Sometime around 10:30 on a Friday evening on March 11, 2011, terrorists entered the house in the Israeli community of Itamar. It was the house of the Fogel family. They entered through the living room picture window but did not notice 6-year-old child Roi sleeping on the couch. They went right into the bedroom, where they slashed the throats of Udi Fogel and baby Hadas, who were asleep.
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Wife and mother Ruth came out of the bathroom and was stabbed on its threshold. The evidence shows that she tried to fight the terrorists. The terrorists then slashed the throat of the 11-year-old Yoav who was reading in bed, missed 2-year old Yishai who was asleep but totally covered by his comforter, and brutally murdered 3-year old Elad with two stabs to his heart. With that, they locked the door and escaped.
The Fogel’s 12-year-old daughter Tamar returned home from spending Shabbos dinner with friends at about 12:30AM 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 blood-soaked scene and ran out of the house screaming.
This wasn’t just a terrorist attack; it was the butchering of a young family, including little children. By any measure of humanity, this attack was simply disgusting, as these pictures released by the family last after the massacre shows (they released the photos to show the true face of the terrorists–NSFW images below the fold).
Immediately after the massacre of the young family, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned Prime Minister Netanyahu to condemn the attack. In an interview with Israel Radio, he called it a despicable, immoral, and inhuman act, saying, “A human being is not capable of something like that.” “Scenes like these – the murder of infants and children and a woman slaughtered – cause any person endowed with humanity to hurt and to cry.
But as we have learned much too often, the “moderate” terrorists who run the Palestinian Authority, say one thing to the west and something quite different to the Palestinian people. As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, twice in the past week, the PA government-run TV station broadcast greetings to the murderers of the Fogel family (who are in an Israeli jail) from the relatives of the killers and from the PA TV host. The transcript of the above clip:
PA TV host: “We have a call from the family of prisoner Hakim Awad.”
Mother of Hakim Awad: “I thank you for connecting me with my son, because I and all of the family are prevented for security reasons [from visiting him].
Host: “Go ahead, sister, we can convey your voice.”
Mother of Hakim Awad: “My greetings to dear Hakim, the apple of my eye, from the village of Awarta, 17 years old, who carried out the operation in Itamar (i.e., killing of 5 Fogel family members), sentenced to 5 life sentences and another 5 years, in prison.”
Aunt of Hakim Awad: “I’m the sister of prisoner Hassan Awad and of Salah Awad; [I am] Um Habib, from the village of Awarta. My warm greetings to all the great heroic prisoners, to my brother Hassan Awad, head of the village council; to my brother Salah Awad, the heroic prisoner journalist; to the heroic, resolute prisoner, the lion, Yazid Awad, my nephew; and to my nephew Hakim Awad, the hero, the legend.”
Host: “We [PA TV], for our part, also convey our greetings to them.”
Aunt of Hakim Awad: “I dedicate this song to Hassan Awad, Yazid Awad, Hakim Awad, and Salah Awad, in prison:
‘My brother, in solitary confinement, your voice calls to me
You dare not throw down the rifle
That is what the homeland asked of me
In your eyes, we are all self-sacrificing fighters.
I convey greetings to the sound of the bullets of Ahmad Sa’adat and Hakim Awad.'”
Host: “Thank you for being with us, the family of prisoners Hassan and Salah Awad of Awarta.”
[PA TV (Fatah), Jan. 19 and 21, 2012]
Note she calls the brutal murderer ” The hero, the legend.” The PA is teaching its population that brutal murderers are heroes and legends. And their friend in America, President Obama, does not speak out.
Where is Mr. Friend of Israel, President Barack Obama? Why isn’t he condemning this glorification of a brutal act by the Government run by his buddy President Abbas? Palestinian State TV runs segments praising terrorists on a regular basis—but the US President and his Administration insists on criticizing Israel’s building of new housing units, saying, “this kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations.” Tell me, how many children had their throats slashed because of a new Israeli apartment in Jerusalem?
In striking contrast, the President has never issued a statement about the murder of the Fogel family and will likely continue his silence over Palestinian Authority TV’s praise of the perpetrators. Jewish voters who are reconsidering their votes for President Obama would do well to note where his priorities lie when condemning actions that are not “helpful when it comes to peace negotiations” in Israel.
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