In a stern and somber televised statement, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
expressed his “deep outrage” Saturday night over the Sabbath eve killing in
Itamar of five members of the same family, and said it was time the Palestinian
Authority ended its “double talk” and stopped inciting terrorism.
“I
demand that the PA stop the incitement, incitement taking place daily in its
schools, mosques, and in the media it controls,” Netanyahu said from the Defense
Ministry in Tel Aviv, where he was holding security consultations. “The time has
come to stop this double talk."
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The PA speaks peace outwardly, but
permits, and sometimes leads, incitement at home. The time has come for it to
stop incitement and begin educating its people for peace.”
Netanyahu said
he was disappointed by the “weak and mumbled” statement regarding the murders
coming from the PA. “This is not the way to condemn terrorism, this is not the
way tofight terrorism,” he said.
Shortly after the statement, according to the
Prime Minister’s Office, PA President Mahmoud Abbas called Netanyahu to express
his condolences.
Netanyahu, according to a statement issued by his
office, told Abbas it was not enough to condemn the violence because it “is
against Palestinian interests” – as the Palestinians have done many times in the
past – but because it is morally unacceptable.
“I expect that you stop
the incitement in the schools, school books and mosques, and educate your
children toward peace, as we do,” Netanyahu said. “The murder of children in
their sleep is murder for the sake of murder.”
Abbas, according to
Palestinian sources, expressed his rejection and condemnation of all acts of
violence that are directed against civilians, regardless of their sources or
reasons.
He also said that violence would only breed more violence, and
that what was required was to quickly find a just and comprehensive solution to
the conflict During his televised statement Netanyahu also called for a strong,
clear unequivocal condemnation of the murders from the international community.
He said he noticed “several countries that always hasten to the UN Security
Council in order to condemn Israel, the state of the Jews, because it planned a
house somewhere, or laid a tile somewhere,” but tarried when it came to issuing
a “strong condemnation of the murder of Jewish babies.”
“I expect from
them that they issue this condemnation immediately, without balance, without
understanding, without justification,” the prime minister said. “There is no
justification, no excuse and no forgiveness for the murder of
babies.”
Netanyahu, who said that the country was “supporting and
embracing” both the relatives of the victims and “our brothers, the residents of
Judea and Samaria,” called on everyone in the country to act with “restraint and
responsibly,” and not take the law into their own hands. Taking the law into
one’s hands, he said, leads to a situation where “there is no law. The IDF and
the security forces, and only them, will carry out their
responsibilities.”
Netanyahu, who said that the Jews of Judea and Samaria
should “not let their spirits falter,” stated that the country’s national
interests – “first and foremost security” – would determine the settlement
map.
“Terrorism will not determine the settlement map; we will,” he
said.
Netanyahu spoke Saturday evening with the dead children’s
grandfather and promised to do everything possible to help during this
period.
“I intend to follow this personally,” the prime
minister.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, meanwhile, directed
Israel’s ambassador to the UN to file a protest with the UN secretary-general
and with the president of the security council.
He also directed the
country’s delegations abroad to stress that the attack had been a direct result
of “wild incitement” against the settlements and settlers, and their
deligitimization.
UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon issued a statement
condemning the attack.
While the country has suffered innumerable
terrorist attacks, this was one of the few times that the prime minister came
out with a televised statement, something that sources in his office said was
due to the “particularly egregious nature” of the attack, which triggered
condemnations from a number of countries.
“We condemn in the strongest
possible terms the murder of five Israelis in a terrorist attack in the northern
West Bank, and we offer our condolences to their loved ones and to the Israeli
people,” the White House said in a statement. “There is no possible
justification for the killing of parents and children in their home.”
The
statement called on the PA to “unequivocally condemn this terrorist attack and
for the perpetrators of this heinous crime to be held
accountable.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the “friends
and relatives of the family killed in Itamar have my deepest sympathies,” and
that “this was an act of incomprehensible cruelty and brutality which I utterly
condemn.”
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle condemned the “cruel
and heinous” slayings, saying “nothing can justify such attacks.” France’s new
foreign minister, Alain Juppe, condemned the attack and said France “condemns
all acts of violence in the occupied territories and calls for maximum restraint
in order to prevent deterioration in the situation.”
Quartet
representative Tony Blair said “this brutal and appalling murder is shocking and
deplorable,” and sent his “deepest condolences and sympathy to those remaining
members of the family and to the community.”
Inside Israel, President
Shimon Peres characterized the killings as “one of the most difficult and
despicable events we have seen.”
The attack, he said, “indicates a loss
of humanity. There is no religion in the world or any faith that allows these
kinds of horrible acts. There are no words of consolation in the face of this
devastation. Our hearts are with the orphans and with the community of Itamar
during this extremely difficult time.”
National Infrastructures Minister
Uzi Landau, meanwhile, said that guilt for the murders rested with Abbas, who is
responsible for an educational system that educates toward “hatred of Jews and
toward a culture of murder and terror.”
Public Diplomacy and Diaspora
Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said the attacks showed “that there is no
partner on the other side.
While our children are slaughtered in their
beds and Gazans celebrate the criminal butchery by handing out candy and
cheering shouts of joy, I ask the international community: With whom do you
expect us to talk about peace?” Opposition head Tzipi Livni (Kadima) issued a
statement saying the entire nation was united in sympathy for the family and
supported the IDF actions against terrorism.
Likud MK Danny Danon blamed
the attack on Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s “lax security policies in Judea and
Samaria,” saying the “irresponsible removal of checkpoints and the abdication of
our security needs to the Palestinian Authority has led to a situation where an
innocent family was brutally slaughtered in their own home. Barak should be
concentrating on protecting the citizens of Israel and not pressuring Prime
Minister Netanyahu into ill-advised ‘peace’ plans.”
On the other end of
the political spectrum, Labor MK Isaac Herzog said the attack was meant to
“prevent diplomatic progress” but that it should not serve as an “excuse by the
prime minister for not presenting a diplomatic plan” while waging an
uncompromising war on terror.
The United Arab List-Ta’al’s Taleb a-Sanaa
condemned the attack as an “atrocity” and said its perpetrators were “criminals
who don’t represent the values of the Palestinian people or Islam.” Meretz’s
Nitzan Horowitz said that terrorism “undermines the deep interest of both
peoples in peace and security.
Both sides need to do everything to
prevent violence and renew the diplomatic process.”
Khaled Abu Toameh
contributed to this report.