From Israel: Mostly Pain

Arlene Kushner
Arlene from Israel
12 March '11

Motzei Shabbat (After Shabbat)


Also rage and grief. This Adar posting will not begin with anything happy. It would feel almost sacrilege.

On Friday night, a terrorist (or, it is suspected, several terrorists) cut an opening in the fence around the community of Itamar, in Samaria -- not far from Nablus (Shechem). They entered a home and murdered a husband and wife, and three of their children, ages 11, three and one month. One month. Stabbed to death. Two other children in the family fled. No names have been released yet. (The victims of the murders at Itamar are Rabbi and IDF officer Udi Fogel, his wife Ruth, 11-year-old Yoav, 4-year-old Elad and baby Hadas. YH)

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The terrorist arm of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, assumed responsibility for this atrocity.

Twenty people in the Nablus region have been arrested in connection with the attack and IDF efforts will continue until the murderers are found.

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After an initial silence, PA president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the murders, saying that he rejects "all violence against civilians." This is worthless, my friends. Don't take it as any more than a public relations gesture. For Abbas's PA runs schools that teach young people that Allah welcomes "jihad" and that "martyrdom" is praiseworthy.

What is more, Abbas does not act against the Al Aqsa Brigades. The US has spent a good deal of money (unwisely) and provided direct guidance on the ground to help the PA develop their "security forces." But those forces are much more likely to turn on Israelis than to seek out and arrest members of Al Aqsa.

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And please, take a look at all of the qualifying done by PA officials:

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.

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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.”

Right...it's not fair to assume it was a Palestinian Arab who did this, just because every single attack of this kind is perpetrated by a Palestinian Arab. Apparently al-Malki didn't coordinate his statement with Abbas's.

He did regret the negative effect that this attack has on the Palestinian Arab image.

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Hamas, of course, praised the killing as a "heroic action." In Gaza there was celebrating, with candy given out on the street.

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The observation by Prime Minister Netanyahu was that, "A society that allows wild incitement like this, leads to the murder of children."

He further demanded that the PA assist in the apprehension of the murderers. The point that they should help is, I suppose, worth making in principle, but Netanyahu certainly knows how futile any such expectation is.

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From the prime minister's office came a statement that said: "Netanyahu stands behind the settlers in this difficult hour...we all know, including those who came to attack us, that the future of the settlements won't be decided through terror."

We can only pray that our prime minister's spine is stiffened by this.

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More on this and other matters will follow tomorrow...

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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

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