After the kidnapping: mourning, decisions, pressure, courage

Today is July 1, 2014. We awaken to the realization that our hopes for our three missing boys have been dashed. Our boys are dead. Now, we mourn.

Our precious Jewish teens had been kidnapped Thursday night, June 12^th. We now know they have been murdered. They had been kidnapped near Hevron. They were found near Hevron. Their bodies lay near the Arab communities of Telem and Halhul, not far from where the boys went missing.

The kidnapping took place after the terrorist Hamas reconciled with the PLO. It took place in an area controlled by the PA.

Both Hamas and the PLO (Fatah) have these boys’ blood on their hands. Each in its own way has called for and incited for and created the atmosphere for this murder.

Do not believe that it is coincidence that this heinous crime against G-d took place just weeks after Hamas and Abbas reconciled. In the Arab war against Israel, there are no coincidences.

The Jordan Times reports the boys’ bodies were found in an open field, under a pile of rocks. The area in which they were found is a militant anti-Israel stronghold. It is also the hometown area of two Hamas members identified as suspects in the kidnapping (“Israel finds bodies of three missing settlers in West Bank”’ Jordan Times, June 30, 2014).

Our Jewish children were murdered for one reason only: they were Jews. They were murdered because Hamas and Fatah made it possible.

An hour ago, news went out that the boys are scheduled to be buried today in their Israeli hometowns. The news is crushing. We had had so much hope.

We will now lay these precious souls to their eternal rest.

Israel has decisions to make. It must decide what to do with the reported 15,000 IDF (Israel Defence Force) troops currently in the Palestinian Authority (PA) area. Should the troops be retrieved—or should they stay to look for those two suspects who---coincidentally-- went missing from the Hevron area the evening of the kidnapping?

Israel must decide.

Israel must decide what to do about Hamas. Hamas is no longer confined, primarily, to Gaza. Hamas is now part of the PA government. Hamas incites to kill Jews. Hamas incites to attack Israel. Hamas incites to kidnap Jews.

We see what that has wrought.

Israel must decide what to do about this Fatah-Hamas reconciliation.  So far, that reconciliation has brought us the murder of three Jews. Will there now be more kidnapping and murder?

Already, less than 24 hours after the boys were found, a report surfaces that a 21-year old Jewish woman is reported to have been found safe in an Arab village after she had called police to say she had been kidnapped (“Again? Woman Found in Arab Village after Apparent Abduction”, Arutz Sheva, July 1, 2014). Is this reported 2^nd kidnap attempt a joke, an aberration or the tip of a kidnapping iceberg?

Israel must decide.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has rushed to the West. He wants help. He doesn’t want help to find the culprits. He doesn’t want help to get rid of terrorists.

He wants help to pressure Israel. He doesn’t want Israel to start a large-scale military operation in his PA. But Abbas only wants help against Israel, not against kidnappers of Jews.

He wants someone—anyone—to stop Israel (“Abbas asks world leaders to help restrain Israel”, Times of Israel, July 1, 2014). He wants to see Israel pressured to remain silent.

Israel will have to decide how it will respond to that pressure.

Hamas knows what it will do. It pressures the world. Less than two hours after Israel announced it had found the boys’ bodies, Hamas had its own announcement. It didn’t express condolences. It didn’t offer to help find the culprits. It said, if Israel comes after us, it will open the gates of Hell (“Any Israeli attack will open 'the gates of hell,' warns Hamas”, PLO news, June 30, 2014).

The nations of the world have responded to the Hamas threat: they do not condemn Hamas for war-mongering. They do not threaten Hamas. They ask both sides to refrain from destabilizing the region—as if the kidnappings, Hamas' threats and Israel’s reaction are morally equivalent.  

Israel must decide what to do. Is Jewish blood so cheap that we refuse to seek justice for a murder that is not only a formal war crime, but a crime against G-d? Are these boys’ lives so worthless that we allow Jew-killers free reign over us?

Israel must decide. Does it have the courage to defend us?

As we mourn, Israel must decide what to do. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Israel’s security cabinet held an emergency meeting last night. That meeting, Al Jazeera said, ended with no major decisions on further actions (“Bodies of missing settlers found in West Bank” (July 1, 2014).

Has Israel lost its courage?