His family massacred by terrorists

WorldNetDaily ^ | 5/21/04 | Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

[wagglebee]

What does one say to a man whose entire family has just been wiped out by terrorists? That was the dilemma that confronted me this week when I visited the Gush Katif settlement block in Gaza, and met David Hatuel, whose pregnant wife Tali and four young daughters were killed two weeks ago by terrorists who shot them at point-blank range in an outrage that shocked the world.

I asked him if he felt hatred toward Arab terrorists who could do such a thing. He responded that he was not interested in blame, had barely examined press reports as to the murderers' identity, and harbored in his heart absolutely no desire for revenge. Rather, his sole wish was that no family be forced to suffer a similar tragedy. He had asked Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli defense minister who paid him a condolence call, to finally provide security along the entrance road to Gush Katif where scores of innocent civilians have been murdered over the years.

I then asked David, who is a devoutly religious man, if he hated God for allowing such an unspeakable calamity to occur. He answered:

My non-religious friends asked me how I am even alive right now. They told me that if it were them, they would have put a bullet through their heads. But I am only able to cope because of God. Rather than focus on the horror of how my family was taken from me, I am focusing instead on the 12 beautiful years God gave me with my beloved wife and daughters. Some people don't even get that. We always had the most wonderful time together. I just have to believe that God has a plan as to why the time was cut short.

Throughout our conversation, David displayed a serenity and composure that belied the unhealable wound that would forever afflict him, and I walked away feeling I had met an angelic man of towering strength and moral courage.

After the horrors of the Hatuel family massacre, it is time that world openly confront the growing crisis in Islam. Centuries ago, Islam produced the most advanced and tolerant civilization of its time. But in our own time, Islam is tragically devolving into a religion more famous for hatred than love, more renowned for murder than healing.

Religion's first calling is to bring out the Godly qualities in man, but Islam seems to be bringing out the beast in many of its believers. Every human being is created in the image of God, but a disproportionately high number of Muslims are erasing that image by the brutality of their actions.

A once-glorious religion that inspired the world's first universities now inspires Nick Berg's killers to scream "Alahu Akbar" while sawing off his head. A once-great civilization that created humane and just rulers like Sultan Saladin today motivates cold-blooded killers to shoot pregnant women's bellies. A religion that once produced the world's greatest philosophers is today producing too high a number of the world's most savage killers.

Religion is a civilizing agent. Yet Islam – which at its core is a humane faith that once civilized nomadic tribes – is today inspiring a level of cruelty which is anything but civilized. And to cap off the tragedy, Islamic leaders continue to disgrace their illustrious faith by mostly remaining silent in this face of Islamic barbarity.

Every religion says it has divine truth and the only way to verify the veracity of its claims is to leave aside the dogma and focus instead on the kind of people the religion produces. Islam is in crisis because it is producing monsters like Osama bin Laden rather than saints David Hatuel. This father of four murdered children is a perfect example of the power of religion to mold greatness in people.

Even after experiencing an injustice of Biblical proportions, David is interested not in revenge but in kindness to strangers. Judaism civilized David Hatuel while Islam radicalized his children's murderers. Had this catastrophe have befallen an Arab family, I fear they and their neighbors would now be screaming on television that the children's deaths must be answered for with Jewish blood.

And here you have the most compelling reason that Israel dare never leave the Gaza strip. Simply stated, Israel has civilized a part of the world that was once barren, belligerent and broke. Most people are under the impression that the Gaza settlers are a collection of stubborn religious radicals who inhabit two broken-down trailers that need to be protected by hundreds of reluctant soldiers. I harbored some of that same misconception until I drove past the spot where Tali Hatuel was murdered and into an Eden of green fields and colorful children's playgrounds.

The brave and humane settlers in Gaza have created a vast desert paradise, home to nearly 10,000 people, which today exports many tons of the highest quality produce to Europe. Giant sand dunes were converted into lush acreage of magnificent crops. Centers of higher education are teeming with eager students and schools are bursting with smiling children. Gush Katif is a joyous land filled with pious people and material plenty. Indeed, the only thing I saw that was in short supply was fear.

I could not help but contrast this image with what the misfortune I witnessed upon an earlier visit Gaza two years prior. On that occasion, I escorted the Rev. Al Sharpton, who I had brought to Israel on a solidarity mission, but who decided that Arafat must visited as well. We drove through Gaza City to Arafat's headquarters. I waited downstairs while the two had lunch, so as not to legitimize a terrorist.

Even so, Arafat's staff were very friendly and did much to make me feel comfortable. And I pitied them and all the innocent Palestinians forced to live in the hovels of Gaza because their earlier Arab masters had used them as political pawns in their war against Israel and left them in refugee camps.

Even after nearly 10 years of Arafat's rule – and billions of dollars in aid from the rest of the world – all around me there was squalor and poverty. If only the Palestinian leadership had convinced these poor people to love their own villages rather than hate the Israeli settlements, they, too, could have built for themselves a paradise by the sea.

I am now more convinced than ever that the single best hope for the Palestinians in Gaza is to live – like the Arab citizens of Israel – under Israeli democracy rather than Palestinian tyranny.

[wagglebee]

I am now more convinced than ever that the single best hope for the Palestinians in Gaza is to live – like the Arab citizens of Israel – under Israeli democracy rather than Palestinian tyranny.

I still think the best thing for Israel to do is throw all the Palestinians out and kill the ones who won't leave.

[VOA]

Religion of Peace at work...

[eternity]

Can't think of a more vicious crime. I'll leave it at that. Really no words can describe the pain this man is going thru.

[EternalVigilance]

I am now more convinced than ever that the single best hope for the Palestinians in Gaza is to live – like the Arab citizens of Israel – under Israeli democracy rather than Palestinian tyranny.

No doubt about it.

[Monk Dimittis]

Really no words can describe the pain this man is going thru.

Been through something similar, worse in ways and less in others. I assure you, David Hatuel is clinging to his faith to guide him through.

And he, along with his murdered wife and children, are in my prayers.

[ssaftler]

If memory serves, there's a follow-up to this story. I seem to recall hearing that armed Palestinian "freedom fighters" (aka pond scum) attacked the funeral, spraying mourners with gunfire, and killing a number of them in the process.

Don't think I saw any article on it, just a blurb on the Lee & Melanie show on KSFO. Can someone corroborate this?

[sport]

I agree!

[Sloth]

What does one say to a man whose entire family has just been wiped out by terrorists?

Explain that journalists and other intelligent people all agree that such people are not terrorists at all, but freedom fighters, so he shouldn't feel too bad.

[newsgatherer]

bump

[wagglebee]

When will the left understand that George Washington was a "Freedom Fighter" Yassir Arafat is a terrorist.

[baltodog]

I want one muzzlum KKKleric to stand up and decry the terrorism that they are causing throughout the world, right now.

I don't want to read it on a website. I don't want to read it in an article.

I want to see a face on CNN or Fox -- a famous, well-known face.

Then, and only then, will I begin to even pretend to trust the warped rekigion of izzlum.

[dandi]

"shot them at point-blank range in an outrage that shocked the world."

Where was the shock and outrage? I saw very little. Less even than for Nick Berg. I'm sure there was some there, but the media were to busy wringing their hands over the poor naked Iraqi prisoners to cover it. Plenty of world-wide outrage though, over Israel's acts of self-defense in killing terrorists and their leaders.

[MarineDad]

BTTT in support of brave Islamo freedom fighters using "Toddler" and "Expectant Mother" settings on the sights of their automatic weapons. Probably required 3 of them to pull this one off. Courageous "Sons of the Prophet", no doubt.

ISLAM: the largest, most influential, and fastest growing religion the world will never miss.

[SJackson]

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[Salem]

"...Yet Islam – which at its core is a humane faith that once civilized nomadic tribes – is today inspiring a level of cruelty which is anything but civilized."

Great article in detailing the response of David Hatuel to his family being murdered by "Palistinian" killers, but I really have a problem with the Rabbi's glowing evaluation of Islam's past. Is he reading the same academic works on Islamic history we are at FR, that have been produced in the last two and a half years (Pipes, Spencer, Emerson, et.al.)?

           





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