By Alan Perlman
October 20, 2005
Chein. It is the Hebrew word for Grace. Kineret Mandel had chein. In spades.
Kineret and my daughter, Tali, were the best of friends. This was not only Tali's good fortune, it was ours as well, because it meant that we had the pleasure of Kineret's frequent company in our home. I seek appropriate words to describe Kineret, but each word sounds like a cliche.
Full of joy, with a kind, gentle nature and ever present smile, Kineret was soft spoken and beautiful. She was deeply religious, and had of an unshakeable faith in G-d. She was always upbeat and positive, always the optimist; she loved life and loved people, and you could not help but love her back. Kineret was like sunshine, filling our home with her light at every visit.
Cliches perhaps; but all true. One who did not know Kineret can never know what a joy and delight she was -- how lucky we were to have known her and what a profound loss we now feel.
She came to us for the third meal on Shabbos. It would prove to be the last Shabbos meal of her life. Less than twenty four hours later, Kineret Mandel's life was torn from her by a terrorist's bullet.
Returning to Carmel, Kineret and her newlywed cousin, Matat Rosenfeld-Adler, were waiting at the Gush Etzion junction for a ride home. Waiting there, too, were Carmel resident Aviad Bar Meir, and Oz Ben Meir of neighboring Maon, as well as several others from the Hebron hills. Kineret, Matat, and Oz (may G-d avenge their blood) didn't survive the drive-by shooting. Aviad, thank G-d, is in stable condition.
Outside the Carmel shul, where the funeral procession began, Tali eulogized Kineret. She spoke so lovingly and eloquently, and with such faith and strength. We could only listen and cry. The procession continued to Kineret's resting place on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem, where she and her cousin were buried side by side. Kineret's and Matat's family sat shiva for only an hour before having to get up for the festival of Succos (the Feast of Tabernacles), known also as zeman simchateinu -- the time of our rejoicing. Mourning is forbidden on Jewish festivals.
Our family, and the entire settlement of Carmel, are devastated; how much more so the Mandel, Rosenfeld and Adler families, whose pain I cannot begin to fathom. We weep for Kineret, Matat and Oz, for their families and ourselves at this great, unbearable loss.
And we weep, too, because it could have been, and G-d forbid can yet be, our children who regularly await rides, unprotected like sitting ducks, at that and other junctions. And it is this that so fills us with such anger.
Following the shootings, before we knew the full extent of the attack, we listened as a news commentator stated that despite the checkpoints, sometimes a terrorist gets through. The average Israeli, unaware of the true situation, has no reason to doubt this comment which was further reinforced by coverage of the funeral procession. The day of funeral, a large media presence, and an even larger army and police presence, lined the road from Carmel to Jerusalem, especially around the monument erected at Gush junction, where the funeral cortege stopped to recite Psalms.
Let it be known, and let there be no mistake about it, the enormous checkpoint at the Gush junction, directly in front of these young victims, had been completely vacant and unmanned for months, like so many other checkpoints in Judea and Samaria. The terrorists didn't slip through; they quite simply and openly drove through the unmanned checkpoint, shot the victims, and drove off unimpeded and unhampered to safe haven.
The government quickly decried the murders, and blamed Abu Mazen and the PA for not dismantling terrorist organizations and not collecting weapons. This finger pointing may satisfy most of the country, but it does not satisfy me nor, I think, does it satisfy the settlers. I am no spokesman for the settler community, but I think most of us place the blame squarely at the feet of a government and populace that consider the settlers second class and expendable. If this sounds like polemics, consider the following.
The Arabs announced in advance that they would fire Kassams upon Gush Katif as Israeli soldiers expelled Jews, and they made good on those threats. So when they promised to focus their attacks on the Jews of Judea and Samaria after the expulsion, the government had reason to believe it. Furthermore, Israel has complained about Abbas not cracking down on terrorists and not collecting weapons ever since Abbas replaced Arafat. Now, if the Israeli government knows that fully armed terror organizations, unimpeded by the PA, are targeting the Jews of Judea and Samaria, there is no excuse for the Defense minister, Chief of Staff, and area commander vacating soldiers from the checkpoints. The deliberate and premeditated removal of soldiers from the checkpoints was an open invitation to attack.
Could any other consequence have been imagined? And residents of the area repeatedly told this to the army.
Settlers, more than anyone, know firsthand the army's overwhelming organizational and manpower capability. They experienced it firsthand during the army's total and unparalleled military victory over the residents of Gush Katif, an action expected to take three weeks but which Israeli might accomplished in just six days. Clearly, when the government wants something badly enough, as it did the expulsion, there is virtually no limit to the number of police and soldiers that can be assigned to the task. Had the government cared for settlers' lives as much as it cared for the expulsion, the checkpoints would have been manned and this murderous attack would not have occurred.
The mandate of the Defense minister and the Chief of Staff is simple -- to do all they can to defend Israeli citizens; that is their job, period. They have grossly violated that mandate. In the Israeli private sector, they would be summarily fired. In America, they would be tried and likely found guilty of criminal negligence in a court of law. Blaming the PA terrorist authority, as Israel is trying to do, is like blaming Egypt and Syria for Israel's lack of preparedness during the Yom Kippur war.
If the army had intelligence warnings of an attack against north Tel Aviv, I have no doubt they would have established all necessary roadblocks. And if for some reason the army chose to ignore the warnings, I am sure that following the murder of Tel Aviv Israelis -- the good Israelis -- those derelict in their duties would pay the price. But the country willingly overlooks criminal negligence and dereliction of duty by the army and popular public officials, even if innocents are murdered, when the victims belong to the most marginalized segment of society -- no, not the Arabs; the settlers. Inadvertent Arab deaths are fully investigated, and responsible army personnel are held accountable; not so when settlers die. Justice requires an investigation into the unmanned checkpoints, and accountability from the highest echelons, but we second class settlers harbor no illusions. We long ago gave up expecting justice from our country and countrymen.
No doubt, the army will now man checkpoints -- at least for a few weeks, or perhaps until the country has forgotten Kineret, Matat and Oz. Settlers live an Israeli version of the tragic Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to repeatedly and unsuccessfully roll a stone up the hill. Settlers die and the army implements roadblocks. Then, as the settlers once again begin to feel secure, the army removes the roadblocks until the next settlers die. In another variation, Israel catches terrorists and sentences them to prison, only to release them again and again, so that more settlers die.
But we settlers are a tough lot. We have faith in G-d, and that faith gives us strength that others cannot imagine. And demographics are on our side. Know that one day, a G-d fearing government will rule this country, and when it does, we will demand justice, no matter how delayed. The blood of our children requires no less; and we Jews do not forget.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
