Jerusalem – In the aftermath of last Thursday’s horrific terrorist attack in Israel that snuffed out the lives of Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin and left their four children orphaned, Rebbetzin Chana Henkin, Eitam’s mother, spoke to YNet News (http://bit.ly/1OlzESH) about that terrible night.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
It began, she said, like any other ordinary day. It was Chol Ha’moed Sukkos and the Henkin family got together to celebrate at Naama and Eitam’s sukkah in Neria. “I remember we ate and laughed,” Mrs. Henkin said. “Eitam and Naama cooked and baked, there were hot dogs and chicken breasts, and for dessert they prepared a cake. That’s what every family does during Chol Ha’moed.”
They said their goodbyes at four o’clock and headed for Jerusalem, while Naama and Eitam and the children headed to Elon Moreh to meet friends. It was just after 9 PM, as the family was en route home that their car was shot at from a passing car. Eitam and Naama were killed, and their kids, Matan, 9, Nitzan, 7, Neta, 4, and Itamar, 4 months old, survived unharmed.
“These kids were there,” Mrs. Henkin said. “Some were asleep but others remember. . . The injustice done to these children will only come out in the coming years. This is not living without a father or mother for one day, two days, a week or two. They will not see their parents for their whole lives.”
Upon receiving the heart-wrenching news, Mrs. Henkin went to pick up Hila Armoni, Naama’s mother, and brought the children to her home in Peduel. According to Mrs. Henkin, the children’s eyewitness accounts of that terrifying evening are disjointed and “what they say cannot be understood.”
“Little Itamar will not remember the months in which his parents rocked him to calm him when he cried. Nata might remember a bit, as well as Nitzan and Matan,” Mrs. Henkin said. The family “immediately realized that the children need serious and dedicated care. They have become the children of all of us, the children of Israel. . .I want to emphasize that we have suffered a huge loss. Israel also lost very significant figures. We are not in favor of personal vengeance, but demand that the government provide security for its citizens,” she added.
For now, the family is trying to determine how to best raise the kids in accordance with how their parents would have wanted them to be brought up. “They are smart kids who understand what is happening around them,” Mrs. Henkin noted. “However, we are here.”
Incredibly sad. What’s also inedible is the fact that the Israeli government who are so powerful and have the biggest mouths can’t stop the terror in their own country. Bibi with the big mouth at the UN, has put a freeze on building and will not eradicate the terror. Every sign of weakness embolden or enemy. They are getting more and more insolent by the day.
Sadly, these attacks will continue and increase in frequency until the government is able to stand up to the right wing settlers and negotiate a final peace settlement which many involve return of some land deemed non-strategic by the military. Otherwise, the numbers of yesomim will just grow exponentially since there is no end to the cycle of violence under the status quo..
Get real, Abbas does not want peace and definately not a piece of the land. At this point they are upfront about what they want. They want all of it. Should we give up Yerushalayim and the Kotel because they want that as well to for their capital. So we will nicley go back to our pre 1948 suicide borders to appease them and maybe then they will not run us in to the sea.