Last night

Jameel @ The Muqata:

Last night there was a terror attack in our area. At 11:18 PM there was a drive-by shooting attack, in which a 29 year old Ido Zoldan was killed.

Ido Zoldan with his wife and son

The terrorists riddled Zoldan's car with bullets and escaped. Zoldan's car drove off the road and came to a stop. The first person to stop and help already determined Zoldan wasn't breathing and had no pulse. A resident of Shavei Shomron, I met Zoldan during the Chomesh "standoff" during the Disengagement, when I lived in Chomesh in a tent. He was a charismatic idealist, an officer in the IDF reserves paratrooper brigade, married to Tehila, father of 2 little children.

Immediately after the attack, the Palestinian Authority's "Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade" group proudly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Timing is a lot, if not everything. Shortly after Soccer Dad sent me a link to this hate-filled garbage by Gershom Gorenberg, I am reading about Ido Zoldan. If I could, I would rub Gorenberg's face in that photo... until he cried for me to stop... And even then, I don't think I could.

What an utterly loathsome, hateful bastard he is.

I shouldn't spend anger in such close proximity to the Zoldan family's loss, but there it is.

UPDATE - Wednesday: Please see 'The Best and Most Wonderful of Our Sons' by Gil Ronen

Gray clouds filled the sky and rain poured down on the funeral. The speakers were the leading spiritual and political voices of the Jewish communities in northern Samaria and in the rest of Judea and Samaria, nearly all of whom knew Ido well, and it was clear that this funeral was unlike others. The voices bespoke deep pain and angry courage. Ido was truly a beloved and inspiring individual.

Rabbi Tzvi Farbstein of Kedumim said at the funeral:

"On the day that the government of Israel understands that we have come home after 2,000 years and the Land of Israel cannot be bargained over, the terror will be eliminated.

On the day that the government of Israel understands that Jewish blood is not free for the taking, the terror will be eliminated.

On the day that the government of Israel stops differentiating between moderate murderers and immoderate murderers, between Hamas and other murderers, the terror will be eliminated."

Amen, amen, amen.