TUESDAY 11/18/2014 | 25 HESHVAN | DAY OF SADNESS AND RAGE

If anyone has had any delusions about this not being a religious war, and anything but a religious war, one need only connect the images that are emerging from this morning’s massacre of four Jewish Rabbies in the middle of their morning prayer to the images of Jews massacred in Hebron, in 1929.

Two Arab terrorists killed four worshippers at a synagogue in the Haredi neighborhood of Har Nof in Jerusalem Tuesday morning.  Police officers shot and killed the murderers on the steps of the Kehilat Bnei Torah yeshiva-synagogue complex.  One of the policemen is in life-threatening condition from wounds in the shoot-out with the terrorists. The quick

response of the police, two of whom were traffic officers who happened to be in the area, is credited with having prevented a worse massacre.  Seven people are being treated for injuries. Besides the police officer in very critical condition, one other is in very serious or condition, the wounds of two others were described as “serious, while two others are in moderate condition and one was injured lightly.

The terrorists were cousins and from the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, next to the predominantly Jewish area of Armon HaNatziv in Talpiot.  One eyewitness told police that a third terrorist escaped, but police later ruled out the possibility.  One of the terrorists was armed with a gun and the other with an axe and butcher knife, which was the size of that used in a slaughterhouse.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Davis Lau called the attack a “pogrom.” “Two terrorists entered the synagogue and slaughtered worshippers wrapped in prayer shawls and tefillin. Several of the victims were mortally wounded,” rescue volunteer Aryeh Shavit told the 2525 website. The four Jews murdered in the Har Nof Massacre today held US and British citizenship, along with Israeli citizenship.

Rabbi Moshe Twersky (59): Israel-US national.

Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg (68): Israel-British national.

Rabbi Kalman Levine (55): Israel-US national.

Rabbi Aryeh Kopinsky (43): Israel-US national.

Eight more people were wounded in the attack, including 2 policemen.  One of them is Zidan Sayif (27) — Israeli Druze Policeman — was the first policeman on the scene at this morning’s terror attack, and he now is fighting for his life.  The critically wounded policeman, was shot in the head during a gun-battle with the terrorists at the shul this morning in Har Nof massacre in Jerusalem.  The terrorists turned their attention away from massacring additional Jewish worshipers to do gun battle with the heroic policeman.  Sayif’s parents and wife are at his bedside at Hadassah hospital praying for his recovery. Sayif has a 7 month old daughter as well.  We hope and pray for him too, that he has a speedy and full recovery and embrace his family during this difficult time.

Sad and sorry to announce that the critically wounded police officer in Tuesday morning's terror attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood succumbed to his wounds at Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem. The death toll in the attack rose to five with the death of the police officer.
The officer was identified as Zidan Saif, 30, of the Druse village of Kfar Yanouch in the Galilee. He was the father of a four-month-old baby. He was set to be laid to rest on Wednesday.

Wounded United Hatzalah first response paramedic “Y.E.” recovering at the hospital. He was injured while treating the wounded under fire at the terror attack/massacre this morning in Jerusalem.  Also pictured (wearing a suit jacket) is MK Eli Yishai (Shas) who lives right near the location of the attack.  United Hatzalah and Magen David Adom emergency EMTs, paramedics and doctors responded to the terror attack this morning and arrived within 2 minutes of the initial call — and selflessly worked to save lives, under fire.

Rabbi Moshe Twersky, a native of Boston and a grandson of renowned rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik was among the four Jews whom Arab terrorists murdered while they were praying in a Har Nof synagogue Tuesday morning. He was 60 years old.  His funeral is being held at this hour at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem.  Rabbi Twersky was a lecturer at Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem and was the elder son of Rabbi Isadore Twersky of Boston.  He lived in the Har Nof neighborhood in Jerusalem his wife is the daughter of Rabbi Abba Berman, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Iyun HaTalmud.  His grandfather, Rav Soloveitchik, was known by generations of modern Orthodox Jews in the United States as “The Rav.”  Rabbi Moshe Twersky was escorted to his final resting place by 3,500 mourners today.  “G-d gave us a special soul…if there are 36 hidden righteous people in a generation, we merited to have one right here,” said one of his students.  Twersky was 59 years old,

and the head of a Kollel (rabbinical study program) in Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem. The Yeshiva is primarily for American students who come to study in Israel for a year after high school, though Twersky taught older and advanced students. Twersky was the grandson of Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchik. His father, Rabbi Yitzchak (Isadore) Twersky, was both a rabbi and a professor in Harvard. He leaves behind a wife, Miriam, and five children.

Please pray for the following people who are still fighting for their lives:  Eitan ben Sara, Shmuel Yerucham ben Bila, Haim Yechiel ben Malka and Avraham Shmuel ben Shaina.

The four rabbis who were murdered in the brutal Palestinian terror attack on Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood on Tuesday morning, November 18, all lived on the same street.  Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, 68, Rabbi Mosheh Twersky, 59, Rabbi Calman Levine, 55, and Rabbi Aryeh Kopinsky, 43, were all residents of the Har Nof neighborhood and had made aliyah to Israel in recent years. Rabbi Goldberg was a U.K. citizen while the other three rabbis held U.S. citizenship.  “When we count the widows and orphans that were added to the Israeli nation this morning, four widows and 24 orphans are on one street,” said Rabbi Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin, the rabbi of the Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue at the funeral for three of the victims on Tuesday evening.  “We are here, standing in front of these three holy men, the best of our community, Torah scholars whose blood flowed like water.”

The four were among the some 25 worshippers praying the traditional morning Jewish

prayers at the Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue when two Palestinian terrorists stormed in armed with meat cleavers, an ax, and a gun, shooting and stabbing worshippers. Cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu-Jamal from the Jerusalem district of Jabel Mukaber, carried out the attack and were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In addition to the four rabbis who were killed, eight others were also wounded in the attack.

The bloody attack was heavily condemned by leaders and officials from across the world. “On behalf of the United States government and the American people, I condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest possible terms. Murdering worshipers at prayer in a synagogue is an act of pure, unadulterated evil,” related U.S. Ambassador, Dan Shapiro.

“Beyond the terrorists who were killed by police responding to the attack, any others involved must be held responsible and brought to justice,” added Shapiro.  Meanwhile in Gaza, Palestinians celebrated the Jerusalem synagogue attack, throwing sweets and brandishing knives and axes in praise of the terrorists.  Even Bahrain’s Foreign Minister, Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa issued a statement condemning the attack in Jerusalem. “The murder of Jews praying in a synagogue is a crime,” he said. “The injustice of the occupation does not give a right to cause harm to innocent worshipers.”  Later on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the homes of the Abu-Jamal terrorists in East Jerusalem who carried out the attack in Har Nof today.

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Early this morning, four rabbis were murdered in Jerusalem as they gathered for morning prayers.  The attackers left behind bibles and prayer shawls soaked in Jewish blood.  The victims left behind 24 fatherless children. Our prayers are with the victims' families.  

This was a premeditated act of terrorism.  The attackers -- two cousins from East Jerusalem -- entered the synagogue when they knew it would be filled with worshippers and began shooting and hacking while shouting" Allahu Akbar" -- Allah is great.   The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has claimed credit for these murders.  And Palestinians in Gaza have been dancing in the streets and handing out sweets to celebrate the bloodshed.  

MAY THEY REST IN THE PEACE OF HASHEM

According to the terrorists' relatives, they killed the rabbis to protest what Israel is doing on the Temple Mount -- the place where the First and Second Temples stood and which is now the site of two important Muslim mosques.  But what exactly is Israel doing on the Temple Mount other than exercising surprising restraint?  Israel liberated this site -- the holiest site in Judaism -- in 1967.  Yet in deference to Muslim sensibilities Israel has allowed a Muslim Authority -- the Waqf -- to continue governing the Temple Mount.  And in further deference to Muslim demands every Israeli government including the current one has forbidden Jews from praying at the Temple Mount.  Non-Jews are merely allowed to visit in small groups.   

These events should demonstrate an important fact about Israel's conflict with her neighbors: sometimes restraint is not rewarded.  And sometimes, the truth just doesn't matter.  Murderous grievance can flow from complete myth or pure hate.  The Christians being crucified, beheaded and murdered by similar Muslim extremists throughout the middle east have fallen to the same evil.  

Let us pray for the families of these victims.  And let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  And let us insist upon telling the truth as the best way to protest these murderers and their lies.  

It was a palpable sense of shock and revulsion that overtook the nation on Tuesday when the sanctity of a synagogue was violated and Jewish worshipers were struck down in a scene that summoned images of pogroms and Nazi atrocities - images that we thought were part of our past, not our present.  No amount of mea culpas about the "occupation" dehumanizing them or Israel's policies pushing them into a corner where they're forced to lash out can rationalize the depravity of  Palestinian society that not only enables acts like this but then praises them and justifies continued "resistance."

And now, as a result, their lives are going to get a lot harder.  Israel surely knows how to make peace, but it can just as effectively make war – whatever path it needs to take to protect its people.  If the people of Jabel Mukaber  - instead of gathering en masse in a rally of condemnation of the acts of their sons  - react as they did by engaging security forces with rocks and violence,  it's clear that the intifada era is not going to pass quietly. 

Who will be the next young Palestinian driven by the incitement of their political and religious leaders to pick up an axe or a knife and betray their humanity?  That fear has spread throughout Israel - and while it's disconcerting for  us, it's worse news for the Palestinians we share the city with - Palestinians like the cleaning workers, fruit and vegetables pickers, waiters, etc.

They too are young Jerusalem Palestinians with similar backgrounds to the perpetrators of Tuesday's terror.  They are seen every day working in different jobs, exchange pleasantries, just like the worshipers in Har Nof likely did with the two terrorists who reportedly worked in the neighborhood.  It's a sad, unfortunate reality that results in shadowy suspicions like that, but from now on, no excuses will be made.  The quiet holiness of a Har Nof synagogue being shattered by unholy death made sure of that.

When the regular staffers enter your office in the afternoon to empty the trash bin and replace it with a new nylon bag, WE would find ourselves for the first time tensing up and watching their every move out of the corner of our eyes.  An alternative will be simple...do NOT give jobs to palestinians, do not rent them houses nor apartments, take away their citizenship; in other words, Israelis should life impossible for them.  Do not accept them in our schools, in our universities, in our clinics and hospitals, take away their drivers'licenses; in other words, make life impossible for them...so they get the hell out of our nation...THE JEWISH STATE OF ISRAEL.  

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MY VERY OWN P/S.-

REMEMBER THIS PICTURE - THE BELLS TOLL FOR THEE

"THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US MAKES US STRONGER"  ARE THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE AND IN THIS SAD DAY THEY SEEM MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER.  WHILE RECITING THE "AMIDAH" (SILENT PRAYER), THE SILENCE WAS BROKEN BY SHOTS, SCREAMS, PANIC AND DEATH.  AS USUAL, THE "BRAVE" TERRORISTS TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE SANCTITY OF TEMPLE TO DO WHAT THEY DO BEST...DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.  TERROR? MAYBE INITIALLY...BUT THEN FROM FEAR IT CHANGED TO RAGE...BRAVE POLICEMEN CAME TO THE RESCUE, AS WELL AS FIRST RESPONDENTS, WHO UNDER A HAIL OF BULLETS DID THEIR JOB UNDER DURESS AND RISKED THEIR LIVES.

AND I DARE ASK THE WORLD....WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF A JEW WOULD ENTER A MOSQUE.AND SHOOT FOUR IMAMS????  PRACTICALLY THE THIRD WORLD WAR WOULD ERUPT...BUT SINCE THEY ARE ONLY A FEW JEWS...WELL, SOME PEOPLE WOULD SAY...."BIG DEAL."

BUT NOT US...BECAUSE WE TREASURE LIFE WHILE THEM TREASURE DEATH.  THAT WHY I ADDED THE GIF OF A WALKING ISRAELI FLAG CARRIER...BECAUSE THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US MAKES US STRONGER"  ARE THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE AND IN THIS SAD DAY THEY SEEM MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER.

HONOR AND GLORY TO THE DEARLY DEPARTED AND AN SPEEDY RECOVERY TO THE WOUNDED AND TO ALL OF THEIR FAMILIES...MAY THE L-RD GRANTED THEM BLESSINGS TO COPE WITH THIS SAD SITUATION.  IT DOES MAKES US STRONGER, IT DOES UNITE US...BUT ALSO I FEEL A DEEP RAGE AND UTTER HATE TOWARDS OUR ENEMIES...I DO NOT FORGIVE AND I DO NOT FORGET...BECAUSE WHEN WE DO FORGIVE AND/OR FORGET...WE WILL BE DOOMED!

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

 IN OUR PROMISED LAND

AND WITH OUR GLORIOUS TORAH