Israel Matzav

Liveblog of Fogel family funeral

I have decided not to attend the Fogel family funeral. It is going to be broadcast on Israel Radio Channel 2 and Israel Television Channel 1. I will be liveblogging right here beginning at 1:30 pm Israel time (7:30 am US Eastern daylight time).

I have received the following notice from David HaIvri, the spokesman of the Shomron (Samaria) Council:

At 1:30 PM eulogies will be said at the main center of Givat Shaul - Jerusalem.

Speakers:

Deputy Prime Minister MK Moshe Yalon

Knesset Chair MK Reuven Rivlin

Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv - Yafo Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau

Former Chief Rabbi of IDF Rabbi Avi Ronsky

Representative of the Fogel family

Representative of Ben Yishai family (of Ruth)

Shomron Regional Council Head Gershon Mesika

Israel Radio interviewed a neighbor named Roy Mendelevich, who said that when they entered the house, they found a 2.5 year old whose pajamas were covered with blood. He had tried to 'awaken' his father, who was already dead.... May God have mercy....

Please check back at this spot beginning at 1:30 pm Israel time, 7:30 AM US Eastern daylight time.

UPDATE 1:44 PM

The funeral has not started yet.

For those wondering the eldest daughter, who is 12, is apparently attending the funeral. The other children who survived are probably not going to be there.

UPDATE 1:54 PM

The funeral is starting now. I believe that I heard them say that all three surviving children are there. You can hear the crying over the radio. Horrible....

UPDATE 1:58 PM

First speaker is Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi and current Rabbi of Tel Aviv. Rabbi Lau is a Holocaust survivor, who arrived here as a 7-year old child with his older brother who also survived.

He compares our current situation to the friends of Eyov (Job). For seven days they could say nothing because the pain was so great. You feel pain, anger and the inability to do anything. We thought that 66 years ago the days of babies being murdered had ended. We have established a state, but we are in the same situation we were 66 years ago.

Several years ago, he saw the five biers of the Schijveschuuder family, and he goes on to name several other families which lost multiple members all at once to terror attacks.

And yet the friends of the family are the people who don't need to hear from us. They will not be stopped. Their faith will not be lessened. As Ezekiel said, "you will live with your blood."

On the evening of the Torah portion where we talk about sacrifices that are totally for God, that's the night they were murdered. They were in Gush Katif and they left and came to Itamar, where Udi was a rabbi in the yeshiva, and five members of the family were wiped out.

Rabbi Lau turns to the children and calls on the eldest daughter to be the mother to the two younger remaining surviving children, and promises that Rabbeinu HaKadosh (the Holy Rabbi Yehuda who wrote down the Mishna) will intervene on their behalf.

(I'm sorry - I'm crying. It's very hard to type this).

UPDATE 2:06 PM

A Rabbi from Itamar (I did not catch the name). Not one of the people listed above.

People who are capable of slaughtering an entire family after they returned from synagogue with the two angels of the Sabbath. They went to rest and the destructive angels came in. When you enter the house and see the 2.5 year-old Yishai trying to awaken his father.....

Rabbi AY Kook said that those who are killed without a judgment atone for the rest of the generation.

With whom is there to speak about peace?

If the incense is in a vessel, all of the incense is impure if someone impure touches the vessel. One spoon unites all of us. The land of Israel is the spoon that unites us all and those who hurt one family have hurt all of us.

Judea shall always be settled and God will avenge the blood of martyrs. What's the connection? Itamar should not be a village but a city in response to these murders. Another neighborhood. More construction. That's the answer. God will take care of the revenge.

UPDATE 2:13 PM

I think they just said 30,000 people are there.

Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin:

How did a house of self-sacrifice become a slaughterhouse?

They lived in Netzarim and when they had to leave there, they did not become depressed and they moved to Itamar and built a new home and led as pioneers.

Despite all the difficulties you continued to believe. Lately there are those among us who question our rights to the land. If we cannot explain to ourselves why we are here, how will we explain to the nations of the world? They are trying to use the same methods they used in 1929. For the enemy there is no green line - no difference between 1948 and 1967, between Itamar and Beit Hagai and Haifa and Tel Aviv.

We will continue to build with your blood in Itamar, Beit Hagai, Hebron and Jerusalem. Building in Israel is not an answer to terror - it's our right.

UPDATE 2:19 PM

Moshe "Boogie" Yaalon:

What did the murderers think when they saw the children? He quotes Haim Nahman Bialik writing about the pogrom in Kishinev.

The Arab children are raised on a lie that we have no right to Israel and so they murder us and the 'Palestinian Authority' pays them a salary when they are caught and jailed. Against the education for love of the land and the Torah, our neighbors educate to murder a four-month old child. Any agreement we sign will not be worth the paper on which it is written and it will be violated to allow the murder of Jews.

But foreign governments are in partnership with the 'Palestinians' and this helps the murderers to act. But I hope that these murders will awaken those among us who are naive to see that this struggle is about our very existence. Therefore we can't just talk about security arrangements. The key is the Jews' right to their land, a right we have never given up.

We must raise ourselves out of the remains and find the strength to stand up to the international attacks against us. We must continue to build while holding the sword. And as the torture us, so we shall develop (a play on words from Exodus 1). These murderers will not cause us to change our values - these are the Fogels' values.

The 6th IDF Chief of Staff lost his parents and three siblings in Hebron in 1929. He and two of his siblings were saved. We will continue.

He speaks to the family. There is nothing that can be said to them. Tamar is left as the eldest person in the family. She saved the younger children and she must help her grandparents to raise those who are left.

The government will find the murderers. But the murderers will not weaken the family.

UPDATE 2:28 PM

Gershon Mesika (see above).

This is a national day of mourning.

In the Torah portion, the rabbis say that God wants sacrifices to come from among us and these families sacrificed their dearest thing.

These murders cannot be forgiven. Barak cannot say that he had no hand in these murders because he opened the roadblocks to satisfy the 'Palestinians,' reduced forces, prevented trees used for hiding from being uprooted. What brought these murders is the talking about a crazy withdrawal that could not be.

We must continue to plant and expand in Judea and Samaria. We have not lost our way. We are strengthened by belief in the redemption of Israel.

And you Mr. Prime Minister, as a member of a family who has lost a member, I call on you to come to Itamar and hug the residents and announce the establishment of five new neighborhoods named after these five holy sacrifices.

UPDATE 2:32 PM

Rabbi Avi Ronsky, a resident of Itamar and former chief rabbi of the IDF.

We came to settle on government lands in the Land of Israel. We are simple people who work the ground, engage in education and raise children and we will continue to do so.

Udi would have run away from here if he were alive. On the eve of the Sabbath, you sat with Yoav on your lap. I remember Yoav's eyes. Yoav's eyes stared at me as we discussed the secret of sacrifices, something humans cannot understand. It's something inside that connects us all, and Yoav's eyes stared at me and I cannot forget that stare.

Three hours later, I was awakened from my Sabbath sleep by the ringing of my cellphone and I heard screams. We have had many terror attacks - 15 others killed before these five, and I immediately understood what happened and ran to your house. At the entrance to the house, on the door, there was a yellow paper stuck on the door that said in handwriting Mazal Tov on the birth of your daughter. I didn't know what I would find there a few seconds later.

I entered the house and saw Udi flung across the bed. Udi who listened to the Torah words earlier was lying across the bed. The baby was next to him. And I said the words of Ezekiel that we will soon say in the Hagaddah of Pesach, you will live by your blood (b'damayech chayi).

And then I found Yoav. I have seen many difficult things in my life. I've seen soldiers who had crashed and had been killed in wars. But a family... children... babies....

Udi, I asked you to be responsible for the yeshiva's preparations for Purim, and this morning we awoke to a difficult week and Udi wasn't there. (Rabbi Ronsky is crying...). I wanted to hear what you have prepared for Purim and to talk to you about how we can have Purim in such a difficult week, but it's impossible. Our joy doesn't come from costumes and noisemakers but from the Torah that you studied. You had so many students....

Last night hundreds of the yeshiva's students and graduates came to the dining room and sat and sang. Everyone came to you. But....

Ruti Ben Yishai grew up in Elon Moreh and we have known her for five years since she came to the village. We got together with the youth in the village several times, and they talked about your kindness and your concern for everyone.

A week of preparations for Purim. We will manage it for sure. Your simplicity - no simplicity - not extremism like they try to pin on us. We work the land, educate and raise children. Lots of children. No one will break us.

After every attack there are more families and more children, and that will happen this time too. But please continue to expand so that we will be able to bring all the many families who want to move to our village

The Fogel family. Udi's parents. Among the founders of the Land of Israel. They live in Neve Tsuf. I remember when you helped establish our village.

Udi, in your merit there will be many yeshivas and towns that will be established. May the entire family's memory be blessed.

UPDATE 2:47 PM

Rabbi Ben Yishai - Ruti Fogel's father.

Pure souls.... Udi....

Ruti was born on the Sabbath and was taken on the Sabbath. Yoav was a scholar who finished orders of Mishna. Elad, you had so much life in you and you are taking it with you. Hadas was so cute and pretty, and attached to her mother.

The Nation of Israel: We have brought five sacrifices. Perfect sacrifices to God. Let the pure come and take care of the pure. Nation of Israel: Stand on your feet. Prime Minister: Come and bury them. God: Please bring an end to our suffering.

We must continue to build to bring the redemption. They went ahead of everyone, as usual pioneers who lead all of us. We will not leave you for you will visit us as angels. You passed the test - you gave us Tamar, Ro'i and Yishai who will stay with us. God, you know whom you took. What songs they are singing.

[Massive crying in the background].

Ruti's brother:

Yoav learned three orders of Mishna (sorry - I missed a bit here because I was looking for something...).

After the Sabbath, my son came and said that my wife said I should come home quickly and she told me about the deaths of Ruti and her family. My son is only 5-years old and he understood everything.

We are sacrificing five pure sacrifices. Today is the date of the death of Moses our leader. Ruti and Udi were always connected to Torah and good deeds.

Ruti is crying from Heaven for her three remaining children.

Another brother of Ruti Fogel:

He asks forgiveness for not being able to receive all of them.

A month ago we asked what the difference is between God's morality and people's morality and only God's morality and things that come from holiness and God are correct.

Our family was recently involved in something we didn't understand: Udi and Ruti and my brother planted a holy olive orchard in the land of Israel and the family that you thought had it the hardest in terms of time and money were the first to go ahead. We also ran but if only we had seen it as clearly as they did. Udi is delicate and for Ruti everything was clear.

UPDATE 3:07 PM

Udi Fogel's brother.

It's difficult for me to listen to the radio and it's difficult to see all these people here. I would get rid of them and talk to you privately about all these slogans, none of which will bring you back. A person is born to his parents and brothers and dies for his children and unfortunately sometimes for his parents and brothers.

You're not just a symbol - for anything. You slept next to me for years, and my whole life is with you. I never told you how jealous of you I was. I was jealous of your smile that always got you out of trouble. We grew apart and in the last year we came closer together and I am glad that we did. I will miss you.

UPDATE 3:10 PM

Udi Fogel's mother.

Your 4th grade teacher told me happy is the woman who gave birth to you and he was right. Your children were so wonderful. You were the most righteous. But to us you were mostly a child and that's what we're crying about. We will try to be strong and to strengthen the children. You are sacrifices of war who were murdered in cold blood, but you are not the first.

When will the nation rise up and answer? God will avenge the spilled blood.

They just said that the entire parking lot of the cemetery is full (it's a huge parking lot). They are now starting the procession. I guess Udi's father could not speak.

UPDATE 3:14 PM

In the background we heard the Chevra Kadisha burial society and the Kaddish. That's the end of the program.

I hope never to have to cover a funeral like this again. But unfortunately, our reality is that there will probably be more. Who is next in line and who is in the next line? God forbid we should find out.

Labels: Fogel family massacre, Itamar, Palestinian terror

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:12 PM