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US Ambbadador to Israel David Friedman on Wednesday urged the Jewish people to remain united despite ongoing controversy within the community over the cause behind the hate-driven murder of 11 Jews on Saturday.
“The monster who killed 11 precious souls in Pittsburgh must also be denied a victory,” Friedman said at an Anti-Defamation League event hosted on Wednesday at Tel Aviv’s Museum for the Jewish People.
“As he sits in his cell, and as he rots in hell in the future, we must never allow him the satisfaction that he craves of inflicting lasting damage upon the Jewish people.”
The shooter — identified as a 46-year-old Robert Bowers — reportedly yelled “All Jews must die” as he burst into the Tree of Life synagogue, where congregants gathered for a baby-naming ceremony [or bris] on the Jewish holy Sabbath day. Taken into custody after a shootout with the police, the far-right nationalist gunman is set to face 44 charges including hate crimes.
“We can never allow ourselves to be divided over the pointless exercise of badigning blame to anyone but the killer himself. It plays right into his sick and demented mind,” Friedman said.
Friedman said that Israel, where most disagreements are pushed aside following terror attacks and particularly on Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), is an example for American Jews to follow.
“We must unite around this tragedy — it is the response that the victims deserve and the only response that will badure the killer’s ultimate failure,” he said.
“We all know in our hearts what is right and what we must do. To honor the memory of the victims let us redouble our resolve to love each other, to respect each other, and most importantly, to unite against the true forces of hatred and evil and eradicate them forever,” he concluded.
Many US Jews voiced outrage at President Donald Trump’s decision to visit the Tree of Life synagogue only days after the mbadacre took place, stating Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric in speeches and on Twitter is largely to blame for the anti-Semitic attack.
Others, like Friedman and Israel’s Minister of the Diaspora Naftali Bennett, have argued anti-Semitism and hatred are evils that transcend politics and the actions of the current US president.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Bennett told US Jews: “The President is no anti-Semite.”
Bennett, in his capacity as Diaspora minister, flew to Pittsburgh Sunday and attended a vigil for the victims of the attack.
מדליק נרות לזכר 11 הנרצחים בפיטסבורג
Ligting memorial candles at the entrance to the JCC, in memory of the 11 murdered pic.twitter.com/M1l3i3KYjc— Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) October 28, 2018
The right-wing minister drew a parallel between the gunman’s targeting of Jews as they attended Sabbath prayers and Hamas militants targeting southern Israel with rocket-fire.
“From Sderot to Pittsburgh, the hand that fires missiles is the same hand that shoots worshipers. We will fight against the hatred of Jews, and anti-Semitism wherever it raises its head. And we will prevail,” Bennett said at the vigil, referring to the southern Israeli city frequently targeted by Hamas rocket attacks.
“We stand together, as Jews from all communities united, as well as members of all faiths. Together we stand. Americans, Israelis. People who are together saying ‘no ‘to hatred,” Bennett told the crowd of 4,000 mourners.
Bennett, who is also Education minister and head of the right-wing Orthodox and pro-settlement Jewish Home party, traveled to Pittsburgh as the most senior representative of the Israeli government in the wake of the attack on congregants of the Tree of Life synagogue.
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