Israel's exclusion of people PROVES it should be destroyed. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque. No you can't come #ShitPalestiniansSay
I'm in a cycle of violence with Israel the same way Batman is in a cycle of violence with the Joker. #Palestine
Analysis: Yolande Knell, BBC News, ModeinThere were no demands for revenge and retribution at the funeral; the grieving parents sticking to heartfelt messages of their loss and loving recollections of their sons.
However Israel has already vowed that it will make Hamas pay a high price for the students' deaths.
Some ministers called for wider Israeli military action against Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while others pressed the case for more measured steps to avoid a dangerous flare-up in tensions.
One proposal has been to build a new settlement in the West Bank in honour of the dead Israelis.
Such a move would be highly controversial; settlements are seen as illegal under international law, although Israel disagrees.
However Israel has already vowed that it will make Hamas pay a high price for the students' deaths.
Some ministers called for wider Israeli military action against Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while others pressed the case for more measured steps to avoid a dangerous flare-up in tensions.
One proposal has been to build a new settlement in the West Bank in honour of the dead Israelis.
Such a move would be highly controversial; settlements are seen as illegal under international law, although Israel disagrees.
Mr Netanyahu said: "Whoever was involved in the kidnapping and the murder will bear the consequences."
He said the priorities were to:
He said the priorities were to:
- find the teenagers' killers and kidnappers
- weaken Hamas' infrastructure and manpower in the West Bank
- operate against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, expanding the operation "if the need arises"
Israel-Gaza tensions
- 2005: Israel pulls settlers and troops out of Gaza, which it had occupied since 1967. Palestinian Authority assumes administrative control. Israel still controls Gaza's airspace and seafront
- Gaza rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes continue
- Jan 2006: Hamas wins Palestinian elections, heads unity government; Israel imposes economic sanctions on Palestinian Authority
- June 2006: Hamas kidnaps Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in cross-border raid (Shalit is released in 2011 in exchange for hundreds of prisoners) - Israel launches first ground invasion of Gaza since its withdrawal
- Nov 2006: Gaza ceasefire declared
- Jun 2007: Hamas ousts rival Fatah from Gaza Strip; Israel intensifies restrictions on Gaza, in what becomes known as its blockade
- Feb-March 2008: Israeli three-day operation in Gaza to stop rocket fire
- Dec 2008-Jan 2009: Three-week conflict between Gaza militants and Israel
- Nov 2012: Eight-day Israeli offensive against Gaza to stop rocket fire; ends with ceasefire
- Sporadic rocket fire and air strikes continue, intensifying in June 2014.
"which it had occupied since 1967"
Amazing how Bullshit Palestinian made up words become accepted worldwide, like "occupation."
Jordan, in 1948 invaded the nascent State of Israel, taking for their own what is now referred to as the West Bank. They controlled the area for 19 years, desecrated Jewish Holy sites and turned much of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem into a garbage dump. Why was there no call from the Arabs for an independent Palestinian nation when they had full control of the area?
Those who fight Israel do not fight occupation? Land in exchange for peace has been offered innumerable times, only to be refused by the Palestinian leadership. This has nothing to do with land and everything to do with destroying Israel.
Amazing how Bullshit Palestinian made up words become accepted worldwide, like "occupation."
Jordan, in 1948 invaded the nascent State of Israel, taking for their own what is now referred to as the West Bank. They controlled the area for 19 years, desecrated Jewish Holy sites and turned much of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem into a garbage dump. Why was there no call from the Arabs for an independent Palestinian nation when they had full control of the area?
Those who fight Israel do not fight occupation? Land in exchange for peace has been offered innumerable times, only to be refused by the Palestinian leadership. This has nothing to do with land and everything to do with destroying Israel.
The time has come for America to stand up
By Caroline B. Glick
Action must be taken. Those who are pro-Israel must use their influence to stop the supporting of the pols and organizations who fund the enemy and his efforts to destroy us
Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel were teenagers. They were abducted and brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists from Hamas, a partner in the Palestinian Authority's unity government, and a terrorist organization dedicated to the annihilation of Israel and the Jewish people.
The teens' abduction and murder was supported by Palestinian society as a whole. While Israelis were united as never before in worry and prayer for the missing boys, Palestinian society was united in its expressed delight at the abduction and murder of the boys.
The government's response to this war crime, and to the support Palestinian society as a whole provides war criminals while reveling in their atrocities, will be significant. The vast majority of Israelis recognizes that maintaining faith with the mordant peace process can no longer be justified. Fatah and Hamas are equally dedicated to our destruction. By continuing to empower and legitimize the PA, Israel is facilitating its debilitation and victimization.
By legitimizing the PA, Israel has enabled the PA to conduct a massive campaign throughout the world to destroy Israel's moral, legal and diplomatic standing.
The international community's indifferent response to the Palestinian abduction of the boys demonstrated how far the Palestinian campaign to deny the legitimacy of Israel and to dehumanize Israelis has advanced.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton took five days to issue a milquetoast condemnation of their abduction. But as execrable as Ashton's silence was, US President Barack Obama's response was even worse.
Obama waited for the boys' bodies to be found before ever mentioning them. And when he finally spoke, he made no distinction between Israel, the victim of this war crime, and the Palestinians who facilitated, perpetrated and celebrated this war crime.
In Obama's words, "From the outset, I have offered our full support to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to find the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice, and I encourage Israel and the Palestinian Authority to continue working together in that effort. I also urge all parties to refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation."
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki's reaction to the Israel's discovery of the boys' bodies was even more offensive than the president's refusal to draw a distinction between the victim and the perpetrator.
Diminishing the cold-blooded murder of the boys by Palestinian savages to the level of a mere "tragedy," Psaki said that the cooperation must continue between Israeli security forces and Palestinian terrorists "despite the pain on the ground."
Not the pain inflicted on Israelis by the Palestinians who kidnapped and murdered and who overwhelmingly supported and celebrated the teens' abduction and murder. Rather, in Psaki's world, a general, amorphous "pain on the ground."
Under questioning by AP reporter Matt Lee, Psaki defended the PA's Fatah- Hamas government and claimed that its members "are making every effort" to abide by US requirements, including the rejection of violence.
Now it is true that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did once condemn the kidnapping of the teens, and called for his Hamas governing partners to free them. But after he was attacked from all corners of the PA and Palestinian society, he quickly backtracked.
Abbas blamed Israel for the abduction, and accused it of killing "Palestinian teenagers in cold blood."
It is also true that the media and the Obama administration have repeatedly claimed that PA security forces assisted Israel in locating the teenagers. But if such assistance was provided, it was not helpful. The bodies were found by Israelis, based on intelligence gleaned by Israeli forces in Israeli operations.
So why is the administration pretending otherwise? Obama and Psaki are not motivated primarily by their increasingly apparent antipathy for the Jewish state. They are trying to avoid having to abide by US law.
Standing legislation prohibits the US government from funding foreign terror organizations. Hamas is an officially designated foreign terror organization. If Fatah were ever treated on the basis of its actions, it would also be labeled a foreign terror organization because according to US law, it meets all the criteria for such a designation.
And at any rate, Hamas's participation in the Palestinian government makes it illegal for the US to transfer any funds or grant any political recognition to the Palestinian government.
Since Obama and Psaki and their colleagues are aware of this fact, they have chosen to lie in order to protect the Hamas-Fatah government from the letter of US law.
This situation is simply unacceptable. The facts are incontrovertible. Thorough the actions of Fatah terrorists and Hamas terrorists, PA is a terrorist organization.
Even if Abbas were sincere in his devotion to peace with Israel — and clearly he is not — he would be nothing more than a figurehead at the top of a governing apparatus, and of a society as a whole that is dedicated to the eradication of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people.
Every year the US gives the PA up to $500 million in aid. At this point, it is impossible to rationally argue that aid to the PA advances the cause of peace, which is supposed to be the point of the aid.
The PA — including Abbas — refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. The PA denies Jewish nationhood. It fabricates Jewish history. And the PA — led by Abbas — supports, facilitates and engages in terrorism against Israel.
US assistance to the PA is instrumental to Palestinian efforts. The PA uses the legitimacy afforded it by US political and economic support to advance its campaign to delegitimize Israel and legitimize its destruction and the murder of its citizens.
In other words, every dollar the US gives the PA advances the goal of destroying Israel. By continuing to support the PA despite its actions, the US is making a singular contribution to the dehumanization of Jews and the destruction of our state.
Obama's silence during the 18 days the teens were missing, and his hostile and duplicitous statement after their mutilated bodies were found makes clear that he remains committed to continuing this contribution.
In acting in this way, Obama stands in opposition to the will of the American people, who do not wish to contribute to the destruction of Israel.
Consequently, the time has come for the people's representatives in Congress to take action to remedy this unacceptable state of affairs.
To some extent, Congress already has stepped in. Last week the House of Representatives Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, which is responsible for allocating aid to the PA, did not include aid to the PA in the appropriations bill for 2015. The sub-committee's counterpart in the Senate took a similar, if less forceful step.
Yet despite these actions, both the House and Senate bills assume that the aid will be restored and so they include stipulations for what Obama must do to waive Congressional limits on aid.
This is very problematic. By assuming that aid will be allocated, US lawmakers take for granted that US law will be broken, and indeed, they green-light such unlawful and repugnant actions.
Immediately after the boys were taken, Reps. Michele Bachmann and Trent Franks co-authored a House resolution defining the PA as a foreign terrorist organization.
As Rep. Franks said on June 12, "All US assistance to the Palestinian Authority should have been be suspended years ago, but openly joining a terrorist organization that kills women and children simply because they are Jewish should convince even the Obama administration to wake up and defund this madness."
Obviously, the Obama administration remains unconvinced — and undaunted by the resolution, despite the fact that it now enjoys more than a score of co-sponsors, including two Democrats. Obama may continue to fund the PA no matter what Congress does. But only Congress can take action that has a chance of ending US support for the destruction of Israel. If Congress were to transform the language of the Bachmann-Franks resolution into a bill and pass it as a rider on an appropriations bill, then like the Boland Amendment of the 1980s, it could force the executive branch to heel.
The cold-blooded murder of Fraenkel, Shaer and Yifrah requires Israel to stop playing a sucker's game. The PA is not our partner. It is our enemy.
The US is not our enemy. It is our friend. The American people are our friends.
The time has come for our friends to also take action and stop funding and supporting our enemy and his efforts to destroy us.
By Caroline B. Glick
Action must be taken. Those who are pro-Israel must use their influence to stop the supporting of the pols and organizations who fund the enemy and his efforts to destroy us
Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel were teenagers. They were abducted and brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists from Hamas, a partner in the Palestinian Authority's unity government, and a terrorist organization dedicated to the annihilation of Israel and the Jewish people.
The teens' abduction and murder was supported by Palestinian society as a whole. While Israelis were united as never before in worry and prayer for the missing boys, Palestinian society was united in its expressed delight at the abduction and murder of the boys.
The government's response to this war crime, and to the support Palestinian society as a whole provides war criminals while reveling in their atrocities, will be significant. The vast majority of Israelis recognizes that maintaining faith with the mordant peace process can no longer be justified. Fatah and Hamas are equally dedicated to our destruction. By continuing to empower and legitimize the PA, Israel is facilitating its debilitation and victimization.
By legitimizing the PA, Israel has enabled the PA to conduct a massive campaign throughout the world to destroy Israel's moral, legal and diplomatic standing.
The international community's indifferent response to the Palestinian abduction of the boys demonstrated how far the Palestinian campaign to deny the legitimacy of Israel and to dehumanize Israelis has advanced.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton took five days to issue a milquetoast condemnation of their abduction. But as execrable as Ashton's silence was, US President Barack Obama's response was even worse.
Obama waited for the boys' bodies to be found before ever mentioning them. And when he finally spoke, he made no distinction between Israel, the victim of this war crime, and the Palestinians who facilitated, perpetrated and celebrated this war crime.
In Obama's words, "From the outset, I have offered our full support to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to find the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice, and I encourage Israel and the Palestinian Authority to continue working together in that effort. I also urge all parties to refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation."
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki's reaction to the Israel's discovery of the boys' bodies was even more offensive than the president's refusal to draw a distinction between the victim and the perpetrator.
Diminishing the cold-blooded murder of the boys by Palestinian savages to the level of a mere "tragedy," Psaki said that the cooperation must continue between Israeli security forces and Palestinian terrorists "despite the pain on the ground."
Not the pain inflicted on Israelis by the Palestinians who kidnapped and murdered and who overwhelmingly supported and celebrated the teens' abduction and murder. Rather, in Psaki's world, a general, amorphous "pain on the ground."
Under questioning by AP reporter Matt Lee, Psaki defended the PA's Fatah- Hamas government and claimed that its members "are making every effort" to abide by US requirements, including the rejection of violence.
Now it is true that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did once condemn the kidnapping of the teens, and called for his Hamas governing partners to free them. But after he was attacked from all corners of the PA and Palestinian society, he quickly backtracked.
Abbas blamed Israel for the abduction, and accused it of killing "Palestinian teenagers in cold blood."
It is also true that the media and the Obama administration have repeatedly claimed that PA security forces assisted Israel in locating the teenagers. But if such assistance was provided, it was not helpful. The bodies were found by Israelis, based on intelligence gleaned by Israeli forces in Israeli operations.
So why is the administration pretending otherwise? Obama and Psaki are not motivated primarily by their increasingly apparent antipathy for the Jewish state. They are trying to avoid having to abide by US law.
Standing legislation prohibits the US government from funding foreign terror organizations. Hamas is an officially designated foreign terror organization. If Fatah were ever treated on the basis of its actions, it would also be labeled a foreign terror organization because according to US law, it meets all the criteria for such a designation.
And at any rate, Hamas's participation in the Palestinian government makes it illegal for the US to transfer any funds or grant any political recognition to the Palestinian government.
Since Obama and Psaki and their colleagues are aware of this fact, they have chosen to lie in order to protect the Hamas-Fatah government from the letter of US law.
This situation is simply unacceptable. The facts are incontrovertible. Thorough the actions of Fatah terrorists and Hamas terrorists, PA is a terrorist organization.
Even if Abbas were sincere in his devotion to peace with Israel — and clearly he is not — he would be nothing more than a figurehead at the top of a governing apparatus, and of a society as a whole that is dedicated to the eradication of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people.
Every year the US gives the PA up to $500 million in aid. At this point, it is impossible to rationally argue that aid to the PA advances the cause of peace, which is supposed to be the point of the aid.
The PA — including Abbas — refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. The PA denies Jewish nationhood. It fabricates Jewish history. And the PA — led by Abbas — supports, facilitates and engages in terrorism against Israel.
US assistance to the PA is instrumental to Palestinian efforts. The PA uses the legitimacy afforded it by US political and economic support to advance its campaign to delegitimize Israel and legitimize its destruction and the murder of its citizens.
In other words, every dollar the US gives the PA advances the goal of destroying Israel. By continuing to support the PA despite its actions, the US is making a singular contribution to the dehumanization of Jews and the destruction of our state.
Obama's silence during the 18 days the teens were missing, and his hostile and duplicitous statement after their mutilated bodies were found makes clear that he remains committed to continuing this contribution.
In acting in this way, Obama stands in opposition to the will of the American people, who do not wish to contribute to the destruction of Israel.
Consequently, the time has come for the people's representatives in Congress to take action to remedy this unacceptable state of affairs.
To some extent, Congress already has stepped in. Last week the House of Representatives Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, which is responsible for allocating aid to the PA, did not include aid to the PA in the appropriations bill for 2015. The sub-committee's counterpart in the Senate took a similar, if less forceful step.
Yet despite these actions, both the House and Senate bills assume that the aid will be restored and so they include stipulations for what Obama must do to waive Congressional limits on aid.
This is very problematic. By assuming that aid will be allocated, US lawmakers take for granted that US law will be broken, and indeed, they green-light such unlawful and repugnant actions.
Immediately after the boys were taken, Reps. Michele Bachmann and Trent Franks co-authored a House resolution defining the PA as a foreign terrorist organization.
As Rep. Franks said on June 12, "All US assistance to the Palestinian Authority should have been be suspended years ago, but openly joining a terrorist organization that kills women and children simply because they are Jewish should convince even the Obama administration to wake up and defund this madness."
Obviously, the Obama administration remains unconvinced — and undaunted by the resolution, despite the fact that it now enjoys more than a score of co-sponsors, including two Democrats. Obama may continue to fund the PA no matter what Congress does. But only Congress can take action that has a chance of ending US support for the destruction of Israel. If Congress were to transform the language of the Bachmann-Franks resolution into a bill and pass it as a rider on an appropriations bill, then like the Boland Amendment of the 1980s, it could force the executive branch to heel.
The cold-blooded murder of Fraenkel, Shaer and Yifrah requires Israel to stop playing a sucker's game. The PA is not our partner. It is our enemy.
The US is not our enemy. It is our friend. The American people are our friends.
The time has come for our friends to also take action and stop funding and supporting our enemy and his efforts to destroy us.
[h=1]Amid calls for revenge, Rachelle Fraenkel is a light in this dark place[/h] [h=2]While mourning the death of her teenage son Naftali Fraenkel this week, his mother still found the time and strength to comfort others.[/h] By Danna Harman | Jul. 6, 2014 | 1:22 AM
Avi (C) and Rachelle (R) Fraenkel and their son (L), hold a reading close to the body of their son Naftali Frenkel, 16, (unseen) during his funeral service, July 1, 2014. Photo by AFP
Rachelle and Avi Fraenkel, parents of Naftali, one of the three teens who were kidnaped and killed.
Few were those that came empty-handed. Many, in the oppressive heat of Friday morning, came bearing trays of watermelon, sliced into bite sizes in advance, toothpicks carefully stuck in each piece. Others brought homemade cakes wrapped in tinfoil, the icings mostly melted. And some showed up clutching six-packs of soft drinks that they stacked up on the wobbly makeshift tables, near the stacks of miniature books of psalms.
Friends came, and strangers too. Neighbors milled around the tent in the backyard, unpiling more and more plastic white chairs for the endless stream of visitors, and trying, like everyone else, to do or say something helpful.
Orthodox rabbis in long beards and heavy black coats murmured condolences. Teenage yeshiva students in colorful T-shirts and shorts, knitted kippas and tzitzit sticking out, their beat-up sandals dangling off their feet, sat together and told stories of their absent friend. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, making his third visit to Nof Ayalon in as many weeks, came in and just sat for a while. A delegation of Druze leaders arrived to pay respects. Soldiers in uniform bowed their heads. A scrawny stray kitten meandered between everyone’s feet.
And in the middle of it all sat Rachelle and Avi Fraenkel, whose 16-year-old son Naftali was kidnapped along with Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah on June 12, and who was found, murdered, 18 days later, under a pile of rocks outside Hebron. Here they were, sitting shivah on low chairs, clasping the hands of all those knelt down before them to offer words of support and love – and smiling upon them.
“Of course I remember you,” Rachelle said gently, over and again, as one person after the next, hour after hour, reached out to touch her hands or face or embrace her. “Welcome,” she said. “Thank you so much for coming,” she repeated. “We will meet again on more joyful days,” she promised one heavily pregnant woman, who arrived with two beautiful redhead toddlers in tow and eyes brimming with tears.
Rachelle, a mother of seven – who buried her second-born on Tuesday – has become, in the last few weeks, something of a light to many here who are searching for a way out of a very dark place. A model of profound faith, restraint and gentleness, she has remained a steady and calming voice, even as the chorus of those calling for revenge and spouting hatred in the name of God and religion has increased.
The dual U.S.-Israeli citizen grabbed the collective attention early on, telling a group of teenage girls praying with her at the Western Wall after the kidnappings that “God is not our servant,” and seemingly bracing them, already at the very beginning, for the worst. “Prayer is worthy,” she made clear, “no matter what the outcome.”
Much later, at her son’s funeral, she took the time to thank the many soldiers who had been searching for the young men: “Dear soldiers,” she said. “You promised to bring them back to us, and you did that.”
At the big rally to “bring back the boys” in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, less than 24 hours before the boys’ bodies were finally discovered, it was Rachelle who, in front of the tens of thousands gathered, extended the three mothers’ appreciation to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well – “along with everyone else with a conscience, who realizes children should be outside the game” – and thanked him for denouncing the kidnappings.
And then, after the funerals, when 16-year-old Palestinian Israeli Mohammed Abu Khdeir was shoved into a van outside a Jerusalem mosque and soon after found burnt to death in the forest – in what most believe was a revenge attack by extremist Jews – Rachelle and her family spoke up immediately and clearly.
“If a young Arab really was murdered for nationalist reasons, this is a horrifying and shocking act,” said the statement they put out from their shivah tent. “There is no difference between blood and blood. Murder is murder. There is no justification, no pardon and no atonement for murder.”
A scion of a learned family, Rachelle, who goes by Rachelle Sprecher Fraenkel professionally, is a respected halakhic authority herself – a rarity in the Orthodox world here. She teaches Jewish law at two highly regarded women’s institutions in Jerusalem, and has been a leader within the local religious feminist movement for years. As such, in this arena too, she managed to offer an alternative voice in recent days.
At her son’s funeral, Rachelle stood up and, without fanfare, recited the Kaddish prayer for the dead alongside her husband. Her feminine voice rang out clearly as Chief Rabbi David Lau, dozens of Orthodox Knesset members and the thousands of others gathered responded with “Amen” – forever changing, many pundits are arguing, the way in which the participation of Orthodox women in this ritual is considered.
“This woman is more special than you can imagine,” said her friend and fellow halakhic authority Malka Puterkovsky.
At Rachelle’s request, Puterkovsky gave a short class at the shivah on Friday, expanding on some of Rachelle’s recent comments about prayer and expectations. “We are often taught that if we just pray hard enough and well enough, God will grant us our wishes,” Puterkovsky told those who came to hear her speak – mainly women in head coverings, long skirts and shirts – in a second tent set up outside the Fraenkels’ house. “But it is not like that. Our relationship with God is more complicated.
“How do we educate our children to pray with all their hearts and souls, but in parallel to also know that the response to all those prayers might be ‘No’” she asked. “This is one of the most difficult challenges of faith – and yet we just have to accept that we have no right to make demands. All we can do is be confident that our prayers are heard.
“Faith,” she concluded, “is stronger than us. What is incredible is that we continue to believe, despite everything.”
As Friday wore on, those remaining in the Fraenkel backyard began drifting out, leaving the family alone for Shabbat. The visitors got into their cars and navigated their way through the single-lane streets of this small village of 430 families, situated just within Israel’s 1967 borders, toward the highways and onward toward home.
Perhaps, lost in thought, these visitors might have missed seeing the lone hitchhiker with his thumb out at the roundabout directly outside Nof Ayalon. A young man, maybe 16, maybe younger, trying to get home before dark, and wearing a T-shirt reading, “Jews! Let’s win!” In any case, for a while, no one slowed down to give him a ride.
| |
Few were those that came empty-handed. Many, in the oppressive heat of Friday morning, came bearing trays of watermelon, sliced into bite sizes in advance, toothpicks carefully stuck in each piece. Others brought homemade cakes wrapped in tinfoil, the icings mostly melted. And some showed up clutching six-packs of soft drinks that they stacked up on the wobbly makeshift tables, near the stacks of miniature books of psalms.
Friends came, and strangers too. Neighbors milled around the tent in the backyard, unpiling more and more plastic white chairs for the endless stream of visitors, and trying, like everyone else, to do or say something helpful.
Orthodox rabbis in long beards and heavy black coats murmured condolences. Teenage yeshiva students in colorful T-shirts and shorts, knitted kippas and tzitzit sticking out, their beat-up sandals dangling off their feet, sat together and told stories of their absent friend. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, making his third visit to Nof Ayalon in as many weeks, came in and just sat for a while. A delegation of Druze leaders arrived to pay respects. Soldiers in uniform bowed their heads. A scrawny stray kitten meandered between everyone’s feet.
And in the middle of it all sat Rachelle and Avi Fraenkel, whose 16-year-old son Naftali was kidnapped along with Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah on June 12, and who was found, murdered, 18 days later, under a pile of rocks outside Hebron. Here they were, sitting shivah on low chairs, clasping the hands of all those knelt down before them to offer words of support and love – and smiling upon them.
“Of course I remember you,” Rachelle said gently, over and again, as one person after the next, hour after hour, reached out to touch her hands or face or embrace her. “Welcome,” she said. “Thank you so much for coming,” she repeated. “We will meet again on more joyful days,” she promised one heavily pregnant woman, who arrived with two beautiful redhead toddlers in tow and eyes brimming with tears.
Rachelle, a mother of seven – who buried her second-born on Tuesday – has become, in the last few weeks, something of a light to many here who are searching for a way out of a very dark place. A model of profound faith, restraint and gentleness, she has remained a steady and calming voice, even as the chorus of those calling for revenge and spouting hatred in the name of God and religion has increased.
The dual U.S.-Israeli citizen grabbed the collective attention early on, telling a group of teenage girls praying with her at the Western Wall after the kidnappings that “God is not our servant,” and seemingly bracing them, already at the very beginning, for the worst. “Prayer is worthy,” she made clear, “no matter what the outcome.”
Much later, at her son’s funeral, she took the time to thank the many soldiers who had been searching for the young men: “Dear soldiers,” she said. “You promised to bring them back to us, and you did that.”
At the big rally to “bring back the boys” in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, less than 24 hours before the boys’ bodies were finally discovered, it was Rachelle who, in front of the tens of thousands gathered, extended the three mothers’ appreciation to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well – “along with everyone else with a conscience, who realizes children should be outside the game” – and thanked him for denouncing the kidnappings.
And then, after the funerals, when 16-year-old Palestinian Israeli Mohammed Abu Khdeir was shoved into a van outside a Jerusalem mosque and soon after found burnt to death in the forest – in what most believe was a revenge attack by extremist Jews – Rachelle and her family spoke up immediately and clearly.
“If a young Arab really was murdered for nationalist reasons, this is a horrifying and shocking act,” said the statement they put out from their shivah tent. “There is no difference between blood and blood. Murder is murder. There is no justification, no pardon and no atonement for murder.”
A scion of a learned family, Rachelle, who goes by Rachelle Sprecher Fraenkel professionally, is a respected halakhic authority herself – a rarity in the Orthodox world here. She teaches Jewish law at two highly regarded women’s institutions in Jerusalem, and has been a leader within the local religious feminist movement for years. As such, in this arena too, she managed to offer an alternative voice in recent days.
At her son’s funeral, Rachelle stood up and, without fanfare, recited the Kaddish prayer for the dead alongside her husband. Her feminine voice rang out clearly as Chief Rabbi David Lau, dozens of Orthodox Knesset members and the thousands of others gathered responded with “Amen” – forever changing, many pundits are arguing, the way in which the participation of Orthodox women in this ritual is considered.
“This woman is more special than you can imagine,” said her friend and fellow halakhic authority Malka Puterkovsky.
At Rachelle’s request, Puterkovsky gave a short class at the shivah on Friday, expanding on some of Rachelle’s recent comments about prayer and expectations. “We are often taught that if we just pray hard enough and well enough, God will grant us our wishes,” Puterkovsky told those who came to hear her speak – mainly women in head coverings, long skirts and shirts – in a second tent set up outside the Fraenkels’ house. “But it is not like that. Our relationship with God is more complicated.
“How do we educate our children to pray with all their hearts and souls, but in parallel to also know that the response to all those prayers might be ‘No’” she asked. “This is one of the most difficult challenges of faith – and yet we just have to accept that we have no right to make demands. All we can do is be confident that our prayers are heard.
“Faith,” she concluded, “is stronger than us. What is incredible is that we continue to believe, despite everything.”
As Friday wore on, those remaining in the Fraenkel backyard began drifting out, leaving the family alone for Shabbat. The visitors got into their cars and navigated their way through the single-lane streets of this small village of 430 families, situated just within Israel’s 1967 borders, toward the highways and onward toward home.
Perhaps, lost in thought, these visitors might have missed seeing the lone hitchhiker with his thumb out at the roundabout directly outside Nof Ayalon. A young man, maybe 16, maybe younger, trying to get home before dark, and wearing a T-shirt reading, “Jews! Let’s win!” In any case, for a while, no one slowed down to give him a ride.
Scott, these are are deplorable and help (or should help) teach the difference between the two cultures
terrorist groups laugh at and use how political correctness against us
the USA needs a strong Israel, Israel needs a strong USA, the world needs a strong USA
you can only achieve peace through strength, history has taught that lesson time and time and time again. Your enemies simply won't go away if you close your eyes and pretend they're not there.
you can't defeat such hatred with measured responses, you have to beat them into submission
terrorist groups laugh at and use how political correctness against us
the USA needs a strong Israel, Israel needs a strong USA, the world needs a strong USA
you can only achieve peace through strength, history has taught that lesson time and time and time again. Your enemies simply won't go away if you close your eyes and pretend they're not there.
you can't defeat such hatred with measured responses, you have to beat them into submission
we want to live in peace, we want you to live in peace, but if you encourage and promote and commit an act of war against us, we will destroy you. There will be no measured response
and Syria, if you continue to send soldiers and weapons into Lebanon to be used against Israel or Lebanon, we will destroy your pipeline
and Iran, if you continue to supply weapons and technology to be used to promote war against Israel, we will destroy your capabilities to do such
and Syria, if you continue to send soldiers and weapons into Lebanon to be used against Israel or Lebanon, we will destroy your pipeline
and Iran, if you continue to supply weapons and technology to be used to promote war against Israel, we will destroy your capabilities to do such
I don't think the parents of the three murdered teens would condone revenge killings of innocent Arab teenagers. I condemn it.
I do however recognize that those who start a religious war to annihilate the enemy civilians on the other side bear the full responsibility for the loss of life on both sides. Also, when Jewish innocents are killed it is wholly celebrated by a sick culture in the Pal areas and there are no Pal police looking to apprehend the perpetrators. OTOH Israel fully hunts down and prosecutes those who murder, and call for revenge against Arabs (more posts to follow when I get caught up). 6 suspects were arrested today.
As far as the beating by police of the cousin this did not occur on the same day his cousin was killed. It was during an uprising against police. The boy was firing a slingshot when apprehended. He has been ordered to serve 9 days under house arrest.
Israelis who go to pray at the Temple Mount are pelted with rocks by Arab mobs. And the Israeli police use rubber bullets in response. Why not live ammo? This happened today:
I do however recognize that those who start a religious war to annihilate the enemy civilians on the other side bear the full responsibility for the loss of life on both sides. Also, when Jewish innocents are killed it is wholly celebrated by a sick culture in the Pal areas and there are no Pal police looking to apprehend the perpetrators. OTOH Israel fully hunts down and prosecutes those who murder, and call for revenge against Arabs (more posts to follow when I get caught up). 6 suspects were arrested today.
As far as the beating by police of the cousin this did not occur on the same day his cousin was killed. It was during an uprising against police. The boy was firing a slingshot when apprehended. He has been ordered to serve 9 days under house arrest.
Israelis who go to pray at the Temple Mount are pelted with rocks by Arab mobs. And the Israeli police use rubber bullets in response. Why not live ammo? This happened today:
