A Time To Mourn

These are the dead:






Yohai Lifshitz, 18, of Jerusalem

Yehonatan Yitzhak Alder, 16, of Shilo

Yehonadav Haim Hirshfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar







Neria Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem

Roy Rot, 18, of Elkana

Segev Peniel Avihail, 15, of Neveh Daniel

Avraham David Mozes, 16, of Efrat







Doron Mahareta, 26, of Ashdod







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My child is 17. He could have been at this yeshiva. He could be dead or wounded or maimed, also.

Thank G-d, he isn't. Thank G-d.

I can still look forward to high school graduation, to seeing his life evolve as he gets older. I can hope for grandchildren, for a happy marriage, for a wife who loves him, for a career that satisfies him, for friends to hang out with.

I didn't have to get up this morning and go to his funeral.

We knew, the Husband and Boy and I, that Something Was Happening last night when we heard the sirens. It's not unusual, just off Derech Hebron, to hear an ambulance on this major traffic artery.

It's not usual, however, to hear a fleet of them racing for city center. This was the soundtrack of the Second Intifada that we used to hear from abroad, on CNN, on Fox, on BBC. Now we're hearing it live.

The murderer was an Arab who lived literally around the corner from us. He lived in Jebel Mukaber, a suburb immediately adjacent to Armon HaNatsiv. If I were to walk to the Tayelet, across the promenade towards the UN-occupied Government House, below that ridge is Jebel Mukaber. The Arabs there shop in our local stores, send their children to the high school in Armon HaNatsiv, and say "shalom" to me when we pass on the Promenade. Their children often ask to pet our dog and oftentimes are encouraged to do so by their parents, once we assure them that she doesn't bite.

His family home was demolished this morning. His parents have set up a 'mourning tent' to commemorate their 'martyred' son who was just a bit older than most of his victims. He was 20 years old. He probably knew his victims: he worked at the yeshiva as a driver. His appearance on the grounds of the school would have raised no suspicions since the students knew him.

He was arrested four months ago by "Israeli authorities," although which branch isn't stated in the news. He was then released two months ago. Someone knew he was a terrorist-in-training but he was released anyway.

The current government's policy of placating the Palestinians by releasing the murderers and their terror-oriented aiders and abettors among them from jail has to stop.

We're stunned by sadness. Death isn't anything new in this land beseiged by Arabs intent on genocide, but somehow this kind of attack, the deliberate murder of the young, numbs the brain and hurts the hearts of all of us. Like Sbarro Pizza, where the mass murderer deliberately sought women and children, this carnage in a school library sickens the strongest of us.

But don't mistake that for weakness. That's the great mistake of Arab policy: these attacks only strengthen our resolve because they foreshadow what waits for all of us if we ever get too tired to fight to our right to live in the freedom of our own rule.

We've seen how the "Palestinians" glorify the deaths of mothers and children (Sbarro Pizza) and now the deaths of students in their school library.We see your children dancing for joy at the murders committed in your name.

Olmert may blather on but most of Israel no longer has the patience for Arab-committed mass murder. There will come a moment, and this is perilously close to it, where we, so long condemned by the diatribes of Arab and Left-wing propagandists, decide that we no longer care what anyone thinks, and our very survival demands a One-State Solution -- called Israel.

Remember what Ronald Reagan said when told by his State Department that the United States needed to continue it's long-term policy of 'containment' of the USSR? "I have a better plan," he announced. "Let's win."

It's time, Israel. Let's win.