Pat Dollard

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On the scene update of earlier story…as Arizona considers letting students bring guns to school… I’m glad that in this day and age, people are getting more comfortable with meeting the mature responsibility of righteous killing. That 70′s liberal utopia, earth is a kiddie playground , is over. Are you ready to protect your family in the event of a home invasion? Are you really? Or are you relying on your rhetorical skills to talk any psychopathic out of anything. Tell that to your daughters and babies.

Haaretz:

Yitzhak Dadon, a student at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, described the events of a terrorist shooting attack at the school Thursday evening, which left eight dead and nine others wounded, saying he was armed with a rifle and waited on the roof of a nearby building.

“He came out of the library spraying automatic fire … the terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head, he said.”

he director of the yeshiva Rabbi David Simchon vowed Thursday that the evening’s terror attack would not undermine his or his students’ religious faith.
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“No terrorist will succeed in stopping our faith, our values, the justice of our cause or what we teach her at the yeshiva,” he said. “I think the terrorists knew that this was Rosh Hodesh Adar, which is a [time of] great joy. I don’t know if they directed themselves toward our celebration.”

Simchon said the students had been preparing a celebration for the new month on the Jewish calendar, Adar, which includes the holiday of Purim.

“They wanted to bring an end to our happiness,” he continued. “The succeeded in ending this evening for us, but they will not destroy our faith or the justice of our cause.”

Ariel, a student at the yeshiva, also described the events. “I at first thought it was the sound of Purim firecrackers,” he said. “We ran to one of the rooms, because we couldn’t reach the exit. We brought some 20 guys into one of the study rooms, and blocked the door with two tables.”

“We heard the sound of nonstop gunfire and guys’ screaming,” he continued. “We were afraid the terrorist would come into the room.”

“The fear was terrible,” said Ariel. “We heard an exchange of fire, and the guy [who killed the terrorist] came and confirmed the area was clear. We understood we could leave. The scene was difficult.”

Michael, another student, said he saw a terrorist enter the complex, and fire for some 10 minutes. “He fired 500-600 bullets,” he said, adding that most of those hurt were high school age.

Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue service, entered the library after the attack. “The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse. The floor was covered in blood. The students were in class at the time of the attack,” he said. “The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood.”

“There was a lot of gunfire and hysteria,” a woman who lives across the street from the school told Israel Radio.

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar led a prayer session at the yeshiva after the shooting. Students huddled together, and many were sobbing uncontrollably.

The seminar is the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe quarter at the entrance to Jerusalem, a well-known center of Jewish studies identified with the leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank. Most of the students are high school age.

The Mercaz Harav yeshiva, which enrolls close to 1,000 students, is widely recognized as the flagship institution of the Religious Zionist movement. The yeshiva was headed for many years by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook, the son of the noted rabbinic scholar Avraham Hacohen Kook.

Following Zvi Yehuda Hacohen’s passing in 1981, he was succeeded in the yeshiva was led by Rabbi Avraham Shapira, who would also serve as chief rabbi of Israel. Shapira, who died last year, was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Ya’akov Shapira.

Through the years, many of the yeshiva graduates became rabbis who also assumed leadership positions at other yeshivas. The graduates include former MK Haim Druckman, who was chief of the Bnei Akiva yeshiva; Rabbi Zalman Melamed, the chief rabbi of the settlement of Bat El and the head of the Bat El yeshiva; and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner.