The brutal and inhumane killing of the Fogel family in Itamar is unacceptable and indefensible. No matter what anyone might say about the illegality of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, murder is murder and murder of civilians irrespective of the circumstances must be denounced and rejected at all levels.
Palestinians do want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza. Jewish settlement activities is a major hurdle to Palestinian national aspirations. But all Palestinians fighting for freedom and independence should denounce this barbaric act against an Israeli family of five. The independent state of Palestine should not be built on the blood of innocent civilians.
The Palestinian authority has been working very hard to enforce the rule of law and to ensure the security of Palestinian areas as well as to prevent any anti Israeli attacks stemming from Palestinian controlled areas to Israel. US and Israeli security officials have praised the efforts of the Palestinian security forces which has succeeded in preventing attacks in Israel. But as all security experts know there is no system that can provide 100% security. It is impossible to provide security from areas not directly under your control.
Security also is not limited to human resources, training, equipment or fences. No nation in the world can have a security officer at every corner. In any dispute whether domestic or political what is required to provide a high degree of safety is addressing the needs of injured parties. If your neighbor or your adversary feels injustice regularly committed against him, he will look for opportunities to take revenge.
Politically speaking the Palestinian-Israeli stalemate can't be allowed to continue indefinitely. Short periods of calm should never give a sense of relaxation to either side of a political conflict.
Despite claims to the contrary Israel's existence within the 1967 internationally recognized borders is no longer a bone of contention between most Palestinians. The PLO recognized Israel in 1993 and the Islamic Hamas has repeated said that they accept the two state solution thus recognizing de facto the state of Israel within the 1967 borders. Khaled Mashaal the leader of Hamas said the following to the Wall Street Journal "We along with other Palestinian factions in consensus agreed upon accepting a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines. This is the national program. This is our program. This is a position we stand by and respect."
The point of strong disagreement continues to be the status of exclusive Jewish settlements built on Palestinians lands within areas occupied by Israel and controlled by the Israeli army.
The status of these settlements has been the focus of local, regional and international scrutiny. The International Court at the Hague when reviewing the legality of the Wall established inside Palestinian territory ruled conclusively that Israeli settlement activities in occupied territories is a violation of the Geneva Convention which regulates the status of areas under prolonged occupations.
While the future of the settlements and settlers have been referred to the final status negotiations, Palestinians insist that at least until their status is resolved that no more illegal building takes places in occupied territories. The international community including the US accepts the Palestinian position and has made the suspension of settlement activities the first step -- along with improved Palestinian security- in the road map for peace that the Quartet has suggested. The road map accepted (albeit with conditions) by both sides has become international law when the UN Security council 1515 was passed unanimously by the 15 members Security Council. Even the after the US recently vetoed a security council resolution supported by 14 countries, the American ambassador to the UN explained that it is still totally opposed to settlement activity in Palestinian areas under Israeli occupation.
The strong disagreement over settlement doesn't excuse the brutal killings of the family of five in Itamar. If anything this senseless murder should cause genuine commitment from all sides to find an end to the 44 year old occupation in a peaceful way. Palestinians and Israelis who truly seek for peace must redouble their commitment to this end before the radical seize on this crime to make the dreams of peace even more difficult to attain.
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"Two young Palestinians with connections to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have admitted to killing five members of an Israeli family on March 11.
The pair came from the Palestinian village Awarta, which lies less than a mile from Itamar, the community in which they stabbed to death three of the Fogel family’s five children and the parents as they slept. .
The 17 and 18 year olds who carried out the attacks and re-enacted them for investigating officers expressed no remorse about their deeds. It seems the two were acting on their own initiative rather than on orders from PFLP leaders. "
Two Palestinian youths from the village of Awarta were arrested in recent days for the brutal slaying of five members of the Fogel family in their Itamar home last month, the IDF and Shin Bet said on Sunday following the lifting of a media ban on the investigation.
The suspects have been named as Hakim Maazan Niad Awad, an 18-year-old high school student, and Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad, 19, both from the West Bank village of Awarta, located 2 kilometers south of the settlement of Itamar.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=216963
Scott Noren DDS
Terrible terrible tragedy
The Israelis just captured the real killer of Fogel family he is from Thailand.
The Thai Lander used to work for the victim family regarding to the Israeli news, the killer did his crime because Fogel family didn’t pay his salary………ETC
Please don’t attack the Palestinians before knowing the real killer!
Where is the outrage in the media over the celebrations of the murder of these people ?
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041106,00.html
So it's pretty much business as usual. This will not be the murder to end future murders, alas.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8469618-itamar-massacrethai-workers-rounded-up-in-itamar
"As news of the massacre in Itamar spread, candy and pastries were handed out in Gaza in celebration. The Al-Qassam Brigades, a branch of Hamas, argued that the murder of Israeli settlers was permitted by international law. A day later it changed its tune, insisted that “harming children is not part of Hamas’s policy,” and suggested instead that the massacre might have been committed by Jews. The Palestinian “foreign minister,’’ Riyad al-Malki, also voiced doubt that the killers could have been Palestinian. “The slaughter of people like this by Palestinians,’’ he claimed, “is unprecedented.’’ Actually, the precedents abound.
"The atrocity in Itamar recalls the 2002 terror attack at Kibbutz Metzer that left five victims dead, including a mother and her two young boys. It brings to mind the murder of Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, who were shot at point-blank range as they drove from Gaza to Ashkelon in 2004. It is reminiscent of the bloodbath three years ago in a Jerusalem yeshiva, where eight young students were gunned down. Unprecedented? If only."
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/03/16/massacre_of_the_innocents/
This seems to be the standard descriptor on such occasions, along with the description of bloodthirsty Arabs (substitute Irish, Redskins, Black Slaves, Tutsi, etc) getting some sort of 'thrill' from bleeding Jewish (substitute ?) babies. Somebody's taking a scene right out of the Nazi's "Der Ehrwige Jude" - the eternal boogeymnan that threatened blond-haired kindern. The Israeli denigration of Palestinian Arabs on such occasions reads, word-for-word, like the anti-semitic claptrap of Eastern Europe. And we know where that led.
But I do wish that he had spent most of the article talking about the problem of Palestinian incitement to violence that is so common in the West Bank, rather than the settlements. The settlements is a common topic here: The truth about the Palestinians is not.
Is it anything like that letter from numerous prominent rabbis who said it was religious law to not rent to Arabs?
Or the letter that urged Jews to not date Arabs?
Or to not patronize businesses that employed Arabs? Especially if Jewish girls were there...
Or the numerous armed caravans of "settlers" who attack Palestinians in their homes, cut their olive trees, destroy their water cisterns, and stone their vehicles?
Was the incitement anything like that? I'm eagerly waiting on you to condemn these Jewish incitements... Should I hold my breath?
Yes, incitement is a little like your examples. Except instead of telling people not to rent to Arabs, it's telling people to kill Jews. And then they go ahead and do that.
I have condemned those actions by Jews. Have you condemned Palestinian incitement?
Removing the settlers might solve the problem. Here's another idea: Get the Palestinians to stop hating Jews, see Jews as human beings, and live in peace with them. What do you think about that?
"but land thieves and armed terrorists who prey on children..."
-You're talking about the Palestinians, right? Because three children were murdered last week, and it wasn't done by settlers.