Israel Matzav: Just when you thought they could not get any lower: 'Palestinians' using Fogel family murder pics for propaganda

I just found the picture above on Facebook.

Do the pictures look familiar? The originals from the Fogel family home in Itamar in March 2011 may be found in the video here. 

From Facebook again:

How low can one go.

Hamas is using the pictures of the Fogel family massacre for their propaganda purposes and are claiming that this is what we did to a family in Gaza.

It is just beyond belief........disgusting creatures.

How low can they go? I don't think we've hit the bottom yet. 

Tzila Fogel: the Pain Grows with Time Mother of Ehud Fogel speaks at the two-year memorial for her slain son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren.

Tzila Fogel, mother of Ehud Fogel, spoke Sunday at the memorialceremony marking two years since the horrific murder of her son, daughter-in-law, two grandsons and baby granddaughter.

"Two years have passed since that Sabbath eve," she said at the ceremony, which took place in Itamar. "Sometimes it is 'already' and sometimes it is 'only' two years. As time passes and the days progress I feel just how great the loss is. The fact is that time does not heal. Maybe outwardly it appears to, but inside me, as the days pass, I feel the pain getting bigger.

"We have passed through two years since the terrible tragedy, which left us feeling pain, longing, and most of all – remembering. This evening, too, is meant for mentioning the names of Ehud, Ruth, Elad, Yoav and Hadas, may G-d avenge their blood. Pictures of memories, from childhood, youth, adolescence, family, pre-militaryacademy, military service, and mostly – friends. Many friends. A lot of smiles with kind, sparkling eyes.

Fogel related her family's experiences in Itamar on the Sabbath before the memorialceremony, and thanked the organizers visit's organizers.

She said that Mishkan Ehud, the study and prayer complex named after her son, reminded her of her son and his family: "From far away it appears modest, but from within you see the greatness – just as the members of the family were."

Rabbi Eliyahu Offers Inspiring Words at Fogel Memorial At the memorial for the Fogel family, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said that the ark in Mishkan Ehud looks like the entrance to the Holy Temple.

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of the city of Tzfat, participated on Sunday in the at the memorial ceremony marking two years since the brutal and cold-blooded massacre of five members of the Fogel family by Arab terrorists in the Shomron community of Itamar.

Rabbi Eliyahu had inspiring words for the participants, when he said that the ark in Mishkan Ehud, the study andprayer complex named after the father of the young family, Rabbi Udi Fogel, Hy"d (abbreviation for Hashem Yikom Damo, may G-d avenge his blood', words said for those slain for being Jews, ed.), appeared to him to look like the entrance to the Holy Temple.

“When we were in the study hall that is built from the stones of the place, I told Rabbi Ben-Yishai (the father of Ruth Fogel, Hy"d, ed.) that it looks like the entrance gate to the Holy Temple,” he said. “It is written that when they open the gates of the Temple, it is like opening the gates of heaven".

“Rabbi Ben-Yishai replied and said that these stones are stones that were taken from the home of the Fogel family,” continued Rabbi Eliyahu. “These stones formed the ark, perhaps the gates of heaven, perhaps a gate to the Holy Temple."

“When they asked me to pray, I stood there and, like in every other prayer, I tried to fulfill the halakha which says that when a person prays he should see himself as if he is in the Temple, as if he is standing in the sanctuary, with the Divine Presence. It's not so easy to do, but when I stood in front of these stones I felt like I really was at the gates of Heaven. It's amazing how such massive pain can open, for me and perhaps for others as well,  Heavenly gates.”

He added, “Right here right in front of our eyes the verse ‘In thy blood you shall live’ (from the book of Ezekiel) is being fulfilled. May we all live and not sink into the pain of despair, but use that same pain to give us the confidence to build here another yeshiva and another community.”

Tzila Fogel, mother of Ehud Fogel, spoke Sunday at the same memorial ceremony, saying that the pain over her slain son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren only grows with each passing day.

"Two years have passed since the terrible tragedy, which left us feeling pain, longing, and most of all – constantly remembering,” she said. “This evening, too, is meant for reminding everyone of  the names of Ehud, Ruth, Elad, Yoav and Hadas, may G-d avenge their blood. Pictures of memories, from childhood, youth, adolescence, family, pre-military academy, military service, and mostly – friends. Many friends. A lot of smiles with kind, sparkling eyes.”

Fogel said that Mishkan Ehud reminded her of her son and his family: "From far away it appears modest, but from within you see the greatness – exactly what epitomized the members of the [slain] family."

Fogels' Fathers Show Why Jews are Eternal

Two years have passed since one of the most horrific terrorist massacres ever: the barbaric and cold-blooded slaughter of five members of the Fogel family at Itamar, two parents – Ehud and Ruthie Fogel – and three young children – Yoav (11), Elad (4) and Hadas (three months). The murderers, two Arabs from the neighboring village of Awarta, had invaded their home on Sabbath eve.

After being captured, the young murderers said they had viewed the murder as "an adventure." They are not believed to have been directly sent on the bloody mission by any terror organization. Rather, they appear to have been motivated, like so many other Muslim Arab terrorists, by the incessant incitement to terror spewed forth by Palestinian Authority media, which is controlled by the Fatah terror organization.

Arutz Sheva spoke to Haim Fogel and Rabbi Yehuda Ben Yishai, the fathers of Ehud Fogel and Ruthie Fogel, respectively. Listening to their calm and thoughtful words, spoken as their emotions of grief are obviously being held back, one plainly sees the chasm between Jewish culture and Arab Islamic culture. Both fathers embody, in word and deed, the Jewish spirit of intelligent yet unshakable faith, patient perseverance and creativity, offering stark contrast to the wailing, cursing and threats that are often typical of Arab Muslim mourning, especially when Israel can be blamed for the deaths.

Israel's enemies should look at Arutz Sheva's interviews with Haim Fogel and Rabbi Yehuda Ben Yishai and understand why they have no chance in the world of defeating the Jewish nation. The video will drive home to them that whatever suffering the Arabs can dish out to the Jews with their savagery, the eternal Jewish nation will not be driven to despair. The Jews, who have outlived all the ancient nations that persecuted them, will continue building their national home and military prowess, and wait for the right moment to avenge the blood of their innocents.

-----

A year goes by. Of course, with all of the hardships and pain, the longings that every thing reminds us of, we try to hold back our pain, and to look forward. Because we believe and it is a fact, that we are here, at Mishkan Ehud, the place at which the yeshiva and community are developing, and this is a small consolation but a consolation nonetheless.

We are here in a day that connects sadness with growth. Seeing the yeshiva that is named for our son-in-law developing with time and being built, we feel that the souls continue to act from above. And what someone wanted to cut off, in fact, it turned into a planting of seeds. And from year to year, while it is true that the pain penetrates deeply into the soul, but on the other hand we see that these seeds are planted, and the nation of Israel gathers, and connects and unites, and this gives us the strength to continue, with G-d's help.

As a veteran in the settlement enterprise, I think that settlement is not about these sad events, settlement is about settlement! But we understand that this is also part of it. When something like this happens, at least what people can give, is to enable us to keep moving forward, and to build. So we take that, as well. The children feel good. The children... are covered in love, the Nation of Israel embraces them,

We give the close hug and the Nation provides the next circle, and their parents' prayers for them from above accompany them, so we are certain that they will grow up in joy and turn out to be great people, without a doubt.

What can you tell us bout the Sabbath you just spent here? The first Sabbath you all spent together in Itamar? It was a very uplifting Sabbath, since what happened, we feel Udi and Ruthie
even more than before. And we have turned into one family, here with the community, and we are certain that everyone wants to join this family now. Everyone is invited to come to Itamar,
to visit the yeshiva, and to be here with everything that the Fogel family represents.

A truly wonderful Sabbath. We were slightly worried before it, about how it would go, but... the Sabbath here was uplifting, as simple as that. All of the students, the singing... a true Sabbath,
although [Ehud's] students had visited us several times already, and we heard from them and saw them, being here the entire Sabbath is truly a very uplifting thing.

It is a great experience. An experience... you see view we saw when we woke up: the village from which the murderers came out, Awarta. And you see the homes where the [Fogels] lived.

You say to yourself -- here is the place of evil, and next to it is the place of the future and of developments. This is what strengthens us, you could say.  Despite the evil, there is a future.

BBC apologises over Itamar massacres coverage

The BBC “got it wrong” by not giving prominence to the massacre of the Fogel family by Palestinians in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, the outgoing director-general has admitted.

Mark Thompson was quizzed by Conservative MP Louise Mensch, who made various complaints to the BBC about the coverage, at a Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee hearing on Tuesday. Mrs Mensch said the BBC’s decision not to include the story as part of its rolling news coverage generated “the most reaction I have ever had in all my time in politics.”

She said: “The BBC ran the story on Radio 4 and a lead item on the website but they never subsequently touched it in broadcast or on the 24-hour rolling news programme on BBC News 24. I only found out, after the event, from an American blog, called “Dead Jews is no news” and the more I went into it, the more shocked I was.

“I was overwhelmed by response from the Jewish community both here and abroad. There was a feeling the BBC just didn’t care and that, if a settler had entered the home of a Palestinian family, slit the throat of their children, that the BBC would have covered that.”

Mrs Mensch had subsequently received an apology from BBC News’s Helen Boaden but wanted Mr Thompson’s reassurance about the BBC’s “even-handedness” on the Middle East conflict.

Mr Thompson said the story had come during a “very busy news period” including the fighting in Libya and the tsunami in Japan.

“News editors were under a lot of pressure,” he said. “Having said that, it was certainly an atrocity which should have been covered across our news bulletins that day.”

But he added: “I don’t believe that should be taken as systemic bias. We try very, very hard… to reflect suffering on both sides of that conflict. When there has been a humanitarian incident in Gaza, we try to show the effects of rockets in Sderot.”

He said he stood by his decision not to have shown the DEC humanitarian appeal for Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. “I believe I was right, many people thought I was wrong. It might have given the impression we were more sympathetic to one side of that dispute than the other. Israel and Palestine, like Kashmir and Sri Lanka, are so hot in terms of people’s sensitivity.

“But I do want to say, to all our audience including our Jewish and Israeli audiences here and around the world, we do want to make sure we are fair and impartial. We made a mistake in this instance.”
Mrs Mensch said after the meeting that she was extremely pleased with Mr Thompson’s response. “I was very satisfied with his frank admission, He understood how this had affected the Jewish community.”

Kol Berama By Simcha Leiner: I should warn you that this is a very difficult video to watch. It was made last year in memory of the Fogel family of Itamar HY"D (May God Avenge their blood).

This was at the one-year anniversary of the murder of the Fogel family in the Samarian community of Itamar, and a new beis medrash and sefer torah was inaugurated in their memories in March 2012 הכנסת ספר תורה ל'משכן אהוד'

Stirring memorial service held on one-year anniversary of Fogel family murders

Family and neighbors join ministers, MKs and IDF generals to remember the five members of the Fogel family who were killed in their sleep by terrorists • Shimon Peres: Words fail to provide comfort or meaning in the face of such “barbaric, merciless and inhumane acts.”

Yori Yalon

Tamar Fogel was on hand to hear her younger brother, Roi, sing a song at a memorial service for their slain parents and siblings.  |  Photo credit: Yoav Ari Dudkevitch

An emotional memorial service was held Wednesday in the Samarian community of Itamar to mark the one-year anniversary of the horrific slaughter of five members of the Fogel family. All five were killed at the hands of two Palestinian terrorists, who broke into their home while the family was asleep. Hundreds of people gathered for a Torah dedication ceremony at the new study and prayer complex “Mishkan Ehud” (Ehud Hall), named after the late Rabbi Ehud Fogel who was brutally murdered along with his wife Ruth and three of their children: Yoav, 11; Elad, 4 and three-month-old Hadas.

The killers, cousins Amjad and Hakim Awad, are both in prison serving multiple life sentences for the brutal crimes.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivilin, ministers, members of Knesset, rabbis and senior IDF officers were also in attendance and all had their hearts stirred by the singing of 9-year-old Roi Fogel, who survived the terrorist attack. His sister, Tamar, who also survived, was also there.

“For the residents of this land, everyone understands that cutting it up into pieces will bring only death and spiritual, historical and human injustice upon us,” said Rivilin, hinting at the Migron evacuation issue. “If it is our obligation to build, then it goes without saying that we must do all we can to not destroy even a single house, which is like an entire world. It is our duty to build the entire land of Israel, each and every day.”

Rabbi Yehuda Ben Yishai, Ruth Fogel’s father, opened the memorial service by mentioning the terrorists from the nearby Arab village of Awarta who murdered his family: “There are those in the area who wished to stop life. What we are doing is the opposite. We are doing everything to increase life and strengthen life here.”

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, Religious Services Minister Ya’akov Margi and Science and Technology Minister Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz were in attendance alongside GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon and other IDF generals. Katz said at the ceremony that “the murderers of this family came to murder Jews, but also to sever Jewish settlement in the land of the bible. I vow to you that many more Itamars will rise here in Samaria, in Judea and throughout the entire land of Israel. That is the answer.”

President Shimon Peres, who is currently on an official visit to the U.S., sent a memorial card to the surviving family members, telling them that words fail to provide comfort or provide meaning and sense in the face of such “barbaric, merciless and inhumane acts … I feel your pain and I cry your tears. We won’t forget the parents and children of the Fogel household.”

Inside Mishkan Ehud, stonemason and artist Assaf Kidron built an ark in the building’s main hall, using local stones and mortar made from earth from the Fogels’ garden. Kidron, a resident of Itamar, was the last person to see Ehud Fogel alive. Kidron initiated and led the project of constructing the holy ark from local stones. The ark rises to a height of five meters (16.4 feet).

“I’ve had a strong a sense of mission planning and building this holy ark, because the entire world, which was shocked by the murder, will turn their eyes to Itamar on the anniversary of the murder to observe how the community is recovering,” said Kidron last week. “I feel we will emerge stronger.”

“The holy ark is built from local stones, which have absorbed our Jewish history in the land of Israel,” he said.

“The stones speak for themselves and convey a connection to the land, to being deeply rooted to the Bible and to continuity.”

Residents of Itamar said on Sunday that they needed NIS 2 million ($530 million) to complete the building, and they were appealing to the wider public to contribute. Itamar Yeshiva Director Aryeh Goldberger said, “It was very important for us to show that we continue to live and build here, despite all those who plot to destroy us.”

First Yahrtzeit of Fogel Family Hy”d Today

Today, on the one-year anniversary of the murder of the Fogel family in the Samarian community of Itamar, a a new beis medrash will be inaugurated in their memories.

Builders are putting the final touches on the building, to be called Mishkan Ehud, or Ehud Hall, in memory of the late Rabbi Ehud (Udi) Fogel, who was murdered in his home along with his wife Ruth and three of their children, Yoav, Elad and baby Hadas. The new building will become the permanent residence of the Itamar Yeshiva.

The decision to construct the complex was made during the shiva, or seven-day mourning period, for the family. Its purpose is to commemorate the family as well as strengthen the settlement enterprise.

Stonemason and artist Assaf Kidron is building an ark in the building’s main hall, using local stones and mortar made from earth from the Fogels’ garden. Kidron, a resident of Itamar, was the last person to see Ehud Fogel alive. Kidron initiated and led the project of constructing the holy ark from local stones. The ark will rise to a height of five meters, and is designed to be the most prominent feature of the beit midrash. During the inauguration event, a Torah scroll will be introduced to the ark. The scroll, contributed by a Brazilian businessman, will have its final letters ceremoniously inscribed on the one-year anniversary of the murder.

“I’ve had a strong a sense of mission planning and building this holy ark, because the entire world, which was shocked by the murder, will turn their eyes to Itamar on the anniversary of the murder to observe how the community is recovering,” said Kidron. “I feel we will emerge stronger.”

“The holy ark is built from local stones, which absorbed our Jewish history in the land of Israel,” he said. “The stones speak for themselves and convey a connection to the land, to deep-rootedness, to the Bible and to continuity.”

Residents of Itamar said on Sunday that NIS 2 million ($530 million) would be required to complete the building, and they were appealing to the wider public to contribute. Itamar Yeshiva director Aryeh Goldberger said, “It was very important for us to show that we continue to live and build here, despite all those who plot to destroy us.”

The women’s prayer section of the new structure will be called Ruth Hall after Ruth Fogel, and the smaller lecture halls will be named after each of the murdered children. “Residents of Itamar experienced a very traumatic event,” said Goldberger, “but it has spawned a large and impressive permanent structure, which gives all of us the strength to continue and hold on to this place. This is the appropriate Zionist response.”

Two Palestinians have been convicted of the Fogel family’s murders and have each been sentenced to five terms of life imprisonment.

Child murderers deserve to die

"Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed" says the Book of Genesis. This is not a trivial statement. Our ancient ancestors, at the very beginning of human history, demanded measure for measure where murderers were concerned.

The ancients' healthy instincts, not yet warped by the ideas of subsequent intellectuals, told them that the only way to stop evildoers was to remove them from this earth.

Not every transgression justifies an eye for an eye punishment. But this kind of punishment does apply to cruel evildoers, particularly child murderers like the killers of Udi and Ruti Fogel and their three children Yoav, Elad and Hadas.

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One of the two perpetrators of these painful and horrific murders, the mastermind Amjad Awad, is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday in the Samaria Military Court. The other culprit was sentenced last week to five consecutive life sentences. This was a mistake, in my view. The only rightful punishment in such cases is the death penalty.

One must recall that the murderers wiped out almost an entire family. And we have not yet discussed the shocking method used to commit the murders: through close-range physical contact, by slitting throats, including the throat of a three-month-old baby.

Justice and humanity would be served if such murderers, perversions of human society, not continue to exist among us.

The punishment would also serve as a deterrent, particularly in light of the possibility of future prisoner swaps. I am familiar with the claim that even a death sentence will not deter such murderers, because they are often willing to sacrifice their lives in the process of committing their atrocities. But my familiarity with the subject leads me to assert that the death penalty does in fact serve as a deterrent, and in a big way.

Those murderers who infiltrated our village did their utmost to stay alive. They could have entered more homes or even attacked passers-by, but instead they ran for their lives back to their village after committing their despicable act. They were not suicidal. They were murderers pure and simple, and the death penalty would deter their kind in the future.

As a resident of [the West Bank settlement of] Itamar, it is important for me to clarify that we are not seeking revenge – we do not concern ourselves with those things. Our sorrow is immense, and we are growing more and more anxious about our security. When I walk past the family's home, still empty, the horrific images of that Friday night come back to my mind, images of slaughter and horror.

Having said all that, we have chosen not to let fear triumph. Instead, we cleave to life, just as the Torah says in Deuteronomy: "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life."

Since we lost the Fogel family last March, additional families have joined our settlement. Many new students have joined our yeshiva. The Ehud Residence, our yeshiva's new permanent building, which we named after Udi Fogel, is being built near the site of the murder and in direct sight of the village houses from which the murderers emerged. This is our revenge: the ability to continue living, if anything with greater intensity, here in Itamar.

The writer is the chief rabbi of Itamar and former chief rabbi of the IDF. 

Shoah Torah Scroll Welcomed in Itamar, in Memory of Fogels

A Torah scroll saved from the ashes of the Holocaust has been placed in a new synagogue in Itamar, in memory of the five members of the Fogel family who were murdered there earlier this year.

After the massacre, Jack Ross from New York connected with the community through Americans for a Safe Israel and offered to donate a Torah scroll that been rescued from Poland during the Shoah. He had the Torah repaired by a scribe and made kosher after 70 years of not being used and then donated it to a synogogue in Itamar in memory of the Fogel family. 

Ross came to Itamar accompanied by a delegation from the AFSI group and has spent the last week working as a volunteer builder and actually completing the work on the new synagogue and Ark where the Torah was placed. 

Hundreds of residents took part in the Torah welcoming ceremony Tuesday, writing the last letters of the Torah, as is the custom, and taking the Torah – in a dancing procession – to its new home on a hilltop neighborhood in Itamar.

The building of the synagogue was made possible through grants provided by the Israel Independence Fund. 

At the ceremony, Shomron Liaison David Ha'ivri and Itamar Mayor Moshe Goldsmith gave certificates of appreciation to the friends of Itamar who assisted in this and other projects for Itamar and Samaria (Shomron). Aharon Pulver, Chairman of the Israel Independence Fund, and Helen Freedman of AFSI, were honored for their "tireless efforts" for Israel and for the communities of Samaria.

At the ceremony, Shomron Regional Authority head Gershon Mesika compared the Torah, which is the heart of the Jewish people, to Itamar, which he said is the heart of the Land of Israel on the map. 

He said that just as the Jewish people could not exist without its heart, the Torah, so the Land of Israel could not survive without its heartland, the Shomron.

Mesika thanked the donor Jack Ross and the directors of AFSI and the Israel Independence Fund for their ongoing relationship and support for the communities of the Shomron.

Arabs Harvesting in Itamar: We Will Turn You Into Fogels

Itamar residents were shocked to see local arabs, some from the Awwad family that brutally murdered five members of the Fogel family, entering the confines of the communityf's security zone barely half a year after the Friday night massacre.
The PA village of Awarta's residents were allowed in to harvest olives by Israeli Civil Administration but the Shomron (Samaria) Residents Committee reports that they threw rocks at Itamar residents, yelling “We will turn you into Fogel’s”, while drawing fingers across their throats to emphasize the threat.
Last year, Hakim Awwad, one of the murderers, used the harvest as a means of gathering intelligence about the towns homes and residents.
Itamar residents are protesting furiously and young Tamar Fogel, now the oldest surviving member of her family, has joined them.
Benny Katsover, head of the Shomron Residents’ Committee, had harsh words for the civil administration decision: "There is no limit to the insensitivity and irresponsibility of the civil administration. We thought that even the blatant one-sidedness of the Civil Administration has limits, but once again it has given in to radical left views, at the risk of endangering Jewish lives."
Brigadier-General (res.) Rabbi Avichai Ronsky, head of the Itamar Hesder Yeshiva, former IDF Chief Rabbi and once head of the IDF Shomron Brigade, reacted sharply: “Half a year after the murder, the blood still bubbling and the community still tending its bleeding wounds, allowing residents of Awarta, the home of the murderers of the Fogel and Shabo families, into our community – is an irresponsible travesty!"
Gershon Mesika, Head of the Shomron Regional Council contacted the commanding ranks of the IDF and Knesset Members in order to stop the murderess clan's harvest: "It is an outrage that cries out to Heaven. A year ago, exactly, I warned the army Civil Administration that terrorists can use the olive harvest as an opportunity to collect intelligence before attacking. In spite of all my warnings, hundreds of Arabs from the village Awarta were allowed into Itamar to harvest the olives and we all know the tragic results.  I would expect that this year there would be some logic employed."
A PA Arab has been lightly injured after being hit by a rock. He was treated by an IDF soldier at the scene.  The circumstances surrounding the attack are not yet clear, sources said.
Last March, Tamar Fogel, 12 years old at the time, arrived home at midnight after a Sabbath youth activity to discover that both her parents, her 3-month-old baby sister and two brothers, ages 11 and 4, had been stabbed to death and had their throats slashed. Court documents showed that one of the two Arab terrorists held down the children for slaughter, and shot the mother after the other terrorist stabbed her.
The two cousins, Amjad Awad, 19 and Hakim Awad, 18 (17 at the time of the murder), were residents of the neighboring PA Arab village of Awarta. Both expressed pride and no remorse for the crime during the trial. They were sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus five years in prison, a total of 130 years behind bars.
The Israeli government has pointed out repeatedly that murders like the Fogel massacre in Itamar, while not known to have been directed by a specific terrorist organization, are incited by the Palestinian Authority's constant, incessant stream of media invective.
“Incitement against Israel, which frequently turns into genuine anti-Semitic incitement, is an inseparable part of the fabric of life in the Palestinian Authority,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pointed out at the time of the murders.

Second suspect in Fogel family murder pleads guilty Amjad Awad, charged with murder of five members of Fogel family in Itamar massacre last March together with cousin Hakim, admits to crimes

Awarta resident Amjad Awad, 19, who was charged with the murder of five members of the Fogel family in the Itamar massacre last March together with his cousin, Hakim, has admitted to the crimes ascribed to him – five counts of murder.


The judges in the Samaria Military Court sought to examine the primary evidence in the case before deciding whether to convict him by his own admission.


Amjad was the mastermind behind the massacre. Together with Hakim he brutally murdered Ehud Fogel, 36, Ruth Fogel, 35, 11-year-old Yoav, 4-year-old Elad and 2-month-old Hadas. His cousin helped him by holding down the children and shooting Ruth after Amjad stabbed her.

Amjad Awad (Photo: Hagai Aharon)

Last month, the court sentenced Hakim, 18, to five consecutive life sentences and another five years in prison - a total of 130 years behind bars. In court, Hakim claimed that security forces had tied up and killed two residents from his village last year.

"I'm 18 and am going through puberty. Not every young man at this age thinks of murder, just a Palestinian man whose land has been occupied. This is what the State does to me every day. When I want to leave my village, I need to undergo a search that always includes being beaten."

Moments before the sentence was read out, Hakim Awad managed to say that he was not sorry and explained that he murdered the Fogels "because of the occupation". The judges said then that they avoided sentencing him to death "because it wasn't effective with those kinds of people".

Killing babies with a smile

Giulio Meotti describes a court appearance last week by Hakim Awad, one of the two young 'Palestinians' who confessed to, and was convicted of, the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar last March.

In court, Awad always smiled at the camera, just like [9/11 hijacker Mohamed] Atta did. Awad said he has “no regrets” and flashed the "V" sign for victory while he was leaving the courthouse. “I am a person like you, I have no mental condition, I never had a serious illness,” Awad said to the judges. His smile was sincere.

The Fogels’ massacre in Itamar, where two Palestinians murdered babies as deliberately and unabashedly as very few other than the Nazis and Khmer Rouge ever had, has not been deciphered by our writers and intellectuals. It's because we have been told that “they hate us” is the language of xenophobes, the illiberal, the intolerant; that genocidal anti-Semitism was buried in the ashes of Auschwitz; that we have to be polite, sanitized and self-critical.

...

A seductive combination of post-colonial white guilt mixed with liberal condescension has dulled our moral senses and made us blind to Awad’s smile; a smirk that conveys unleashed hatred, contempt, physical aggression, the desire to expel, to destroy, and to eliminate the Jews.

Meotti goes on to compare Awad to the Nazis.

It's also the smile of Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief in southeastern France from 1942 to 1944, who laughed all the time when the Jewish victims described the torture at court in 1997. In 2007, a photo album containing 116 rare photographs of senior Nazi officials at the Auschwitz concentration camp was made public by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Josef Mengele, the camp doctor notorious for his medical experiments, is smiling while the gas chambers are operating in Birkenau.

Germany perpetrated the Holocaust not because it had the means to do so, but because its leaders engendered the will to do so. This totalitarian, robotic willingness also lies in Hakim Awad’s smile.

Did anyone suggest making peace with the Nazis? Here's what Winston Churchill had to say on that subject.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour!”

If Churchill were Prime Minister of Israel today, you can bet that he would not be negotiating with the leaders of a society that produces the likes of Hakim Awad.

Morality - Tribute to Fogel Family - Aaron Holder

Fogel Baby-Stabber ‘Proud of What I Did’

Amjad Awad (18), one of two Arabs who savagely slaughtered five members the Fogel family March 11, said Sunday that he has no regrets for what he did.

“I am proud of what I did and will accept any punishment I receive, because I did it all for Palestine,” he said after his arraignment at a Samaria military court.

 

Hakim Awad (17) and Amjad Awad of Awarta were formally charged with five counts of intentionally causing death – the military court’s equivalent of murder charges. They were also charged with stealing weapons, breaking and entering and conspiracy to commit a crime.

 

The charge sheet describes how they entered the Fogel family’s home in Itamar, surprising two children, Yoav (11) and Elad (4). Amjad led Yoav to another room and stabbed him to death there, while Hakim tried to strangle Elad. Amjad then returned and stabbed Elad with the two knives he held in his hands.

 

They then proceeded to the parents’ bedroom, where a struggle developed. Amjad managed to slash Rabbi Ehud Fogel to death and then stabbed his wife Ruthie in the neck and back. Hakim shot and killed her.

 

They then heard the three-month old baby girl, Hadas, crying, and stabbed her to death too.

 

The Military Prosecution has yet to announce whether it will ask for the death sentence for the murderers. Even if it does, the chances that such a sentence will be given and carried out are slim.

 

The Itamar Yeshiva, where Rabbi Fogel taught, is expanding as a Zionist response to the murders.

 

Israel has said that murders like the Fogel massacre, while not known to have been directed by a specific terrorist group,are incited by the PA. 

ISRAEL MATZAV: LA Times loves terrorists

The Los Angeles Times does an unbelievably sympathetic portrayal of two brutal murderers, the murderers of five members of the Fogel family of Itamar. The blog post (that's what it is) was written by one Maher Abukhater of "Ramallah, West Bank." This guy makes every excuse you can possibly make for two people who, among other things, slit the throat of a three-month old baby.

“They said they have done it and they are not going to plead innocent or claim they made their confession under duress,” their attorney, Faris Abu Hasan, said. “I do not know what kind of state of mind they were in when they confessed.”

Hasan said he thought they had given up on life and didn’t believe they would make it alive into the heavily fortified settlement of Itamar, let alone survive getting back out.

The two Palestinians, residents of Awarta, cooperated fully with their interrogators and gave them full and explicit details of how they had accomplished the killings.

...

Hasan, who only has met them once since the army announced their arrest, believes the Awads are resigned to their fate. He says once the case comes to court, which may be soon, the pair will plead guilty.

Once the prosecutor presents the list of charges to the military court, which will convene May 27 in a northern West Bank military base, the judge will set a date for the trial. Hasan said it will likely take just one court session for the judge to pass sentence because the Awads will admit committing the killings and testify that they were not coerced into making their confessions.

An Israeli military judge Tuesday gave the army prosecutor 10 days to present the charge list against the boys.

“I do not think I will have a case in court,” Hasan said. “It seems that it is already decided.”

Yeah, confessions with forensic evidence tend to shorten trials, don't they? But you can bet this trial will still take a lot longer than any trial in the 'Palestinian Authority.' And unfortunately, since we haven't administered the death penalty since Adolph Eichmann 50 years ago, these two monsters will likely sit in jail getting an education until they are sprung in a 'prisoner exchange' - maybe even for Gilad Shalit.

Itamar Yeshiva: Remembering the Massacre, Continuing to Build

Two 18-year old 'Palestinians' arrested for Fogel family massacre

The two cousins - aged 'around 18' and 'nearly 19' - are charged with the murder. They are from the neighboring village of Awarta. Six other 'Palestinians' were arrested, including an uncle Salah who helped them to hide the murder weapons and guns stolen from Itamar, and to burn their clothes. The uncle gave the weapons to a 'Palestinian' from Ramallah, who was arrested on April 14. The weapons were found in his home. Seven of the eight 'Palestinians' arrested are related.

The two reconstructed the murder. They jumped the fence into Itamar, broke into an empty house, and stole an M-16 rifle, bullets and a bulletproof vest. Then they broke into the Fogel house, where they murdered the 11-year old Yoav and 4-year old Elad. Then they went into the parents' room where they fought with and murdered the parents. They apparently shot Ruti Fogel with the rifle.

Then they left the house, debated whether to return to look for weapons,returned, heard the baby crying and murdered her. They did not see the other children - they said they would have murdered them too had they seen them. They then stole an M-16 from the Fogel house as well.

They are affiliated with the 'Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.'

Their motivation was terror for the sake of terror. None of the terror organizations were apparently involved. All Israelis and Jews were their targets, and they came to murder - and for no other reason.

It took a long time for the two murderers to confess.

Machon Meir Interviews Bereaved Father of Ruth Fogel z"l