In one of the worst terrorist attacks in recent memory 8 Yeshivah Students were murdered in Jerusalem. The Talmudic college that they attended was made famous by the ideological father of all the religious right wing camp in Israel. Rabbi Abraham Yitzchak H’Cohen Kook founded the central yeshivah or as it is referred to in Hebrew Mercaz Harav. The students of this Yeshivah and especially his son who later headed the seminary were vehemently opposed to any withdrawal from parts of biblical Israel. They proclaimed the return of the Jewish people to the land as a messianic movement that any backtracking would be counter to g-ds will. The many settlements started and founded in disputed land were founded by students and followers of this seminary. This was apparently abundantly clear to the terrorist who carried out the attack.
The Hamas organization that the terrorist belonged to wants to completely eradicate any Jewish presence in Biblical Israel. This being the case there cannot be any greater diametrically opposed groups. The followers of this Yeshivah and the Hamas. Though this attack claimed fewer lives than some other attacks it was more heinous in some ways. The Idea of high school students being killed while studying at such a tender age by someone who once worked for this Yeshivah was very painful to many Israeli’s.
The Family of the terrorist both in Jordan and Israel attempted to put up tents of mourning. In Jordan these tents were outlawed while in Israel despite complaints from right wing elements the tent was erected. Some see this move as a flaw in Israel’s democracy allowing any outward showing of support far a mass murderer. Though there have been reports of a unofficial truce in Southern Israel most analysts do not paint a bright picture with regard to peace prospects in the region.
Nothing has really changed in the middle east in the last hundred years.
