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Achikam Amichai and David Rubin, z'l (MFA)
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Prayers in Kiryat Arba as the bodies of the two friends are prepared for burial. (Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff December 29, 2007 |
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Saturday night, Cpl. Ahikam Amihai and his boyhood friend Sgt. David Rubin were buried in the Mt. Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
On Friday morning, the two had been hiking in wadi Telem with a female companion when four Palestinian terrorists opened fire on them from a jeep. Amihai and Rubin, who both served in elite commando units, were carrying their rifles and returned fire, killing one of the Palestinian gunmen and seriously wounding another before succumbing to their injuries. Their companion managed to hide and was uninjured, and phoned for help.
The families live in neighboring apartment buildings in Kiryat Arba. Both boys studied at the Mekor Haim high school yeshiva in Kfar Etzion and volunteered for elite IDF units. Ahikam, whose draft was delayed, enlisted about a month ago to the Shaldag commando unit following a year of national service in the Hebrew University's Cave Research Unit in Ofra, in the West Bank. Benia Sarel, a friend, described Ahikam's love for hiking in Israel: "Ahikam knew every spring, every path."
Ahikam was the fifth child of Rabbi Yehuda Amihai and his wife Esther, and a grandson of Rabbi Tzvi Neria, "father of the knitted scullcap generation." Rabbi Yehuda Amihai is head of the Torah and Land Institute, formerly in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip.
"The government is responsible for the murder today," Kiryat Arba council head Tzvi Katsover said Friday following the deaths of two Israeli residents of his city in a shooting attack near neighboring Hebron. "The government frees terrorists, gives them weapons and the results on the ground are clear," Katsover said.
The Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip (YESHA) Council issued a statement calling the shooting attack "a result of the government's reckless policy of releasing terrorists."
According to an Army Radio report, the council demanded that the government disband a ministerial committee currently considering whether to ease the criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners, so more imprisoned terrorists will not be defined as having "blood on their hands" and thus eligible to be released.
"[The government should be reinforcing the security of Israeli citizens, not [strengthening] Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas)," the statement said.
The Hatikva party responded to the murderous attack, saying: "The victims of Annapolis who were gunned down today in Har Hevron died as a direct result of the terrorists' boldness, which increases the more Olmert and Livni court the chairman of the Palestinian terror authority, Abu Mazen."
Terror victim's organization Almagor sent a message to the Israeli cabinet following the attack,
and asked it to return the roadblocks it removed from Judea and Samaria's roads "instead of discussing relaxation of the criteria for releasing terrorists." Besides the urgent need to replace roadblocks, Almagor said, the move "would convey a proper message to the terror groups in the wake of the murder."
MK Uri Ariel (NU/NRP) said that the murders were "additional proof of how the Arab terror raises its head the moment it recognizes weakness and willingness to compromise" on the Israeli side. "The Prime Minister's announcements about releasing terrorists, freezing construction and supervision of tenders in Jerusalem give terror a boost," he said.
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