Culture of terror
Fourteen-year-old Asher Natan was “a gentle and innocent boy that never wished harm on anyone”, according to his school principal.
The teenager, who had his whole life ahead of him, became the youngest of seven murder victims when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire outside a synagogue in Jerusalem last Shabbat.
Rafael Ben Eliyahu (56) was about to welcome a new grandchild. 68-year-old Shaul Hai was on his way to a Torah lesson.
Eli and Natali Mizrahi had been married for only two years and were trying to help other victims when they were shot.
The family of 26-year-old Ilya Sosansky told Israel’s Channel 12 news it was “unimaginable” that he is gone. Ukrainian citizen Irina Korolova should have been safe in Israel as war continues to rage in her home country.
Seven lives tragically snuffed out. They were not combatants. They were going about their lives – praying, studying, working and helping others. Seven families now in mourning, along with the victims’ friends and communities.
They were not killed because of who is right or wrong in a land dispute.
Their cold-blooded murders were motivated by pure hate and a culture of terror that the Palestinian leadership has not only allowed to fester, but encouraged.
Celebrations such as those that occurred in Gaza and parts of the West Bank after the attack do not happen in a vacuum.
Hamas at least makes its malevolent intentions clear to the world. But the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to spread incitement among its population against Jews even as its President Mahmoud Abbas jets around the globe collecting photos with world leaders.
The PA continues to lionise terrorists, naming public squares and children’s sporting tournaments after them, even as its leaders complain in international fora about the being victims of supposed Israeli crimes.
And the PA’s pay-for-slay payments, which the family of Friday’s gunman will benefit from, continue to provide a financial incentive for terrorists to murder innocent Jews.
It’s long past time the global community realises the PA is corrupt both morally and in practice, is the biggest impediment to Israeli-Palestinian peace, and held it to account.
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