Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon visited the the community of Otniel on Tuesday, a day after Dafna Meir was stabbed to death at the entrance of her home by a 15-year-old terrorist. Ya’alon visited the community with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
Addressing the Otniel community, Ya’alon began by offering his condolences to Natan, Dafna’s widowed husband, and his six children, two of whom the married couple adopted. After describing the merits of Dafna Meir as “a mother and a sister but most of all an active and special woman,” Ya’alon placed the blame of the murder on the Palestinian Authority.
“The loss is even greater when considering the cruelty of a 15-year-old boy who carried out this murder, who grew up in an environment which taught him from infancy to hate, to bless death. Obviously, this is the result of education taught by the PA, institutional education which starts from the age of infancy all through kindergarten,” he said.
“It is obvious that the Palestinian Authority’s education system is responsible,” he charged. “Both the education system and the establishment. The kids grow up going through their system, and this is the result.
“IDF forces stopped this despicable terrorist not too far from here,” Ya’alon added. “I wish to praise the IDF and the central command as well as the Israeli Security Agency, the Border Police and the Israel Police for their hard work to bring security and safety to the people who live here.
“There is a wave of terror, but we know how to overcome it, of that I have no doubt,” he stressed. “We need to be firm, we need to be patient, we need to be aware, but at the end of it all, we need know that we will persevere.”
{TPS / Matzav.com Israel}
