Dr Donniel Hartman, of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, is spot on here in his letter to Our Family on the West Bank.
The Fogels lived in Itamar and were settlers. This, however, does not make it into a settlers’ tragedy, but one for the Jewish family as a whole. Any attempt by one sector to “own” their deaths and consequently inherit political compensation is not only vulgar but a profound mistake. Those who offer “you” a few hundred more houses for the West Bank, or who offer declarations of thousands more, are bearers of empty gifts.
It's bricks and mortar for flesh and blood and it's morally corrupt and repugnent.
And there'a more
Our rabbis in the Midrash, “The Ethics of the Fathers According to Rabbi Natan,” teach us that when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he chose to break the Torah rather than give it to Israel, for at the time the consequences of giving the Torah to people worshiping the Golden Calf would have made all of Israel subject to destruction.
As a family we need to begin to put the family first. Judaism is a way of life for a family, and without the family it will lose its place and foundation. Now is the time for us all to begin to act like Moses. It is time for our political and religious leaders who claim to speak for us to emulate Moses, as well.
We can easily separate from each other, each holding on to their truths and religious and moral certainty, or instead, we can use these few days of grace, a grace created by the blood of the innocent, to open a different chapter and reestablish ourselves as a family that knows not only how to mourn together but to live together.
Here, in Hebrew, Ben-Dror Yemini, who has launched scathing attacks on BDS and the delegitimisation brigade, calls Netanyahu's decision "stupid".
If building more homes in settlements is a consequence of the terror attack, then terror attacks are a consequence of building those homes.
And as Yemini says:
Don't you understand, Mr Netanyahu, that decision is a terror attack on [Israel's] hasbara?
Netanyahu, in his haste to "do something", has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Sometimes it's better just to do nothing.
Indeed, Israel needs to stop worshipping at the altar of the Golden Calf of settlements.