Tamar Fogel talks about her parents HY"D (May God Avenge their blood)
I am sure that many of you remember Tamar Fogel, whose parents and three siblings HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) were murdered in Itamar two and a half years ago. Tamar is now 14. This article by Tamar was published in Yedioth about two weeks ago (in Hebrew).
My mom and I were really good friends. I am the oldest child, and until Hadas was born I was also the only daughter.
All of my friends had problems with their parents, and I was the only
one who was different. Eema and I would go walking every evening and I
would tell Eema things about myself. One evening we went out on a walk;
it was winter and very cold. I had two friends and we were sort of a
trio together, but at one point we had started to fight. Eema told me,
“Friendships never work as trios.” It started to rain and we ran
together. We got home soaking wet and laughing.
My parents were a special couple. There was a strong love between
them that a child could simply see and feel. My mother was fire and my
father was water, and they both had a presence that influenced you even
without many words…
They real loved when we would get wild all together, and that’s how
our Friday night tradition got started. Every Shabbat, already in the
middle of the meal, the little kids would go to the room, and they would
take blankets and pillows out to the living room and start to get
wild, until everyone would fall asleep in the living room.
On Friday night there was a terror attack. My brothers were sleeping
in the living room when two terrorists came into our home. When I came
home already nothing was as it had been before. My Abba and Eema were
murdered with three of my younger siblings, and since then I have a
hundredth of a second of an image that I will never be able to forget.
For those of you who still question where Glenn Beck's true sympathies lie (I see you in the comments all the time), please consider this: The Knesset's Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee has asked Beck to come to Israel to testify about delegitimization.
Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee chair MK Danny Danon (Labor) invited Beck, a Fox News and radio host and an outspoken supporter of Israel, to address the committee on how to recruit friends of Israel in the US to defend Israel’s right to exist.
“When we face an international wave of hatred of Israel and Jews – which is expressed in Facebook pages and films calling for our destruction – it’s good that Israel has talented friends that can contribute to our public-relations efforts,” Danon said.
The Labor MK added that the July 11 committee meeting with Beck will focus on September’s UN General Assembly, where the Palestinian Authority has said it will unilaterally declare statehood.
“September isn’t just a crisis,” Danon explained. “It’s an opportunity to explain to the world that we are not occupying anything.”
MK Nachman Shai (Kadima) criticized Danon’s “impressive use of his committee for his own political needs.
“Danon is deviating from his mandate [as chairman of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee] in a way that I think is problematic,” Shai, a former Army Radio commander and Israel Broadcasting Authority chairman, said.
“The Diaspora is something specific. It means Jewish communities, not ‘abroad’ in general,” he added. “The Immigration Committee shouldn’t be discussing hasbara.
“I wouldn’t say no to Beck, I would be happy to host him,” Shai added, “but I don’t understand what he’s doing in the Knesset Immigration Committee."
Fox News television personality Glenn Beck, visiting Israel in honor of Independence Day, was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Beck was also expected to meet with Likud MK Danny Danon.
"Glenn Beck has proven himself to be a true friend of Israel who is willing to speak out when so many are often silent," said Danon. "It is a real honor to accompany Glenn on his Independence Day visit to the foundation stone of our people."
It's great that he's in Israel. But I'll be even more impressed if Glenn Back takes the time to meet with Tamar Fogel.
We have never met, nor are we likely to. I am not a Jew nor an Israeli, though for many years I have defended both Jews and Israelis from the physical and political attacks that are made on them. I live in England, though I'm Irish. The Irish used to be great enemies of the English, who did bad things to us, but who gave us their language, something in which we excel. But many years ago, long before you were born, the enmity between the Irish and the English faded. We are not the same people, but we no longer hate each other, and the English Queen will soon make her first visit to Ireland, in a gesture that the past is past, that we are now allies, not enemies.
The most important for you is to be sure that the only guilty parties were the terrorists who carried out the slaughter. And I need not tell you that these were not the first Palestinian terrorists to take out their hate, their resentment, and their jealousy on helpless Jews living on Jewish land.
I have watched you in two videos, the first time when Binyamin Netanyahu came to visit you and your grandparents, and I still remember the force with which you challenged him, such an important man and such a young girl. And after that your tears. It seemed to me then, and it seems to me now that the dead are at peace, and your two living brothers may grow up with less dark memories, but that you above all are old enough and aware enough to carry the most terrible memories through the rest of your life. But I also saw a second video in which you spoke to a reporter from Israeli National Television, and here your tears gave way to a most articulate, awesomely mature, and moving assertion of your right to live in Samaria. I wish every Palestinian could watch that video with an Arabic voice-over. Perhaps there and then they might see that their fight against Israel is worthless, that you will never surrender, that you will not let yourselves be led to the slaughter as happened all those years ago. Rabbi Chaim Potok once wrote that there are no more gentle Jews. He did not mean that Jews are no longer kind or good, but that they now know how to fight back. Kol Hakavod for every word you spoke.
You will grow up among strong people, and you will finally marry and have children of your own. That may seem far off to you, but to someone much older like myself, it will happen in no time at all. When that happens, and when your two brothers find wives and have children, there will soon be more Fogels than before. They cannot substitute for the dead, but they can stand up and speak for them down the long years to come. Your life, however much you may wish it otherwise, will be overshadowed by the terrible event that has fallen on you. You will ask questions and you may find answers. After the Shoah, many rabbis tackled the question of hester panim, asking why HaShem had seemed to turn his face away from his people. I am not a Jew, and I cannot provide easy answers to those questions. You must seek your own answers from your rabbis and in your scriptures. One answer may be found in a short sound recording that was made in Belsen shortly after its liberation by British forces. It was made by the BBC and contains at the end description of a Shabbat service held by a British rabbi, at the end of which the survivors stand and sing HaTikva. They are weak, they are out of tune, some of them will still die: but they are singing in open defiance of the very great Nazi evil that had overwhelmed them and their families. Three years after that, the state of Israel was established.
I'm writing, first because I'm a writer and that's how I express my feelings best. But also because I want to convey just how many people's thoughts are with you. You have your grandparents and aunts or uncles, and after that you have your small and concerned community of I'timar, but beyond that you have a world of people, Jews and non-Jews, who stand with you in your grief. We feel helpless, not knowing what we can or should do to help, yet longing to do so. How many people can say they truly love the murderers who came to your house that night? Some may hand out candies and dance in the streets, but how meaningful is that? They love themselves and their own dreams of glory, but who can truly love men of blood, people who kill infants in their cradles?
For you the greatest problem of the next few years may be this: you are still a child and you deserve to be reading funny books and watching films and playing games and going to your youth club; but many will treat you as an adult before you are entirely ready for adult responsibilities. You do seem older than your years, but you should not be rushed into adulthood. I am sure your grandparents and others will understand this and will do their best to protect you from those who want to take your childhood away from you.
Enough of the advice! Everyone likes to give advice. You don't have to listen to any of it, and advice isn't really the reason I've written. You are in my thoughts and in the thoughts of millions of other people because the murder of your family has gone so deeply into so many people's hearts. The list of atrocities carried out on Jews, not just in Israel but beyond, is very long. As a result, it's easy to let them all blur together into one mass. But every so often one death or a group of deaths stands out and demands special attention. One day there will be a memorial to the sacrifice your family made. People from far away may come to visit it. Photographs of it will appear in the press. But the true memorial will be you, an ordinary girl, with a torn heart and a wounded soul, going to school, going to shul, making friends, baking bread, sewing, cooking, reading, blushing when a certain young man comes to speak to you, going to Kever Yosef to marry him, giving birth to your first child. I just mean to say that no-one expects from you heroic deeds, no-one wants you to have to shoulder resistance to all the evils you know better than most. It is your ordinary deeds, the day-to-day living of an ordinary life that are for the creators of horror the most painful thing of all, that Jews will continue to live on land sanctified by Jewish blood. At the end of that recording made in Belsen, someone calls out 'Am Yisrael Chai'. By living, the killers only bring eternal disgrace on themselves, their families, and everyone who shelters them. By living, you make clear to everyone that the People of Israel live, that their light will not be snuffed out, and that when your enemies have gone to dust and seen a darkness beyond measure engulf them, the light of the Jews will illuminate the nations. Grow and be happy and tell us what you see on your journey.
Interview with Tamar Fogel now explained in English
Some of you may recall the interview with 12-year old Tamar Fogel, whose parents and three siblings were murdered in the massacre at Itamar ten days ago. I am going to re-embed the interview, because I now have an English translation to go with it.
Let's go to the videotape.
And here is the English explanation by Aaron Lerner (Hat Tip: Steve B).
Introduction: In this brief video [in Hebrew] the amazing 12 year-old and newly-orphaned Tamar Fogel first speaks of the ideals that her parents, Ruth and Udi Fogel HY"D lived and died for. She speaks of the strength of Am Yisrael that lies in its unity. Tamar says her parents believed that there is room for all kinds of Jewish expression, but the main thing is that all Jews must be united -- that there should not be strife between brothers, nor should brothers lift a hand to each other -- only unity! Fogel, we are told, does not talk about herself or about the tragedy that struck her family, left her and 2 brothers orphans, their parents and 3 siblings brutally slaughtered, and their home turned into a devastated terrorist attack site. She does tell the interviewer about the cuddly bear she received from Jonathan Pollard who sent bears to her and her siblings via his wife Esther during a shiva call. Esther Pollard told Tamar that these may look like bears, but they are really hugs that Jonathan is sending to you. Fogel introduces each of the 3 bears to the interviewer and explains which one belongs to each of the siblings and how you can tell them apart by the different bows they are wearing. In every interview that Fogel does, this one included, she makes a principled call for Jonathan's release. (Amazing!) She later goes on to speak about the promises made by senior Israeli politicians, including the prime minister, who indicated to her that the response to her parents'and siblings murderers would be to build and settle the Land. Tamar makes short shrift of all of these fine promises when she points out that the reality is that the government of Israel is far more involved with destroying and evacuating Jewish settlements than with building them. The balance of the video deals with the funeral and shiva for the 5 Fogel family members who were brutally slaughtered by Palestinian terrorists. Although the video is in Hebrew any one who has read this introduction will follow it, and will certainly be amazed by the poise and grace of this lovely young lady who speaks from the heart, cogently and compellingly, in the midst of the most unspeakable grief.
Tamar Fogel, who found her parents and three siblings murdered by 'Palestinian' terrorists last Friday night, speaks to Israel's Channel 2. The strength of this 12-year old child is nothing short of amazing. Sorry, Hebrew only. The interview was shown on Thursday night.
In the above short video-clip, you will see the 12 year old survivor of the recent Itamar massacre, in which 5 members of a single family lost their lives to Muslim attackers. The child in the video-clip is the oldest daughter, age 12, of the slain family. A few days before this video was taken, her toddler brother Elad- 3 years old, was stabbed in the heart by the jihadis; her infant sister, 3 months of age, was slashed in the throat. Both parents were also killed as well as an eleven year old boy, Yoav .
An emergency condolence visit to the grandparents and child-survivors was paid by Mr. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and can be seen in the youtube.. Even those of us who do not speak any Hebrew can catch the word "America" in the only sentence uttered by the tearful child, in Prime Minister Netanyahu's presence: "Ma yikreh im taaseh mashehu, az America taaseh lecha mashehu!?" (What will happen if you do anything, America will get at you!?). In other words, this child has concluded that Obama's America would not permit her prime-minister to "do anything" -- such as doing what would have been needed to protect her, or do what is needed in future to protect other children and babies from similar barbarism.
The question isn't whether Tamar's statements can be dismissed. The question is why Israel's Prime Minister feels obligated to prostrate himself before a Jew-hating American President and Secretary of State, and for how much longer Israel's Prime Minister will continue to behave in this obsequious fashion.
Israel was a sovereign country the last time I checked. But unless we start acting like one, we may not be one much longer.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
