PM Netanyahu's Statement to the Media
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Tuesday, 18 November 2014),
at his Jerusalem office, issued the following statement to the media:

"We are in the midst of a terrorist assault focused on Jerusalem. Today,
during morning prayers, as they were wrapped in prayer shawls and tefillin,
four rabbis were slaughtered, four innocent and pure Jews – Rabbi Avraham
Goldberg, Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, Rabbi Kalman Ze'ev Levine and Rabbi Moshe
Twersky. May their memories be blessed.

We send our condolences to their families. We send our best wishes for a
recovery to the wounded and to the heroic policemen whose action prevented a
greater disaster. The human animals who perpetrated this slaughter were full
of hatred and incitement, deep hatred and terrible incitement against the
Jewish People and its state. Hamas, the Islamic Movement and the Palestinian
Authority are disseminating countless lies and falsehoods against the State
of Israel. They are saying that the Jews are contaminating the Temple Mount.
They are saying that we are planning to destroy the Holy Places, that we
intend to change the order of prayer there – this is all lies. These lies
have already claimed a very heavy price. They took the life of a
three-month-old baby, Chaya Zissel Braun, who had been taken for her first
visit to the Western Wall, along with her parents, who wanted to thank G-d
for giving them a baby. They also claimed the lives of Karen Jemima
Mosquera, Jidan Assad, Aharon Badani, Sgt. Almog Shilony and Dalia Lemkus.
All of them were pure souls. All of them were victims of this mendacious
incitement. Today they are joined by additional victims of the same wild
blood libel of the kind that is etched in the memory of our people.

Yesterday a bus driver from eastern Jerusalem committed suicide. He
committed suicide. The findings of the pathology report have been published
and they prove this unequivocally. He committed suicide. But this has not
prevented those same elements from inciting and disseminating the blood
libel to the effect that he was murdered by Jews. This incitement
contributed its part to the shocking slaughter that was perpetrated this
morning in a holy place during prayers. But what is outrageous is not only
the brutality of the murder but the shouts of joy in Gaza, in Bethlehem and
in other places. They are giving out candies, waving axes in the air and
praising the shahidim. True, this time Abu Mazen condemned the slaughter and
it is good that he did. I remember that he also condemned the murder of the
three youths but it is not enough because in the same sentence in which he
condemned today's slaughter, he linked it to imaginary actions – which have
no basis in reality – that Israel is purportedly planning to carry out on
the Temple Mount. There is daily, even hourly, incitement on the streets of
the Palestinian Authority. There, not only do the most reprehensible
murderers become the heroes of Palestinian culture, but there is unending,
constant incitement against the very existence of the State of Israel,
against the security of Israel's citizens, in schools, the media, mosques,
everywhere, and this is the root of the conflict: The refusal to recognize –
and educate for – the existence of the state of the Jews.

Last week I traveled to Jordan and held a very important meeting in Amman
with King Abdullah and US Secretary of State John Kerry. Together, we called
to calm the situation and for the restoration of quiet. To my regret, the
answer that we received from the Palestinian Authority was to declare a day
or rage in Jerusalem. And today we all saw the result. The world sees this
slaughter but, to our regret, does not demand that the Palestinians stop the
wild incitement against Israel that is the root of the conflict. I call on
all heads of state in the civilized world – I want to see outrage. I want to
see condemnation, a deep and uncompromising condemnation of these murders of
Israelis, of Jews. Do not discriminate between blood and blood. When there
are other acts of murder you express the same outrage and condemn them. But
when I see a three-month-old baby being murdered, when I see these Jews at
prayer in a synagogue, our holy place, just as a church is holy for
Christians and a mosque is holy for Muslims, I expect to at least hear the
same condemnation, in an uncompromising and unreserved tone. To my regret,
there are those who currently insist on giving the Palestinians a prize in
the form of unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that does not
recognize the state of the Jews. We will not tolerate this reality; we will
fight terrorism and we will defeat it. We will restore law, order and
security to the streets of Jerusalem.

This evening I ordered the demolition of the homes of the terrorists who
perpetrated the massacre and the hastening of the demolition of the homes of
the terrorists who perpetrated the earlier attacks. I ordered stepped-up
enforcement against – and stiffer punishments for – those engaged in
incitement, as well as the banning of organizations engaged in incitement,
and increased security on the streets of Jerusalem. Alongside offensive
actions there are also defensive actions.

Citizens of Israel, I call on you to show maximum alert and to respect the
law. As a state, we will settle accounts with all of the terrorists and
those who dispatched them. We have already proven that we do this, but let
nobody take the law into his hands, even if tempers flare and blood boils.
We are in a lengthy war against abhorrent terrorism which did not start
today. Terrorism has followed us through all the years of the Zionist
enterprise. We have always withstood it and we will do so this time as well.

There are those who would like to uproot us from our land and from our
capital. They will not achieve their aim. We are in a battle for Jerusalem,
our eternal capital. In this battle we must be united; this is the order of
the day. We have always known to unite in times of trial. We must put aside
all of the little differences and unite around one major issue – defending
Jerusalem, defending the security of Israel's citizens. I think that this is
what the citizens of Israel expect of us at this time – to stand together as
one, unified and united. What is called for at this time is national