A major break in the case of the Itamar murders indicating the Shabak has arrested the individuals it believes perpetrated the crime. The Israeli paper, Inyan Merkazi, published news that the intelligence service yesterday did a “reconstruction” of the crime. When they do this, they generally have the suspects present as they did in this instance. Often, they have confessed to the crime. The Inyan Merkazi article has been removed by the military censor, but I’ve retained a screenshot here which notes that the reconstruction took place and neighbors of the Fogels were asked to leave their homes and return two hours later.
The identity of the suspects hasn’t been released by the Shabak, but non-Israeli sources have reported their arrest without being aware the intelligence service suspected them of being the killers.
Those right-wing sites which are attempting to blame PA security forces and Dayton-trained personnel for the attack are wrong. The policeman I referred to yesterday who was arrested in Talouza was not involved in the Itamar murders. In fact, when news finally breaks about who committed the crime and what the motives were everyone will be quite surprised. They were more commonplace and less political than people currently assume.
This little gem of a comment written three months ago by a sage has more wisdom in it than people realise…
“Looks like we’re not so isolated as we were afraid.”
– Tahl, Ashdod, YNet
I would like all readers to ponder it.
It is bizarre but if the Itamar murderer/s had more prosaic motives than terrorism then it will be a better outcome for the region. It should give lie to those that say that there are no foundations of trust between the various parties in the Holy Land. This in no way, not in a million years, means that the actual acts themselves were not 100% evil.
Prayers for the Fogel Family.
Obviously the court is still out on this, but I don’t think Shabak and the other intelligence services would not be focused completely on solving this case. As the chance for real peace builds so does the possibility of evil. The most dangerous time on the road after a long trip is the last five minutes as you relax and get close to home.
Do NOT reproduce comments of others in these comment threads.
The ten word reference is not in breach of copyright. You are being a little too precious. I’m sure my comments are of value to your readers and that is why I posted them.
P.S. The Israeli and other national authorities are trying to manage a whole variety of geometries at the moment. Justice is one of them.
I didn’t say you violated copyright. You violated my comment rules. Do not quote either your own or comments of others here in these threads if they’ve been published elsewhere. I can’t tell you how many commenters have republished their own comments here after they were published at God knows how many other sites. Comments must be original & to this site.
As for Israeli authorities “managing the geometry of justice,” I have no idea what that means. But the only geometry Israel is managing is the geometry of hasbara & Occupation. Justice has nothing to do with it. There is no justice when it comes to Occupation. You should know this phrase: leyt din, v’leyt dayan.
Update…Sunday, April 17 2011 13 Nisan,5771 2:15 pm Jerusalem Time
It looks like the murderers were indeed terrorists. They have shown no remorse whatsoever for their evil acts. So my previous comment about “more prosaic motives” is incorrect.
You violate your own rules with the comment from Pea later on.
I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. DOn’t speak in riddles.
“commonplace and less political” – well, here’s hoping you’re right! Not that it’s any comfort, those murders were horrific beyond words, regardless of the motives of the perpetrators. But if you know, why be coy?
If you understand what journalists do & that they sometimes share info based on confidential sources, & that this info can’t be published prematurely, then you wouldn’t need to ask the question.
Well thanks for explaining, I really appreciate it. I’m not an expert on journalism at all, sorry if I came off sounding ignorant or snarky.
I wasn’t being coy. That’s all I wanted to say. If I could report what I know believe me, I would. I’m dying to do so, but can’t.
And we’re dying to know. I rushed to the blog early this morning hoping for news. To be honest, I so much hope the scoop is that Palestinians weren’t involved … but I’m afraid that’s not it.
With the hundreds of racist comments after these disgusting murders about “natural Arab barbarism” that would relieve me.
After reading the news, I unfortunately can’t really see what the big secret was or why it is such a surprise.
First time I’ve seen you justify a gag order – hope the news will help blow away some of the racist fallout in Israel.
I certainly didn’t justify a gag order. Someone provided me information and forbade me from publishing it. This wasn’t a government figure or the censor. I had no choice but to comply.
Actually, I think it’s much worse if the murders were criminal rather than political.
Although it seems ever more likely that this wasn’t an act of “terror”, I have a feeling israel won’t let it become non-political. They will probably keep pushing it as proof of arabs being terrorists and killers.
News flash, you’re all full of it. Suspects admitted to nationalistic reasons for their crime and expressed no remorse, and that they would have killed the other children had they known they were there. The only shame is that the scum were caught alive instead of getting what they deserve.
And you’re full of it too because the Shabak itself says the killers knew there were other children in the house.
If the police now believe someone else (that is, OTHER than the entire village of AWARTA, or terrorists from among them) did the murders, it would be nice to have some U-P-R-O-A-R at the various and vicious collective punishment of those people. What happened to them is a bit like GWB going to war with Iraq “because” of 9/11, with which Iraq had nothing to do.
Be good, also, to have some news about how the much-vaunted Israeli security technology broke down so far that the Fogels could be subjected to this terrible attack without the attackers setting off a preliminary a security-alert.
There would be no uproar. The people of israel approve of what’s been done to awarta regardless of who commited the attack.
Also, this revenge pogrom is totally immoral even if someone from awarta is to blame.
Even if it was a quite and reasonable investigation, rather than a brutal assault on a village, it would not be legitimate, since any action taken by the occupier in the occupied land is illegitimate.
I went to awarta yesterday, and I was disgusted by what I heard and saw.
“Also, this revenge pogrom is totally immoral even if someone from Awarta is to blame.”
All of this is so sad and sickening, but what you said there remains true. Thank you for going there. I hope the people there are all right.
It was heartbreaking. They are so helpless, so hopelessly overpowered. But they move on. They are truly stoic.