Itamar Marks Two-Year Anniversary of Fogel Family Massacre
Share this Article
Twitter
Facebook
Digg
Stumble
PrintTags:
Elad Fogel fogel family Hadas Fogel Israel Palestinians itamar massacre Rabbi Ben-Yishai Ruth Fogel Udi Fogel Yaakov Neeman Yoav Fogel
The victims of the Itamar massacre.
Sunday marked the two-year Hebrew anniversary of the massacre of the Fogel family in Itamar, in the West Bank. A service was held near the Fogel home in Itamar which included Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, members of the Knesset, rabbis, senior military officials, family, neighbors and friends. Neeman read a letter from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which said he is regularly updated about the three surviving Fogel children.
In March 2011, two teenage cousins from a nearby Arab village scaled the security fence surrounding the town of Itamar located in the West Bank. They crawled through the window of the Fogel home and, once inside, murdered parents Udi and Ruth, 11-year-old Yoav, 4-year-old Elad, and 3-month-old Hadas.
Three children survived: 14-year-old Tamar, 10-year-old Roi and four-year-old Yishai and have been taken in by Rabbi Yehuda and Tali Ben-Yishai, the parents of Ruth Fogel. In an interview published Friday in Israel Hayom, Rabbi Ben-Yishai said of his daughter, son-in-law and three slain grandchildren, “They’re always with us.”
“What happened was so inhuman that we have gained superhuman strength,” grandmother Tali said. “We know these children will be great people. They will be all right. They will not be damaged. They’re not in trauma anymore. Some children are afraid of what happens around them, but they’re not like that. They’re not the sort who don’t want to go to school or don’t want to get out of bed and spend the day crying.”
3:06 pm
H-shem yinkom damam
1:25 am
I think the following comments are more apropos.
Why on God’s green earth were these two miscreants, these two cold-blooded murderers of children, not hanged?
In ten years, if the state of Israel exists, will they be part of some prisoner exchange?
Why was their village, which has sent other killers into Jewish communities, not evacuated and then razed to the ground?
When will people stop talking about “living life” and face the fact that they are confronted by a vicious enemy capable of anything?
Until this becomes an acute, burning revelation, there will be more Itamar massacres – and that is what is truly unconscionable.
8:39 pm
With all due respect to Mr. Garfinkel, I would like to say why I feel that my comments are the most apropos. Israel has plenty of opportunity to punish the Arabs in ways that they will feel it without antagonizing the international community. It is only when the Jews feel that they have to JOIN the international community and act politically correct that they jump on their own dagger.
Breaking Arab bones is something which even Rabin did until he decided to become politically correct. Then the intifada won, we go Oslo and we are where we are todahy. In the words of the immortal Rabbi Meir Kahane z’tl, “give me 48 hrs and there is no more intifada.” He didn’t mention anything about a death penalty or even razing villages to the ground for the international media to feast upon.
12:50 am
Well, attempts to placate the international media is a fool’s errand, as everyone knows.
In fact, efforts in this regard are worse than self-defeating; they’re destructive.
A case in point is the IDF operation in Jenin, which was falsely portrayed as a “massacre” by the international media.
How many Israeli boys needlessly died in Jenin, in a futile attempt to deprive the media of a story to “feast upon” – to use your unfortunate phrase.
Also, the invocation of Meir Kahane is odd, given that Kahane advocated the forcible deportation of Arabs from all lands controlled by the Israeli government.
My point remains: war is hell, it is not a staff party at the New York Times, or the Guardian, or any other media outlet.
And child murderers should be hanged. Period.
1:42 pm
I don’t disagree that child murderers should be hanged – even lynched. And as far as your statement about Rabbi Meir Kahane Z’tl your are exactly right: Deportations. On that the media can choke for all I care.
11:40 pm
So whats going on with these two remorseless teenagers in prison? Three squares, getting to hang out with their Arab buddies and await the day when Hamas can try to free them using a kidnapped Israeli soldier? Or, are they being given daily beatings after being shown pictures of the Fogel Family until they break down and profess their remorse? The whole key as to whether they are truly being punished is not how long they remain confined because Arabs are conditioned from youth to prepare themselves to sacrifice for the larger cause. The key is how much dignity the Israelis are permitting them to hold on to.
In other words, exactly how outraged is the average secular Israeli prison guard about what happened to an Orthodox peace loving Zionist family in the West Bank? the answer to this questions may have tremendous ramifications for Israel’s future.
9:42 pm
A “two state solution” would only serve as an impetus for more massacres..As Jean Kirkpatrick, our former Ambassador to the the UN so eloquently stated: “Stop trying to create a state where there is already a state and stop trying to create a people that never existed”
9:39 pm
B”H
3:35 pm
they are wise enough to understand that WE do not always chose “life” WE must live L I F E….they are “OVERCOMERS”. Shalom