by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Tens of thousands attended the funeral for the five members of the Fogel family massacred at Itamar on Friday night. The entrance to Jerusalem was blocked off by police and vehicles diverted to an alternative entrance after the huge attendance brought traffic to a standstill. Israel's major television channels provided live coverage of the eulogies for the victims.
Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said at the funeral: "The murder reminds us all that the struggle and conflict are not about the size of Israel and its borders but about our very existence. The main thing is the ancient right of the Jewish people to its Land, a right we never renounced, and by which we returned to our land after thousands of years."
"When we think of these murderers, we know that they operate against a background of education that teaches them Jews are fair game," Yaalon added. "[This education] did not begin recently or in 1967. It began at the start of the Zionist enterprise and even before it. 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 ny those who are the products of this education."
In his eulogy, Samaria local authority head Gershon Mesika did not attempt to hide the fact that he blamed the government for the murders. "He who gives the order to remove checkpoints as a gesture to the Palestinian Evil [Mesika deliberately mispronounced the word reshut, 'authority,' as rish'ut, 'evil' - ed.], he who prevents the fixing of a fence due to legalistic whims, he who gives orders to fire at Jews, will not be able to bask in his innocence after the murder of five members of one family."
More building for Jews is the “revenge” for Arab terror, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said. “The Creator, and not us, will avenge the spilled blood,” he said.
Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau said, “There are times when there are no words and when one feels helpless with pain and anger.”
A survivor of the Holocaust, Rabbi Lau said that one would think the vicious circle of violence ended 66 years ago but “the river of blood continues to flow, and we stand here today helpless."
“What can you say when you see a two or three-month-old baby stabbed to death? We read this past Shabbat the Book of the Torah that begins with sacrifices, but who thought of sacrifices such as these?”
He turned to the surviving Fogel children and said, ”Your mother and father need you. You are the ones who will say the Kaddish {mourner’s prayer] and you will recite, “May His great Name be glorified and sanctified. He Who makes peace in the Heaven will make peace for us and for all of the People of Israel. Amen.”
Hillel Ben Yishai, brother of Ruth Fogel, sobbed that the victims were “holy and pure and the People of Israel will learn to know who they were – holy and pure. No one was sweet as Hadas,” the baby daughter of the Fogels who was among those murdered.
“The people of Israel are strong, like Ruth, an iron lady,” He added.
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Arab terrorists murdered five people in a family in the Jewish community of Itamar, in northeast Samaria, around 9 p.m. Friday night.
Click here for photos of the murder victims that were released by the Fogel family, who gave full permission for their use in order to report on the horrific reality of murdering children and babies in their sleep "simply because they are Jewish." Warning: These photos are extremely graphic and not intended for children.
The only survivors were a 12-year-old girl, who returned from a Bnei Akiva youth group event to discover her parents and three of her brothers and sisters,including a three-month old baby girl, dead in pools of blood, and two younger brothers, who were sleeping a separate room.
The IDF is searching for the murderers, who broke through a window and murdered the victims in their beds.
Officials immediately began a “blame game,” with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu faulting Palestinian Authority incitement in schools and mosques. Voice of Israel government radio actually implied that Itamar residents themselves were responsible for improper security, an accusation which has since been refuted.
The barbaric murders followed dozens of warnings from nationalists and leaders in Judea and Samaria that the constant easing of security procedures implemented by Defense Minister Ehud Barak would be the prelude to terrorist attacks.
The army is investigating the attack, but it already is known that the security fence did not include cameras and other equipment requested by Itamar, according to Shomron (Samaria) Regional Council Chairman Gershon Mesika.
An electronic warning system at the fence did not function. Voice of Israel government radio openly questioned whether Itamar was not to blame because it was aware that the fence was sub-standard. However, it was the IDF that did not upgrade it. Voice of Israel also reported that there was a general warning of a terrorist attack and that Itamar security officials allegedly did not relay the information to the Israel Defense Forces. This was found to be untrue, as it was later was confirmed that there was only a general warning of an attack without any specific indication that Itamar was to be targeted.
The United States, which has pressured Israel to ease security procedures, condemned the attacks and offered its condolences to the survivors and “to the Israeli people.” It urged the Palestinian Authority to "unequivocally" condemn the murders.
A statement by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad simply stated, "We are against violence and condemn it regardless of the circumstances, identity of the victims or the goals,” but he did not state that the PA would help search for the perpetrators.
He also did not condemn the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which took responsibility for the attack. In a statement to the media, the terrorist cell of the Fatah faction headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas claimed that the attack was a “heroic operation, part of the natural response to the massacres of the fascist occupation against our people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Earlier, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki condemned the attack but implied that Palestinian Authority Arabs were not involved. "No Palestinian in the past killed an infant and butchered people in such a way based on a nationalistic or vengeful motive," he said. "This raises doubt as to Israel's rush to accuse the Palestinians of committing this act."
MK Dr. MIchael Ben-Ari, speaking on Radio Kol Chai shortly after the end of the Sabbath, said that the terrorists gain impetus when they see hundreds of Israeli police deployed to destroy houses in outposts such as the recent Gilad Farm (Havat Gilad) incident where plastic bullets were used against Jews, roadblocks leading to and from Arab villages removed and Jewish construction effectively frozen, all actions implemented under the control of Defense MInister Ehud Barak that have the tacit approval of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel would file a complaint with the United Nations. "Israel is expecting to hear a strong condemnation from all democratic states which in the name of human rights hurry to denounce every caravan movement in Judea and Samaria but as of last night have yet to condemn the heinous murder of an entire family, including a three-month-old baby," he stated.
by IsraelNN Staff
he initial findings of the investigation into the terrorist massacre in the Israeli town of Itamar in Samaria Friday night show that the Fatah ‘Freedom Fighters’ stabbed the Fogel family's sleeping three year old in the heart and slashed the throat of his three-month-old sister.
Click here for photos on the murder victims (Warning: Extremely Graphic)
The IDF and police forces are conducting widespread searches in the vicinity of the community since the barbaric terrorist murder of five members of the Fogel family in their home on Friday night.
It is not yet clear how many terrorists took part in the massacre. About 20 Arabs have been arrested up to now.
One area in which the IDF is concentrating its investigations is whether there were any intelligence warnings of terrorist plans before the attack that might have alerted residents.
The community of Itamar has had no terrorist attacks since 2002, when an advanced protection and security system called the Special Security Area was installed. The electronic system, which includes varied methods of observation and a wired fence, is kept in repair by the regional authority rather than the IDF.
In addition to an electronic fence surrounding the community, there is an inner, coiled wire fence. The community is allotted six non-army security personnel from a recognized security firm who are on patrol all the time. All signals go automatically to a central operations room in the town staffed by two of these guards, and in addition there is a company of soldiers on the adjoining hill.
The IDF investigation of the attack has discovered that at 20:59, terrorists entered the community. They jumped over the fence and an alert sounded. The guard on duty went to the spot from which the warning was heard, but saw no evidence of infiltration and therefore, made the erroneous decision that an animal had activated the electronic fence’s warning signal. There are many false alarms of that nature in the winter, but cameras would have shown the terrorists. However, the IDF did not agree to fund a request to keep cameras working on the fence.
A security person who was in the vicinity said that since the fence was not cut, the guard thought there was no infiltration and did not inform the IDF unit that was less than a kilometer away.
The terrorists first entered one home, which was empty. They found a weapon there, which they do not seem to have used. A group of youngsters was having a Sabbath evening party at the Fogel house nearby, and at 22:20 they left, along with the Fogel’s 12-year-old daughter, for an activity at the local Bnei Akiva youth group.
Between 22:20 and 22:30 the terrorists entered the house through the living room picture window, did not notice the 6-year-old boy sleeping on the couch and continued on to the bedroom where they slashed the throats of the father and newborn baby who were sleeping there. The mother came out of the bathroom and was stabbed on its threshold. The evidence shows that she tried to fight the terrorists.
They then slashed the throat of the 11-year old-son who was reading in bed. They did not notice the 2-year old asleep in his bed, but murdered the 3-year old with two stabs to his heart. After that, they locked the door, exited through the window and escaped.
Exactly two hours after the infiltration, there was another warning signal from the same spot on the fence, as the terrorists left the way they had come. Once again, the patrol did not identify the source of the signal as infiltration.
The 12-year-old daughter returned home at 00:30 and found the door locked. She asked a neighbor, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen, of the Itamar Yeshiva, to help her. He brought a weapon with him once he noticed tracks and mud near the house. The two woke up the 6-year old sleeping in the living room by calling through the window and when he opened the door, the Rabbi returned to his home.
When she entered the bedrooms, the young daughter saw the horrific bloodsoaked scene and ran out of the house screaming. The neighbor ran back and fired several shots in the air to alert security personnel. Within a short time, large police and IDF forces arrived and began intensive searches to see if the terrorists were still in the community. At 03:30 a.m., military trackers discovered footprints leading to the Arab village of Avrata.
“Sky Riders” Israeli UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles), continued the search Saturday morning.
The IDF Chief of Staff, General Benny Gantz, arrived at the family’s home during the morning hours and said: “We will not rest until the murderers are in our hands. This is a bestial act perpetrated by barbarians. It is impossible to grasp the horrendous scene before us. We are working non-stop on the intelligence and operational fronts.”
Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a situation meeting in IDF Tel Aviv headquarters. Attending were the Chief of Staff, ISA head Yuval Diskin and other high ranking IDF intelligence and security personnel. Barak instructed those present to use every means at their disposal to find the murderers as quickly as possible. He called on the leaders of the Palestinian Authority to condemn the murders and on the Judea and Samaria Regional Authority Heads to exercise restraint.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)