Heinous crime
In a heinous act of murder, two Palestinian terrorists managed to cut through the security fence of the settlement of Itamar last night and stabbed to death Ruth and Udi Fogel and three of their children, including one only 3 months old. This was an act of brutal depravity. The electronic fence triggered an alarm, but unfortunately a civilian guard who investigated, failed to see anything amiss and did not alert the local IDF detachment. The fence was installed after a similar attack a few years ago. The crime was only discovered several hours later when the 12-year old daughter returned home and found the bodies of her parents and siblings and two of her younger brothers still alive. The IDF is currently searching for the terrorists in the surrounding Arab villages and in Nablus.
The Palestine Authority condemned the act and Pres. Abbas in a phone call to PM Netanyahu offered condolences, but Netanyahu said that was not enough and asked the PA to assist in finding the perpetrators and to stop incitement against Israel. The Hamas authority in Gaza welcomed the attack as an appropriate action against "the occupation." In Rafah in the Gaza strip and elsewhere sweets were being handed out publicly for this "operation." The White House condemned these murders as a terrorist act and called upon the PA to disavow it.
The problem is that when one Palestinian faction wants to send a message to another Palestinian faction, Israelis die. It isn't only Hamas that welcomes terrorist murders of civilians, but the "young guard" of Fatah, led by Marwan Barghouti, who is in jail in Israel, seeks to overthrow and replace the current "old guard" consisting of Abbas, Fayyad and their supporters, who they regard as corrupt and tainted by contact with Israel and the US. There will be elections this summer in the PA, and this murder is part of the campaign, meaning vote for us and we'll restart terrorism against Israelis.
When compared to the scope of the earthquake-tsunami in Japan or the killings by Qaddadi in Libya, this murder of 5 may not seem like much. But, it is the first terrorist incident from the PA against Israelis in several years (although they are continually trying, two menw ith pipe bombs were arrested at a check point yesterday), and it could have severe consequences for the indirect negotiations that are supposedly going on thru the US and the Quartet. If the Palestinians feel that to achieve their goals they can murder our civilians at will then there can be no progress towards peace on any front.
The Palestine Authority condemned the act and Pres. Abbas in a phone call to PM Netanyahu offered condolences, but Netanyahu said that was not enough and asked the PA to assist in finding the perpetrators and to stop incitement against Israel. The Hamas authority in Gaza welcomed the attack as an appropriate action against "the occupation." In Rafah in the Gaza strip and elsewhere sweets were being handed out publicly for this "operation." The White House condemned these murders as a terrorist act and called upon the PA to disavow it.
The problem is that when one Palestinian faction wants to send a message to another Palestinian faction, Israelis die. It isn't only Hamas that welcomes terrorist murders of civilians, but the "young guard" of Fatah, led by Marwan Barghouti, who is in jail in Israel, seeks to overthrow and replace the current "old guard" consisting of Abbas, Fayyad and their supporters, who they regard as corrupt and tainted by contact with Israel and the US. There will be elections this summer in the PA, and this murder is part of the campaign, meaning vote for us and we'll restart terrorism against Israelis.
When compared to the scope of the earthquake-tsunami in Japan or the killings by Qaddadi in Libya, this murder of 5 may not seem like much. But, it is the first terrorist incident from the PA against Israelis in several years (although they are continually trying, two menw ith pipe bombs were arrested at a check point yesterday), and it could have severe consequences for the indirect negotiations that are supposedly going on thru the US and the Quartet. If the Palestinians feel that to achieve their goals they can murder our civilians at will then there can be no progress towards peace on any front.
posted by Jack Cohen at 11:38 AM
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