Silence: reprinted in memory of Eitam and Naama Henkin hy'd who were murdered exactly a year ago

Just a little over an hour after Prime Minister Netanyahu made his speech in the UN and blasted the world for their silence in light of the promise of Iran’s rulers to destroy Israel my phone rang. It was almost ten pm, rather late for us to receive phone calls. I heard my son’s voice and felt apprehension.

“Is everything okay?”

“No!” he stated unequivocally.  

In my mind I was already imagining a sick child but, no, that wasn’t the problem.

“There was a terror attack…”

“A terror attack?” I didn’t want to continue this call but knew I must.

“Between Itamar and Elon Moreh,” his voice was flat. “A young couple was murdered.”

“Baruch Dayan HaEmet…Do you know who?”

“No, they’re from Nerya…” He mumbled something about being there, but I didn’t quite understand why. He explained as part of the first respond team of Itamar he was called out. He saw things none of us should ever see.

“I’m so sorry,” I told my son but the words seemed empty. All I wanted to do was put my arms around him. Instead I hung up the phone and reviewed those I know who live in Nerya. My son knows them also so I finally fell asleep feeling assured the ones I care about personally were safe physically. How could they be emotionally well, though, knowing that their neighbors had been murdered while on a family outing with their children?  What would happen to the new orphans?

It was only in the morning that I learned the names of the newest victims of Arab terror; Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin, hy’d.

courtesy of Israel National News

I still don’t know the answers to my other questions.

With a heart full of grief I opened my computer to CNN and Fox News. There was no mention of the Henkins. Of course, they were only two people and ten had been murdered on a college campus in America the day before. However, I remember when a baby was murdered in an arson fire in the Arab village of Duma. Before anyone had even been apprehended for the crime it was already decided by almost every journalist that Jewish extremists had lit the fire.  

Today, two months later, no one has  been charged with the crime. Yet, is there anyone in the world who hasn’t heard of the murder of the Duma family? Why is the murder of Arabs so much more newsworthy than that of Jews? Why is Jewish blood so cheap?

As I wrote in Ignorance Kills (July 10^th):

Seventy years ago the majority of European Jewry was obliterated from the face of the earth. When the concentration camps were liberated the main reactions were we didn’t know. Maybe they did or maybe they didn’t. The Holocaust was eons before computers, internet, i-phones, and skype.  Now there’s no excuse for not knowing. And those who want to support Israel are obligated to plug into Israeli news sources. They are responsible for sharing that news with the world whether it’s via facebook, what’s app, or just plain conversation.  They need to tell the heartwarming stories of Israeli doctors saving Arab children’s lives. They must also tell the heartbreaking stories of terrorists taking Israeli children’s lives.

Israel exists for the protection of every Jew. Every Jew needs to protect Israel. Sign up for a reliable Israeli news source today. Ignorance kills and silence murders.