I wrote one of my first blog posts just after coming home from the azkara, death memorial for Avi (Avraham Yosef Chaim ben Moshe) Siton, HaYa”D, who was murdered by Arab terrorists with two other teenagers in their schoolyard in Itamar, just north of Shiloh.
No doubt I wasn’t the only one who kept thinking of the three other teenage boys who are missing after being kidnapped by Arab terrorists a few days ago. Avi’s father also mentioned them in his moving talk while standing over the grave.
As we stood in the local cemetery, thinking of all of the people, good Jews from all over the world buried there, we couldn’t forget that Avi isn’t the only teenager. Just in the grave next to him, there is his best friend Shmuel Yerushalmi who was murdered in a different terror attack just a few weeks after him. Nearby are Noam Apter, Yonatan Eldar and Avihu Keinan. Harel Bin Nun is buried in Yitzhar near the site of his murder. Yes, add the “HaYa”D” may G-d avenge their blood to all of their names.
Unfortunately, although I’m not sure that the Israeli media is giving this coverage–though I know it’s being ignored by the international media, Arab terrorists have been attacking or attempting to attack throughout this difficult period while the IDF is searching for Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frankel. Arab terrorists attempted to invade Kochav Yaakov, near Sha’ar Binyamin, and there has been shooting at Jewish cars in Gush Etzion.
Please remember that Gush Etzion’s main junction, bus stop and trempiada is the location the boys were at when they were kidnapped by Arab terrorists. Most people in Gush Etzion like to make a point of saying that their area, unlike where I live in the Binyamin Local Council is considered to be “safe” in the political sense, part of the “consensus” that even in a “peace treaty” requiring Israel to give up Land, it will stay Israeli. Unfortunately I think they are delusional. They shouldn’t think that Gush Etzion is any safer in any sense or more Israeli than Gush Shiloh.
Not only do the Arabs see us all as “the same,” but if you read the Arab propaganda both internal and to the outside world you’d see that they are asking for Jerusalem and Haifa, not Efrat and Eli. Think about it please.
