They are all being cared for by their grandparents, Chaim Fogel and his wife (whose name I do not have) of Nevei Tzuf, in Samaria. The senior Fogels were given the terrible news in the middle of the night by Nevei Tzuf emergency service workers, who then brought them to Itamar. There, they saw the scene of horror for themselves and brought the living grandchildren back with them.

The funerals are taking place now -- at 1:30 PM -- as I write, at Har Hamenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem.

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May the Almighty embrace the souls of those who were murdered in a flood of light and total peace, while avenging their deaths. May He be ever with the surviving children.

May there be strength for the senior Fogels and other friends and family who will care for the surviving children. And may the love of the caretakers who will tend to them bring succor to the Fogel children, so that in time they may re-build their lives for good.

And, finally, may our people Israel know this sort of tragedy no more.

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More words, in a televised statement last night, from Prime Minister Netanyahu:

"I noticed that several states which rushed to condemn Israel for building a house in some place are taking their time in condemning the murder of children.”
Netanyahu said he was shocked by the ambiguous condemnation of the attack by PA leaders -- which I shared last night which I will repeat below for your use, along with some new information on incitement). He further stated:

"I am disappointed by the weak and mumbled statements. This is not how one condemns terrorism. This is not how one fights terrorism...there has never been anything like this, in which terrorists entered a home and cut children's throats.

"This requires sharp and unequivocal condemnation. This requires something else. This requires a halt to the incitement.... The time has come to stop this double-talk in which the Palestinian Authority outwardly talks peace, and allows – and sometimes leads – incitement at home. The time has come to stop the incitement and begin educating their people for peace."

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Well OK. Netanyahu has finally said it. It's been time for him to say this for a long while. The fact that he says this now means he knew all along, of course. Knew of the PA duplicity and continuing incitement.

Now we must hold him to what he has said, demanding that he mean it:

Not a single concession. Not for Obama. Not for the EU. Not out of fear of being isolated internationally. For nothing.

Those concessions bring no peace. They simply make us weaker and more vulnerable.

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Netanyahu must know and fully internalize this fact: His responsibility is to the safety of the people of Israel, not to the larger world.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has particular culpability with regard to this situation, because he has always been so eager to make concessions to show the world how prepared we were to "make peace." In the area around Itamar, there have been checkpoints taken down, and security checks relaxed.

And so not only should there be no more concessions, there should be a reinstatement of security measures, in line with the government's responsibility to protect the people. Since 1984, when Itamar was founded, 20 of its members have been killed by terrorists. No more!

Netanyahu should fire Barak now, and replace him with Moshe Ya'alon. And if he refuses to do so, at the very least, he must take the helm of his government and himself make the necessary tough decisions to protect the Israeli people.

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And there is yet one action that should be taken by the government of Israel now: Civil law should be applied to all of the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria. It's time to stop the charade of proceeding for peace, and to assert our rights.

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And so, my friends, there are some actions I now request of you:

Share this posting very broadly. Put it out everywhere. With the news focus on the tragedy in Japan, most people will not know of this. And people must know, in order to understand.

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Then, please, contact Prime Minister Netanyahu. As always, I ask that you be respectful, brief and to the point.

• Tell him that he must be strong. Now that he has publicly faced the truth of the duplicity of the PA, he must not fall back into a pattern of making concessions. Not for any reason. Concessions bring death to Israeli innocents and make Israel weak.
• Implore him to act on behalf of the security of the people of Israel, as this is his overriding responsibility as head of the Israeli government. This means, among other things, reinstating security checks where they have been removed.
• Ask him to stand with strength at the helm of the government, dismissing Defense Minister Barak, who has pushed so often for dangerous concessions, and replacing him with Moshe Ya'alon.
• Implore him to extend civil law to all of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. The charade is over: there is no partner for peace.

Fax: 02-670-5369 (From the US: 011-972-2-670-5369)

E-mail: Memshala@pmo.gov.il and also pm_eng2@it.pmo.gov.il (underscore after pm) use both addresses

Remember that numbers count.

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Then, please, I ask US citizens to contact your representatives in Congress. Tell them you are informing them about the situation in Israel, as full information may not have come to them. Without that information, they would not be able to make proper decisions. Then describe the attack, briefly. Don't be afraid to include the link to the pictures of the slaughtered children. Say that a four-year-old was knifed in the heart and an infant had her throat slit.

Explain that it is crystal clear that the PA is not a partner for peace and that it only weakens Israel to make further concessions. Use the material I've provided in this posting to bolster your position, especially with regard to what PA leaders said and how PM Netanyahu responded.

Tell them that it would be wrong to demand more concessions of any sort from Israel, and that Israel has an obligation first to protect her civilian population.

Provide them with this link from Palestinian Media Watch, which exposes PA incitement: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4793

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For your Congresspersons:

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

For your Senators:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

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One day before the terror attack, Sabri Saidam, who is an advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas and under-secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, delivered a speech. In that speech, according to the newspaper Al Ayam, "He emphasized that the weapons must be turned towards the main enemy [Israel] and that internal differences of opinion must be set aside."

This was picked up by Palestinian Media Watch http://www.palwatch.org .

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Comments on the attack by PA officials:

After an initial silence, PA president Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that he rejects "all violence against civilians."

But look at all of the qualifying:

Abbas, in his statement, said, "violence produces violence and what is needed is to speed a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict.”

What violence produces violence? There is nothing, but nothing, even remotely that Israeli Jews have done that is "violent" in the sense that this attack is violent. So Abbas is drawing a false and obscene moral equivalency.

And then this becomes a sort of justification. If only we will stop our "occupation" and give them their state, then the violence would stop. Of course, that is not so either, twice over. Not so that we are "occupiers." And not so that our pulling back would stop the hatred and the terror.

To further obfuscate the issue, PA foreign minister Riad al-Malki said that his ministry condemns the killing of Israelis by “people whose identity remains unknown.”

“The killing of an infant and the slaughtering of people in this way was never carried out by any Palestinians for national motives or revenge. This puts a question mark over the swift accusation made by the Israeli side – to the effect that Palestinians had carried out the attack.”

Al-Malki, ever concerned about how his people look to the outside world, attempted to deny the patently obvious.

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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.

see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info

Technorati Tag: Fogel Family and Itamar.