The Murdered in Itamar - The Empty American Condemnation

Five member of one family, the grandfather I know well having served in the IDF reserve unit with him and as a member of the executive board of Amana, were murdered, stabbed to death in their sleep.

{Updates below}

The two parents and three children. The children were 11, 3 and 4 months old.

[Itamar has lost 15 Jews to Arab terror over the years. One was my neighbor's son, Avi Siton]

Five family members were found murdered in their residence in the West Bank Itamar settlement Friday overnight, after a suspected terrorist broke and entered the house and stabbed the five to death. Two children managed to escape and survived the attack, Army Radio reported. A Magen David Adom team that arrived at the scene at 1:00 a.m. announced a couple, their 11-year old child, 3-year-old toddler, and a one-month baby girl dead from stabbing wounds.

How does one conceptualize that one human being could commit such savagery? Or are they not human in that they lack any sense of morality, of consideration for infants.

And the US response?

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of five Israelis in a terrorist attack in the northern West Bank, and we offer our condolences to their loved ones and to the Israeli people," the White House said in a statement.

"There is no possible justification for the killing of parents and children in their home," The White House said.

The White House (and I can't locate at present any reference to that statement at the White House site itself) can surely come up with other terms like "illegitimate" or "corrosive" which were used to describe what those five Jews were doing: residing in the historic homeland (Itamar clip).

And Arabs, hearing those terms, could assume that what is to be done to halt such activity is to do what was done: commit a terror attack in which 5 humans were stabbed to death.


____________

UPDATES


Lenny sent me link of Gazans celebrating.


GPO sent this out now:

The Prime Minister stands with the settlers during this difficult hour and said that a society that permits such wild incitement is one that eventually brings about the murder of children, and said "We all know, as do those who want to strike at us will know, that the future of the settlements will not be decided upon by terror".

The Prime Minister held consultations with the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff and the head of the General Security Service and ordered continued activities be conducted for the apprehension of the murderers. In addition, the Prime Minister spoke with the Foreign Minister about condemning the incitement in the Palestinian Authority and in the international arena and will hold additional consultations with the security services.

Finally, the Press Statement of Hillary Rodham Clinton

I was shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the brutal murder of an Israeli family early Saturday morning in the West Bank. The United States condemns this appalling attack in the strongest possible terms. To kill three innocent children and their parents while they sleep is an inhuman crime for which there can be no justification. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims and with all the people of Israel. The murderers must be found and brought to justice. Israeli security forces have launched a thorough investigation and we look to the Palestinian authorities to assist in every way possible.

Reaction by Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein on the Itamar Murders

The revolting murderous attack which was perpetrated last night constitutes one of many examples, which testify that there is no partner on the other side. While our children are slaughtered in their beds and Gazans celebrate the criminal butchery by handing out candies and cheering shouts of joy, I ask the international community: With whom do you expect us to talk with about peace? Why and for what reason are we to give a prize to murderers of children? In these days of 'Apartheid Week', we receive a painful reminder of the results of Palestinian incitement against Israel."
(Communicated by the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Media Advisor)

And from the Left, this:

Israeli Channel 10 TV reported “the context of the murders are escalating Palestinian casualties, from the military and settlers, in area,” and that “we [Channel Ten TV] don’t report enough about these.” (Translation courtesy Didi Remez.) The stabbing was preceded and followed immediately by “price tag” retribution by settlers.


I ask why the American Jewish community (at the JCPA annual plenum earlier this week) failed to pass a resolution proposed by the Reform movement asking Israel to abide by its agreements and dismantle ideological, illegal and unhelpful settlements. The settlement and constellation of six illegal outposts known as Itamar is a stone’s throw from Nablus and is situated a few miles outside the security barrier. It is one of the “ideological” settlements founded by religious-nationalist groups as part of their Biblical claim to the whole of Israel. It is surrounded on all sides by Palestinian villages and protected by Israeli checkpoints. It is beyond understanding why the Israeli government allows these settlements to exist as a finger in the eye of every Palestinian — hateful or peaceful — in the area.

And before my dutiful commentors accuse me of blaming settlers, settlements or Israel for the deaths of children, let me clarify that such is not my point. The individual who did this failed to grasp the key lesson of the inhuman treatment of their own people: inhumanity breeds inhumanity, death breeds death, and violence leads ever downward. May this person be found, tried, jailed and moved to repentance. May that person look in the eye the 12-year-old girl who discovered her mother, father and baby siblings dead, and realize what beauty was destroyed.

Instead, I blame the banality of evil — the patience that slowly bleeds both sides dry, the system of grinding attrition that could be stopped would the leaders of both sides cease inane oneupmanship and settle a negotiated agreement. I blame those who insist on retribution — which means us all, at one point or another. I blame the monster that dehumanization has unleashed in good and decent people, often who watch from a distance and do nothing.

I blame us. I blame us for not thinking creatively, collaboratively and swiftly to find a way out of the stalemate. I blame us for finding foes in not the system but each other, between Jews and between Palestinians. We bear this blame together. We should all be moved to end the conflict, instead of justifying the wrongs of the past.

PM Netanyahu's Remarks in Response to the Terrorist Attack in Itamar
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Following are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks tonight (Saturday), 12.3.11, about the massacre in Itamar:

"I would like to express my deep outrage, outrage which is certainly felt by every Israeli over the murder of a young family – father, mother, eleven-year-old boy, four-year-old-boy and four-month-old girl. Three orphaned children have been left in this family. One of the girls saw her parents and siblings stabbed to death. The family was brutally murdered in their sleep on the Sabbath. We embrace and support the orphans and the other members of the family. We embrace and support our brothers who reside in Judea and Samaria. Do not be disheartened. I know that this is a difficult time for us, but the entire nation is with you. Since the disaster, this awful murder, became known I have held discussions with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief-of-Staff, Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, ISA Director Yuval Diskin and other senior security officials. I instructed them to make every effort to find the murderers and not to rest until they have been found and brought to justice.

I expect the international community to sharply and unequivocally condemn this murder, the murder of children. I have noticed that several countries that always hasten to the UN Security Council in order to condemn Israel, the state of the Jews, for planning a house in some locality, or for laying some tiles somewhere have been dilatory in sharply condemning the murder of Jewish infants. I expect them to issue such condemnations immediately, without balances, without understandings, without justifications. There is no justification and there can be neither excuse nor forgiveness for the murder of children. I expect a similar condemnation, and I demand a similar condemnation, from the Palestinian Authority. I am disappointed by the weak and mumbled statements. This is not how one condemns terrorism. This is not how one fights terrorism. See how Israeli prime ministers, myself among them, have reacted in similar situations, but there has never been anything like this, in which terrorists entered a home and cut children's throats.

This requires sharp and unequivocal condemnation. This requires something else. This requires a halt to the incitement. I demand that the Palestinian Authority stop the incitement that is conducted on a daily basis in their schools, mosques and the media under their control. The time has come to stop this double-talk in which the Palestinian Authority outwardly talks peace, and allows – and sometimes leads – incitement at home. The time has come to stop the incitement and begin educating their people for peace.

Despite all the awful pain, I call upon all Israelis to act responsibly, with restraint, and not to take the law into their own hands. When one takes the law into his own hands, there is no law. The IDF and the security forces will carry out their responsibilities; only they. We will not allow terrorism to determine the settlement map. The settlement map will be determined by Government policy, which is in accordance with our national interests, with security first and foremost. Terrorism will not determine the settlement map. We will determine it."

^