Atrocity Rocks Israel

Posted By P. David Hornik On March 14, 2011 

 

 <http://frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/itamar.jpg>
http://frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/itamar.jpg

On Friday night at least one terrorist broke into a family’s home in Itamar,
a settlement in Samaria (part of the West Bank). The result was that a
mother and father, Ruth and Udi Fogel (35 and 36), and three of their six
children—two boys, Yoav (11) and Elad (3), and a girl, Hadas (three
months)—were stabbed to death. The terrorist(s) escaped and are still being
sought by the Israeli security forces.

An army officer said
<http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=211879>  that
“the children were literally slaughtered. This is one of the most brutal
attacks we’ve ever seen.” Even for Israelis, subjected to a tsunami of
terror
<http://www.amazon.com/New-Shoah-Israels-Victims-Terrorism/dp/159403477X/ref
=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1>  over the past decade, the stabbing to death of a
three-month-old infant was something new. While the Israeli government
considered, then decided against distributing photos of the atrocity, some
within the settler leadership have decided to do so
<http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142843> .

Amid the natural calamity of a much vaster scale in Japan, the event drew
relatively little attention in the world media. Still, Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu remarked
<http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=211853>  in a
speech Saturday night that “several countries…always hasten to the UN
Security Council to condemn Israel, the state of the Jews, because it
planned a house somewhere, or laid a tile somewhere….”

Although eventually President Barack Obama and other world leaders condemned
the terror attack, Netanyahu undoubtedly had a point. Their condemnations
were barely a ripple compared, for instance, to the firestorm
<http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/israel-in-the-hot-seat-again-%E2%80%94-for-bui
lding-homes/>  that erupted a year ago when Israel announced building
plans—in Jerusalem, its capital city—while Vice President Joe Biden was
visiting.

But mainly Israeli leaders stressed the Palestinian culture of incitement
that creates fertile grounds of hatred for acts like Friday night’s.
Netanyahu said <http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041150,00.html>
further in his speech that “a society that allows such wild incitement ends
up prompting the murder of children.” Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon,
speaking at the funeral of the five terror victims on Sunday in Jerusalem,
which was attended by tens of thousands, said
<http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142853> : 

When we think of these murderers, we know that they operate against a
background of education that teaches them Jews are fair game…. As long as
this murderous education goes on, as long as the incitement continues, any
agreement we sign is not worth the paper it will be written upon, because it
will be immediately violated by those who are the products of this
education.

  _____  

  _____  

Again, they have a point for sure. On Sunday Palestinian Media Watch
<http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4793>  released a rundown
<http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4793>  of “Palestinian
Authority incitement to terror prior to the murders in Itamar.” It includes,
for instance, the awarding in January of a $2000 grant by Palestinian
Authority president Mahmoud Abbas—widely hailed as a moderate—to relatives
of an officially dubbed “shahid” who tried to kill Israeli soldiers with
pipe bombs.

And later on Sunday Palestinian Media Watch released another bulletin. This
one discloses <http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4794>  that just
three weeks ago, PA TV broadcast a tribute to “martyrs”—and it included a
terrorist who, in a 2002 attack, murdered three Israeli high school students
in the very same settlement, Itamar.

In addition to complaining about PA incitement, the Israeli government
announced on Sunday that it was building a few hundred new housing units in
large settlements that Israel would supposedly retain in a peace deal with
the Palestinians. The UN hardly waited for the members of the Fogel family
to be buried before condemning the move
<http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=211967> .

Indeed, given the blasé media reaction
<http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142862>  and de rigueur,
none too hasty condemnations by world leaders, it is hard to imagine that
Friday night’s atrocity will have much effect on the ongoing, relentless
pressure <http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=211666>
on Israel to cede land to the Palestinians. The question is—with the attack
already perceived as a milestone and new revelation of the depths of
Palestinian barbarity—what effect it will have in Israel itself.

Netanyahu has painted himself into a difficult corner by, on the one hand,
frequently declaring his eagerness to negotiate with the Palestinians on
creating a state for them and, on the other, denouncing their “wild
incitement [that] ends up prompting the murder of children.” Clearly,
setting up a murderously hateful state alongside Israel could not be a
rational, responsible step. Whether Netanyahu will adopt a more truthful,
assertive approach remains to be seen.

As for the Israeli population, the attack has had an unmistakable impact and
takes its place beside other dire epiphanies—the 2000 lynch of two soldiers
in Ramallah, the 2002 Park Hotel massacre, the post-disengagement relentless
rocket fire from Gaza, and others—that have led the population away from the
dovish illusions of the 1990s and toward greater strength and realism. In
that regard, if Netanyahu takes a flintier tack—even if its means defying
Obama—he will have Israel behind him.

  _____  

Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/14/atrocity-rocks-israel/

 



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