NEW YORK, N.Y. –Malcolm Hoenlein, head of the Conference of Presidents of major American Jewish Organizations blasted President Obama as well as the heads of other governments for failing to condemn – or even criticize – the naming of a square in a West Bank town after a terrorist.
Speaking at a memorial service for the five members of the Fogel family who were slaughtered on March 11 in their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, Hoenlein said that these acts of incitement would continue “If governments, even our own, do not stand out and shriek and condemn and take action when they see this kind of action by the Palestinian Authority and their respresentatives.”  Hoenlein called upon the Administration to “demand accountability and that there will be consequences.”
Just two days after the murder of the Fogel family, members of Palestinian Authority President Mahnoud Abas’ Fata faction were on hand for the unveiling of a plaque in the town square in Al-Bireh in memory of Dalal Mughrabi, who was responsible for the murder of 37 Israelis in 1978.  She was killed in the attack.
Hoenlein, along with other Jewish organizations such as ADL and the Zionist Organization of America, also criticized the White House for its tepid response to the massacre in Itamar.  The White House statement saying there was “no justification for the the killing of parents and children in their home” was signed by a White House spokeman, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the attack “inhuman.”  But President Obama has still not issued a pronouncement in his own name.