Something Wicked This Way Comes

UPDATES 

9:00 am Israel time, Saturday, October 3 2015

***The daily Palestinian terror report from yesterday . . .

In the wake of the brutal murders of the Henkels by Palestinian terrorists, other Palestinian terrorists also heeded the call of PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and attacked in numerous locations yesterday:

–terrorists threw pipebombs and IEDs at soldiers in Jalazun, at Beit El, and elsewhere.

–terrorists attacked Israelis with “rocks” at Beit Anun, Hebron, Gush Etzion, Migdalim, Beit Ummar, Hawara, the Jerusalem Light Rail (Shuafat), the Tapuach Junction, the Temple Mount, and Har Bracha just to name a few.

In three of the worst attacks of the day, a mother and daugher were wounded by “rocks” near the Tapuach Junction, Palestinian terrorists lit major fires around Yitzhar which threatened to burn into the community, and for the first time in a long time, Palestinian terrorists threw Molotov firebombs in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

***The funeral of Na’ama and Eitam Henkel yesterday morning was attended by thousands of mourners.

Mourners streamed into the cemetery yesterday (photo: 0404 Dov Jacobs).

A number of “dignitaries” were on hand to blather their usual nonsense about “we’re not going to tolerate this”, but the saddest moment of the day came when the Henkels’ 9-year-old son–who watched his parents being murdered–recited the Mourner’s Kaddish.

After everyone had left, a photographer took this particularly poignant picture at the graves:

A solitary mourner despairs over the graves of Na’ama and Eitam.

***The brutal murders of the Henkels and the orphaning of their four children has touched a nerve here in Israel not seen since the slaughter of the Fogel family four and a half years ago.

Protests took place all over Israel yesterday decrying the lack of security in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem. Everyone who lives outside of Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, suddenly, is wondering what has gone wrong. How has an incompetent government allowed this to happen?

Here is a picture from a small protest at the Jerusalem Chord Bridge at the entrance to the city from Highway 1 yesterday:

It is a time for solidarity.

TODAY’S BLOG:

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes . . .

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1

Do you remember this map from yesterday’s blog?

Note

One of the facts that we discussed yesterday was the the inability of the IDF to do anything to protect the Henkel family despite the fact that the attack occurred within 10 km of three different IDF bases.

Actually, it came to light yesterday that the situation was much more egregious than that.

The IDF has an observation post and checkpoint right at the entrance to Elon Moreh. Soldiers in that post have a clear view of the location where the Palestinians shot the Henkels to death.

The IDF observation post and checkpoint at the entrance to Elon Moreh, fewer  than 500 meters from the site of the attack.

So why didn’t the soldiers in the observation point see what was taking place on Road 555 and act to stop it? Because there were no soldiers there–and there haven’t been any soldiers there for the last few months.

In the early summer, the abominable IDF COGAT division decided in its endless kowtowing to international demands and political correctness to abandon the post and checkpoint and open the road to unimpeded Palestinian traffic. According to the IDF, it was more important to facilitate the easy movement of Palestinians up and down Road 555 than to protect the Israeli communities that live along the road. 

To emphasize the point once again, by acquiescing to the demands of the United States, the European Union, and countless left-wing NGOs, the Netanyahu government facilitated the murders of Na’ama and Eitam Henkel.

No one in that government seems to recognize the obvious truism that the more “gestures of peace” we give to the Palestinians, the greater Palestinian violence becomes.

In fact, your humble servant has a bad feeling this morning that we may have reached the point of no return insofar as violence in eastern Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria is concerned.

With the PLO proudly taking responsibility for the Henkel murders, with Hamas in Gaza regularly launching rockets again, with Islamic State growing rapidly in Areas A and B and in Gaza, and with the Netanyahu government completely paralyzed by its adherence to a false notion of “status quo”, an extremely violent time may be upon us.  

How long will it be until a Palestinian homicide bomber strikes?

Your humble servant shudders to think.