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Last update - 04:17 14/03/2008 Mother of Mercaz Harav victim backs 'political use' of son's murder By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: terror attack, Jerusalem  Grief-stricken and soft-spoken, the U.S.-born bereaved mother of Avraham David Moses told mourners at her Efrat home on Tuesday she supported making political use of the murder of her 16-year-old son. "The murder was for a political purpose," Rivkah Moriah told Anglo File in a calm voice that betrayed no anger. "So why shouldn't it be used for political purposes?" Her son was one of the eight victims gunned down last week by a terrorist in Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. Following the attack, some criticized right-wing circles for blaming the government for what had happened at the library of Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. Education Minister Yuli Tamir was heckled in the institution when she visited Sunday. "If people whose realm of expertise is politics believe this should be used for political reasons, then I believe it's legitimate," commented Moriah. "I feel we're now a nation of confused sheep without the level of shepherding that we need," Moriah - who immigrated to Israel from New Hampshire - bemoaned. "Some of our spiritual leaders are great people. Our political leaders, I feel such pain when I see the distance between what we need and what we have." Moriah added she nonetheless supports the Foreign Ministry's initiative of using the shocking images of blood-stained prayer shawls from the murder scene in an aggressive media campaign against Palestinian terror. "I remember learning in first grade that the red stripes in the American flag are for the blood lost in the American Revolution," Moriah said. "Also in the South African flag and even in the Palestinian flag the red represents loss. And if that [the blood-stained prayer shawl] becomes an additional flag, then it's very understandable to me." Advertisement Avraham David Moses was survived by his parents and five brothers between the ages of 2 and 11. His mother, Rivkah, and his father, Naftali Moses - who immigrated to Israel from Long Island, New York - are divorced and since remarried. They live near each other in the West Bank settlement of Efrat. The family, she says, has seen very little of what was being said about the attack in the Israeli media. That's because each morning the guests start arriving at the Shiva, the traditional seven-day period of mourning, and do not leave before 10 or 11 P.M. But from what little she has seen, Moriah says she's been astonished by the media's level of compassion. "There have been attacks where there had been a hint of blaming those killed for being at fault for the fact that they got killed," she recalls. "From what I've seen and from what people have told me about what's going on in the media, I haven't heard or seen any of that. In fact, I've heard that it has been much more broadly publicized and in a deeper way than any other terrorist attack up until now." She says this has been a real comfort for her. The profound sense of shock Moriah observes in Israeli society in the wake of the attack also gives her hope for internal unity. "This was an attack on Torah, and yet because of how the nation is relating to the attack and how most of the media is presenting it, it's showing what the Torah really means to religious people and what it could possibly mean to someone who is not religious," she says. "I believe it's legitimate for someone who drives on Shabbat to read some psalms when they've had a rough day. And because of how this terrorist attack is being handled, we're one step closer to that being a reality," she says, looking the people around her in the eyes. "And there's something very contrary to what the attacker's motives were in the results. I find solace in that, too." The attack, according to Moriah, proves "the Arabs are aware that the Jews' claim for living in Israel is the Torah." She argues this is something Jews are not sufficiently aware of. "I believe this attack was aimed specifically at a place of learning, and it probably targeted a place that believes both in legitimacy of the State of Israel and also in Torah learning and the synthesis between the two." Speaking about her Palestinian neighbors, the bereaved mother said: "My people want the Arab people to be able to eat and make a living and to be able to send their children to school." She added that "when exercising self defense, the defenders shouldn't think of themselves as the aggressor - even if that's how they're perceived in other people's eyes." The family received a visit from a representative of the Prime Minister's Office and from Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski. "I feel less identification with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert than with the mayor of Jerusalem," Moriah said. She described Lupolianski as "a God-fearing man who is trying to help lead the Jewish people, adding: "But I believe the prime minister's condolences were genuine." In describing her sense of loss, Moriah told the crowd of 20 people at her home Tuesday that she was part of a group of women that had successfully married off some seven young couples in the previous year. "I would think about the wedding of my first born son, the wedding that Avraham David would have had. And I would think about his beautiful bride and the beautiful family they would build," she recalled. "This dream was ripped from me. And I also thought that because of his age, he would be the one to bring my grandmother great grandchildren. And he won't. He won't. That's a loss words can't begin to describe." Moriah says that as a mother, she feels that she knew her son, yet only now is she "getting to know how other people perceive him." She says that now that her son is dead, there's a degree to which she feels "like an orphan rather than a bereaved mother." Bookmark to del.icio.us   The Chancellor's visit Angela Merkel arrives in Israel to 'open new chapter' in bilateral ties. London paying Netanyahu says PR trip to U.K. wasn't funded by Israeli taxpayer.   1.   1ST STEP SHOULD BE FOR ISRAEL TO RID ITSELF OF OLMERT 05:31  |  Shepherd 14/03/08   2.   1ST STEP SHOULD BE FOR ISRAEL TO RID ITSELF OF OLMERT 05:31  |  Shepherd 14/03/08   3.   When are Israeli`s going to force a no confidence vote on Olmert 08:34  |  Gelfilte Fish 14/03/08   4.   her son was killed by Zionism, not Palestinians 08:40  |  Sari 14/03/08   5.   Kol HaKavod 10:35  |  Noa 14/03/08   6.   #4 Why don`t you move to Gaza..surely you will be happier! 10:40  |  Saftala 14/03/08   7.   well done haaretz on ur first true atricle 11:34  |  Dr Levy 14/03/08   8.   Wrong Sari, murdered by beasts in human form 11:40  |  Ilan 14/03/08   9.   Sari #4 12:10  |  Harold 14/03/08   10.   falling in love with hate 12:31  |  Tziporah Heller 14/03/08   11.   # 7 hAROLD amen, amen and one more amen!!!!!!!! 13:39  |  petra 14/03/08   12.   Sari`s reaction 13:42  |  Jo Jo 14/03/08   13.   IF ONLY 13:54  |  Yaakov Sullivan 14/03/08   14.   #4 Your words are as painful 14:07  |  Outsider 14/03/08   15.   they killed one lets killed a hundred! 15:29  |  Ben 14/03/08   16.   Unbelievable, Sari etc. 15:39  |  Raphael 14/03/08   17.   Hashem yinachem 17:02  |  Tal 14/03/08   18.   Condolences 17:07  |  Johnny Weintraub 14/03/08   19.   Sully, then read the torah u described in your post 17:16  |  pace306 14/03/08   20.   They Are In Heaven 17:27  |  Yechiel Cohen 14/03/08   21.   victim backs `political use` of son`s murder 17:39  |  lad a dog 14/03/08   22.   REMEMBER ALSO THE 20 BABIES AND CHILDREM MURDERED IN GAZA 18:28  |  TripleJump 14/03/08   23.   A Wise Man Once Said 18:31  |  Yechiel Haredi 14/03/08   24.   So Sad 18:17  |  Robert 14/03/08   25.   WELL SAID HAROLD Sari is wrong! 18:52  |  Will 14/03/08   26.   This woman is responsible for the death of her son 19:32  |  Sandy 14/03/08   27.   U.S. flag colors 19:48  |  EJ 14/03/08   28.   Sandy and her response 20:06  |  Jonatahn 14/03/08   29.   To Sandy and Jonathan from Rishon 02:13  |  DOVO 15/03/08   30.   SHARI WHO KILLED WHO STOLE 02:18  |  TOBIA 15/03/08   31.   YAakov its friday night 02:23  |  tobia 15/03/08   32.   What if it worked this way? 07:47  |  Sandy 15/03/08   33.   SANDY`s logic 32 21:25  |  ChanahS 15/03/08   34.   Forget the individual. Look at the nation. 04:31  |  Miriam 16/03/08   35.   To Sandy 10:48  |  Shmuel Nagid 16/03/08   36.   Major tragedy! Find the solution! 19:39  |  G. Holter 17/03/08

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