Are Religious Jews Getting a Pass for their Crimes Against Believers in Israel?

The Ami Ortiz Story
A Messianic Teen who Survived a Direct Terrorist Bomb Blast

Above Ami Ortiz many weeks after the blast in 2008
Below The Walking Miracle of Ami in 2011

From a 2011 entry on the Ami Ortiz Story website: 

“It's been 3 years since the unthinkable. The attempted murder of an innocent 15 year-old Messianic Jewish boy in Ariel, Israel. He and his family are followers of Yeshua (Jesus) the Jewish Messiah. After two and a half years of excruciating recovery and rehabilitation, 14 operations with more plastic surgeries ahead, and spiritual, mental and emotional recovery ….”

 Now in May 2012, Is there a cover up to protect the 'Jewish Terrorist' bomber in progress?

There has been movement in the trial of the murders & attempted murders of Jack Teitel in Israel. But is Teitel going to dodge paying for his crimes with a 'get out jail free' card that has him spending a little time in a mental facility instead? Will the plea bargain that was struck with the prosecution circumvent the truth coming out that Teitel was not a lone wolf but at least in the attempt to murder a Messianic family in Ariel, he was the lead man in a conspiracy to commit murder? Or will the religious zealots be shielded from justice be served?

There seems to be a determined effort to not hold this man responsible for the murders committed in religious far right zeal.   "As first revealed by Ynet – an amended indictment was filed against Teitel where the statement that his acts were committed over his hatred and opposition to groups and individuals whose lifestyle and outlook did not match his beliefs was removed from the indictment."

To say this more bluntly: This clause of the indictment said that Teitel’s crimes were “hate crimes” and that was removed in the plea bargain.  So they took a year deciding if he is mentally fit to stand trial at this time (they found he was) and the next hearing will decide if he was accountable for his actions of the past.   If that sounds crazy, it is, especially in light of the fact that he has confessed to all his crimes and did re-enactments of them.

The failure to take the case of the bombing of Ami Ortiz to trial ALSO OBSCURES the FACTS of the case that Teitel DID NOT ACT ALONE.   Video surveillance tapes of their street - which the Messianic family need for their personal safety - clearly shows Teitel had accomplices and he admitted he worked with Yad L'Achim anti-missionary activists. Of course, not letting these facts come to light with a trial makes getting Teitel off with an insanity defense much easier.

This is a travesty – even if Teitel is convicted of the murder of the two Palestinians, justice is not being served for the 15-year old Messianic boy who opened the Purim gift basket and took full, close exposure to the bomb blast. Teitel is not mentally ill, he is full of unbridled religious hatred. Israel cannot sweep this under the carpet, and for its own sake, it should not allow this injustice to prevail.  It will imperil the lives of other Messianic Jews in Israel is Teitel is not held accountable for the worst of his murderous crimes – that of a terrorist act against a Jewish family based solely on their faith in Yeshua.

Repeated mental competency/psychiatric evaluations and court hearings spread over more than one year have always come back saying Teitel was mentally fit to stand trial.   But the Times of Israel is reporting that "Lawyers for Jewish terrorist will present insanity defense".

The Messianic Ortiz family are consulting with lawyers and before the LORD as to their response to these court developments.

This is not the first case that has failed to protect the lives of Messianic believers in Israel, although it is the most serious act of violence.  When a hostile crowd of religious Jews took over a service for the second time (1998 and 2005) in Beer Sheva, the Messianic community agreed that it was time to draw a line in the sand at violent acts against the Jewish believers in Jesus.  The congregation filed a lawsuit against the organizers of the mob. 
Afterward, in 2008, the bomb attack on the Ortiz family took place. Even so, when the verdict finally came down for the Beer Sheva case in 2010, the ruling did not hold the rabbi and anti-missionary activists accountable and even made the Messianic congregation responsible for the court costs.  Clearly, there is no will to hold the religious Jews responsible for violent acts and religious persecution.

A few days ago on Facebook we shared a link to the story of the release of the far-right rabbi (from the settlements near where Jack Teitel and the Ortiz family lived), who published a book around the same time that Teitel was arrested, giving a rabbinical view that alright to kill Gentiles, even children, in some situations, as a threat to the Jews. This not only meant that it was okay to kill Palestinians, but that it is okay to kill Messianic Jews - including 15 year olds as Teitel almost achieved.  It is a widespread belief among many ultra-Orthodox that the Messianic believers are “more dangerous than Hamas” because they “steal the souls” of Jews and not their lives only as the terrorists do.  Understand how serious the opposition truly is.

Today, comes news that the Israeli Attorney General closes probe into authors of allegedly racist book. “The complainants contend that Weinstein's decision creates a precedent, one never intended by the country's legislative branch - that rabbis can incite in a violent or racist fashion with impunity.” 

The book Torat Hamelech (The King’s Torah), published in 2009, ... states: "When we approach a gentile who has violated the seven laws of Noah and kill him out of devotion to the upholding of these Noahide laws, this is not forbidden."

Another Jewish publication asks, The King’s Torah: a rabbinic text or a call to terror?

The prohibition 'Thou Shalt Not Murder' applies only "to a Jew who kills a Jew," write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are "uncompassionate by nature" and attacks on them "curb their evil inclination," while babies and children of Israel's enemies may be killed since "it is clear that they will grow to harm us."

Of course, any Jew who has come to faith in Yeshua is regarded as no longer Jewish. Therefore, the prohibition not to murder a fellow Jew does not apply to any of the 10-15,000 Messianic Jews of Israel.

"Despite the precedent set by previous Israeli attorneys general in the last decade and a half to file criminal charges against settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting violence against non-Jews, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has so far remained mum about "The King's Torah."

These are terrible developments for the Israeli justice system and will further embolden acts of violence against the Messianic community.  While religious persecution of this time forces the onlookers in the Israeli society to make personal decisions about right and wrong, we also need to recognize the need for the Body in Israel to have prayer cover for safety.  Just like we pray for loss of life to be limited in the wars and terror attacks on Israel, we also pray for God’s protection of each and every follower of Jesus from attacks by religious adversaries of the gospel.  Persecution may forward the gospel, but every believer’s life is not rendered by that any less precious.