Katz: That Was A Bit Klutzy

"There are going to be thousands of people at this funeral," Katz said. "This couple wasn't living in the West Bank. They weren't settlers. They weren't occupying anyone's land. They were killed because they were Jews, simple and plain."

My wife drew my attention to the above, found in an AP story I tracked down here regarding the deaths and the upcoming funeral of Rabbi and Rebbitzen Holtzberg.

Robert Katz is a professional fundraiser, what we call in Yiddish term a "schnorrer". It's not a bad living and the good people thus employed really make a big difference for the better.




Some, though, it seems, should stick to fundraising and not try to do PR.

I hope that he simply misphrased himself. But...,

...even if they were living in Judea or Samaria, even if they were "settlers", even if they were considered by evil and ignorant people to be "occupiers", even if, they still didn't deserve to be killed - just like I and my family do not deserve to have stones thrown at us, molotov cocktails tossed at us, bullets fired at us, rockets shot off at us.

And more importantly, this is our land, Eretz-Yisrael. We do not "occupy" it, we reside in it. And if there is any "illegal Jewish settlements", New Milford could be one because, Mr. Katz, you should be living in Israel.

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UPDATE

Until Robert contacts me directly, I can only include here a reaction of his that I found and it reads:

...It is unfortunately not uncommon for reporters to hear what they want to hear, or to misinterpret what was said, or to not pay attention. Obviously I would, never, ever intimate that any harm should be done to settlers - I was being facetious - I was making a cynical comment to the reporter, I used the words settlers and occupiers with a “quote, unquote”. I even said, "...what's the terrorist's excuse now?". She clearly didn't get it, and I have certainly learned my lesson.

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UPDATE II

See here for what seems to be a follow-up.