Itamar TERRORIST Attack

By: Tatyana Shligold

On Friday March 11th after many of the families have returned from Synagogue Shabbat services to their

homes, a family was butchered in a Jewish settlement called Itamar, located in Judea and Samaria. It all began when Palestinian terrorists jumped over a fence that divided the Jewish settlement and the Palestinian settlement (for obvious security measures) in order to break into any house in order to kill Jews. An alarm was set off due to the jumps but the terrorists were extremely quick and were able to flee the area before guards/patrol was able to get there. By the time the guards arrived there was no one around and it was decided that the alarm was set off by animals such as wild boars or rabbits as is the case many a times. The Palestinian terrorists first ran into a house that was bereft of its inhabitants at that moment. They decided to proceed to the next house, that next house was the house of the Fogel family. The terrorist broke into the house and 1st killed the father (Udi, 36 years old) who was resting with his newly born baby (Hadar, 3 months old) by slitting their throats. They proceeded to stab the mother (Ruth, 35 years old) to death. They consequentially killed Yoav (11 year old son) and Elad (3 year old son). Then the Palestinian terrorists were able to escape the same way as they came in, again undetected. Their 12 year old daughter, Tamar, who was coming back from an event that she attended for Shabbat , found this heinous scene. She ran out screaming and crying and was consoled and taken in by her neighbors. Besides Tamra, the Fogel family had 2 other sons who survived because of sheer luck by not being noticed. They are Roi (8 years old) and Yishai (2.5 years old).

Security

How could this abominable terrorist act take place in a Jewish settlement that seemed to have been
so well protected? Itamar is protected by an electric fence that sets off an alarm even if the shrubs
move. It is patrolled by defense ministry civil guards who replaced the IDF but who were trained by the
IDF previous to taking this post. The procedure during the night of the massacre was fully followed.
The town is equipped with gates, fences, lighting, cameras, security, vehicles and more. So what went
wrong? It seems that the simple answer is, if a human being is able to jump over the fence and make a
fast escape before the security is able to arrive, then the simplest solution would be to raise the height
of the fences! Another concern is the security cameras that didn’t operate to its full capacity and did
not capture any footage where the terrorists were able to infiltrate. The cameras need to operate to its
full capacity and take in all the area around so there wouldn’t be any blind spots.

Disgraceful Coverage of CNN and BBC

CNN and BBC have proved to be completely biased and refused to call this atrocious act a terrorist
act even though the IDF have officially stated that this is a terrorist act and they are searching for
terrorists. Both CNN and BBC called the Palestinian terrorists intruders. By their depiction you would
of have thought that these ruthless crimes were nothing more but robberies. BBC went further and
stated that these settlements are internationally illegal and should not be there. Even if this was so, it

justifies terrorists to break into houses and kill families, infants, children? I suggest that all Jews call or
email your cable provider and complain that they would like CNN and BBC to be taken out of their plan
because they don’t want a penny of their money contributing to a biased, anti-Israel news channels.
Furthermore, the signs point that these were well trained terrorists who deliberately planned this
terrorist attack. First of all, they knew exactly the area where the cameras would not capture them.
Second of all, the neighbors who lived right next door did not hear any screams whatsoever. These
Palestinian terrorists knew how to kill swiftly and without making a commotion. Lastly, there was
absolutely nothing stolen.

PR

Israel seems to be losing the war in public relations. It has been a longtime policy of Israel to not exploit
those who lost their lives or were injured in a terrorist attack, meaning that Israel would not release
pictures of the brutal and horrific images of the aftermath of these attacks. On the other side, the
Palestinians were only too happy when someone was injured or killed accidentally during an altercation
which they initiated, to show the footages or the pictures to the media. There have even been many
cases when footages and pictures were faked or staged.

However, this is perhaps the first time that Israel is releasing the gruesome pictures of the aftermath of
this massacre, of course with the permission of the surviving family members. The faces of the victims
will be blocked but the public will be able to see what transpired and how this family was stabbed to
death. Perhaps the world will see and start to comprehend what kind of an enemy/neighbors Israel is
forced to try and find peace amongst.

Palestinian Authority Promoting the Hatred

Chairman of Ministry of Strategic Affairs Brigadier General Yossi Kuperman, is blaming and rightfully so,
the Palestinian Authority for inciting hatred towards Israel amongst Palestinians in Judea and Samaria.
The examples are numerous and I will list just some:

1. Palestinian Authority has said on numerous occasions that Israel has no right to exist and even has textbooks for school children with no presence of Israel on the maps of the textbooks
2. PM Abbas meets with a young poet who writes poetry where he glorifies martyrs and suicide
bombers, in order to praise him for his work.

3. PM Abbas names a square of a Palestinian woman terrorist.
4. No strong aversion or speeches condemning this attack, as a matter of fact PM Netanyahu had
to ask him to strongly condemn it, however this strong condemnation did not come
5. Songs by and Egyptian group that calls on the carrying out of terrorist attacks has been aired in
Palestinian media. These songs are studied by 8th graders
6. Palestinian Authority has asserted that an armed struggle is the best struggle to set free the Palestinians. This just occurred, during the last Fatah convention in Bethlehem

The examples of the anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic sentiment can go on and on. As the world keeps on
pushing Israel to have a peace agreement with such a government, and with such people who have
been brainwashed to disrespect and hate? The idiocy of this is far beyond comprehension. There
are two ways the situation should play out. Situation number on is the acceptance of a long interim
agreement where overtime the demonization of Israelis end and a true partnership and respect is
formed. Situation number two is Jordan admitting that over 70% of Palestinians are from Jordan and
accepting them as their citizens. Any other solution is illogical and could quite possibly be an enormous
blow to the security and stability of Israel.