Kidnapped Boys Bodies Found

IDF unit commander [center] holds a map during the search near Hebron [AP Photo]

Three Bodies Found Believed to Be Missing Israelis
-Jodi Rudoren & Isabel Kershner

Israeli searchers found three bodies believed to be those of the missing Israeli teenagers who disappeared more than two weeks ago in the occupied West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called an emergency Cabinet meeting.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the bodies, which were undergoing forensic identification, were found “following extensive searches” in the Palestinian territory.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity moments before the official announcement, said the Army had found the three bodies buried under rocks in an open field between Halhul and Beit Kahil, two Palestinian towns outside Hebron. The families had been notified by the military.

The three appeared to have been shot to death, likely “very close to the kidnap” time, the official said, and the prime suspects had still not been caught.

Israeli television said the bodies had been discovered by volunteers, guides from the Khfar Etzion Field School. The television accounts said they bodies had been partly covered and appeared to have been dumped hurriedly, probably soon after the abduction.

Danny Danon, Israel’s deputy defense minister, issued a statement promising that the government would “not stop until Hamas is completely defeated.”

 “We must ensure that this tragic end be turned into an opportunity to create a better and safer Israel,” Mr. Danon said. “Israelis have the willingness and the fortitude necessary to endure the hardships of a long-lasting operation aimed at eradicating Hamas.”

He called for the demolition of “homes of the terrorists” and destruction of their weapons caches, and urged the international community to halt “all aid to the Palestinian Authority.”

[New York Times]

*

White House's 'Condolences' Will Not Be Enough -Phyllis Chesler, PhD

President Obama expressed his "deepest condolences" to the family of the slain teenagers. He added: “I also urge all parties to refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation.”

President Obama did not accuse Hamas of this despicable act nor did he say our government would assist Israel in its search for security and justice. Obama has once again called for “restraint” and “stability.” Does he mean that Jihadists should refrain from Jihad because it is “de-stabilizing” the entire Middle East or does he mean, more likely, that Israel should “refrain” from defending itself?

White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, also said:  "We obviously condemn in the strongest possible terms violence that takes the lives of innocent civilians." This is a very unsatisfying and peculiar statement. This could apply to anyone anywhere at any time. It’s lack of specificity is cruel and insulting.

[Breitbart]

Only deterance will stop kidnappings -Caroline Glick

Over the past 30 years, Israel has released thousands of terrorists from its prisons in exchange for hostages. Thousands more have been freed as so-called “confidence building measures,” to appease our supposedly moderate Palestinian negotiating partners into sharing a table with their Israeli counterparts.

In every instance, these terrorist releases have led to the murder and abduction of other Israelis.

The clock started ticking down to Naftali, Gil-Ad and Eyal’s abduction on October 19, 2011 when Israel released 1,027 Palestinian terrorists in exchange for IDF Sgt. Gilad Schalit who had been held hostage by Hamas for more than five years.

The countdown also began that day for the murder of Baruch Mizrahi, the police officer who was killed in a roadside shooting in April as he drove to a Passover Seder with his wife and children. Mizrahi’s killer was one of the terrorists released for Schalit.

Since May 1985, when then-prime minister Shimon Peres freed 1,150 terrorists for three IDF soldiers held hostage by Palestinian terror master Ahmed Jibril, Israel’s behavior has consistently encouraged our enemies to take hostages. Through their willingness to release murderers for hostages – and even for hostage bodies – our leaders have told our enemies that they should feel free to steal our children. Their payoff is guaranteed.

To their disgrace, our media consistently behave as advocates and lobbyists for hostage-takers and imprisoned murderers against Israeli society. For instance, in the case of Schalit, the media worked hand-in-glove with the Schalit family and its public relations firm to convince the public that we should think of a soldier as a child, and not as any child, but as our child.

In more than a thousand media reports, profiles, tear-jerker interviews with Schalit’s kindergarten teachers and siblings, we were told that if we are good and moral people, we must prefer Schalit’s freedom to the continued imprisonment of terrorists who constitute a mortal threat to every other child – and parent – in the country.

Public relations agent Tami Shenkman led the campaign for the terrorists’ release. She was the one who put together the sales strategy for convincing us that capitulating to Palestinian extortion is an act of moral courage.

For her efforts the media lavished her with fawning, heroic profiles. And for the media’s efforts, three teenagers are now hostages.

Our media and our politicians have effusively praised Palestinian Authority President and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas for saying a few lines in favor of releasing Eyal, Gil-Ad and Naftali. But with all due respect, Abbas is responsible for their abduction.

For 20 years, Abbas and his colleagues in the PA have indoctrinated the Palestinians to view Jews as human scum and seek our annihilation. This message is communicated in all venues. From nursery through the universities, in the mosques, in summer camps, on television, radio and the Internet, Palestinians of all ages are taught that Jews have no right to live. They are encouraged to murder us and view contributing to our destruction as their highest goal in life.

Hostage taking – a war crime – is presented as one of the highest achievements possible. This is why the overwhelming majority of Palestinians applauds and celebrates the kidnap of the three teens.

For 20 years, the PA has indoctrinated its society in a culture of hatred and violence against Israel and the Jewish People. And the results were as predictable as the tides. Nearly 2,000 Israelis have been murdered in Palestinian terror attacks since the PA was established.

Israel can take action to punish the Palestinians for their unlawful behavior. We can arrest their imams for soliciting murder. We can close their schools and shutter their television stations for the same reason. But we have done none of these things.

We support the US policy of training and organizing a Palestinian army manned by people who have been subjected to this indoctrination for two decades. Our leaders proclaim Abbas is a moderate. And still today we say he’s a good guy. The problem, Netanyahu says, is Abbas has formed a unity government with Hamas. But if he quits that, then we will have no beef with him.

As for our government ministers, and our prime minister, you need to fix the damage you caused.

You knew when you signed the Schalit deal that the ink was the blood of the victims to come. We didn’t know their identities then. But now we do: Baruch Mizrahi, Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrah and Gilad Shaer.

It’s time you understand that after what you did, the only way to change the enemies’ cost-benefit analysis of abductions and other atrocities is for you to change your way of doing business.

This means you have to stop appeasing terrorists and start punishing them. And the punishment needs to be consistent, and painful. Among other things, this means no more money, no more guns and no more legitimacy, not only to Hamas, but to the PA. If you want to do it gradually, you can do it gradually. It means that every time the Palestinian media broadcasts anti-Jewish bile, they lose something of value.

Naftali, Gil-Ad and Eyal are now [dead] because of the deal we signed for Gilad [Shalit].

[W]e must take action remove the targets from the backs of every citizen of Israel. Those targets were placed there by our treacherous media, and by successive governments who preferred the cheap perfume scent of appeasement over the blood, sweat and tears required to secure our freedom and security.
[Jerusalem Post]
*