They don't seem to understand that the EU was never an ally of Israel. Most European media outlets are biased and tend to portray Israel in a negative light in most cases. The world continues to demonizes and ridicules Israel even though Israelis try to emulate Europeans.

6th largest earthquake in history? over a 1000 dead many more suspected? Nuclear meltdown? Could these not be reasons this tragedy is not frontpage news?

Maybe. But then, why the announce of 400 houses DID make it into all the newspaper in the world ? The coverage on theses houses has been much larger than the massacre itself !

From the very beginning it was clear that publishing these photos was a bad idea, for two reasons: 1) it will not help the people outside Israel to understand what one can understand only from inside (actually how can you hope get the sympathy of a people who sent joyously 6 millions Jews in the oven). So these tragic photos fell miserably making a flop. 2) Have we thought to the survivors, these young children when they will be older, knowing that the pictures of the bodies of their beloved families still run around the internet ? Two good reason to not have sent these photo. We are alone today as we have always been. Have you heard many people shouting against putting Jews in the oven, or murdering them in the Ukrainian snow during WWII ? No, they just support the famous relative of the great Mufti of Jerusalem al-Husseini to continue the labor began by his great uncle, to wipe off the Jews off the map. We are alone, don't worry, it's not new :) We will survive.

Folks, it is pathetic that you are out there to say; "it did not help to show the pictures". Press wars are not won saying it does not help. I can tell you that more than one person in Europe- not only in France- was confronted to these dreadful massacre of children, and many of them have been moved and started asking themselves questions because of the news and pictures. To win a press war, you have to be at constant communication with every single effective press organ in the world and publish any/all pictures that shows the barbarity Israel is facing day to day. This will counter all prejudiced amateur videos published by the extreme islamic/leftist thugs and ensure that Israel's voice is heard at all times. The Israeli press is not serving that cause by playing detractors. You need to act and not reflect.

The Useless Nations will hold a security council meeting to condemn us. What a bunch of hypocrites!

This is a disaster that has not only been going on for a week, but continues and may bring even more dire consequences. I have not seen one drive for donations here. Talkbackers, you can donate money to other organizations other than RedCross. Please go on any news internet site, CNN, Fox, and they will tell you how and where. Even if everyone gives only $10, it adds up.

The murderers should be apprehended and hanged. Yet, this does change the fact that until we end the occupation and clear out the settlements this is what will continue to happen. The world is tired of hearing about Israel/Palestinian issues and as horrendous as the murders were to the world it's just another issue between two stubborn and extreme sides. Pretty soon we will be the old South Africa to the western world.

I live between the UK and Italy, and however worthless my words are, I would like to say how profoundly ashamed I am of European attitudes to the horror in Itamar and the other brutal killings that preceded it.. And I am also profoundly ashamed of European IGNORANCE, even at high levels, about history and basic facts concerning the status of the so-called occupied territories.I was shocked by the photos but they did bring home the horror of murder in a family home, which we Europeans consider as the safest place. I am glad I learnt the names of the victims, and saw their smiling faces in other photos; I will remember them.

in the past 10 years. Does anyone know about it? Does anyone care? We have to stop thinking we are the center of the universe here in the region. The murders were brutal and disgusting and things like this happen around the world daily. We are not the only ones.

For the simple reason is that the west nos well that this act was caried out by a person from tiland and not the palestinians and the reason behind the massacre was 10000 shakle that the owner of the house wouldnt pay the worker its all over the news.

No where in the sane world, is building houses a response to murder. When you are in a hole that is too deep to get out of, the first thing one does is to stop digging. I think it's time for us to stop digging (settlements).

Concentrate on the US. They hold all the cards anyway. Americans still support Israel. by a wide margin. As far as the pictures, even I, a supporter did not want to view them, but maybe the Foreign Ministry can distribute them to their counterparts to show what Israel has to deal with,

The murders are very significant since Israel is been asked or should I say pressured to give up land so their murderers can create a state.

Yossef, Israel is not alone. While the United States government is often misguided with regard to Israel, this American and millions of others like me stand with Israel. Even if we abandon you, may it never be so, Israel will never be left alone by Yahweh. That my brother is something for which to be eternally grateful.

Distribution by Israel of the bloody photos of the murdered Fogel family served only one purpose - to allow Israel and the Jewish people here to scream our own horror about the atrocity, Thinking that the rest of the world would feel like Israelis about this is ridiculous We are a nation that dwells alone

Israel is a apartheid state. One need look no further than the Occupied West Bank to see that. Your nation has colonized that land. Your settlers and army steal the land and oppress the indigenous natives of that land. These are the "facts on the ground" as Israelis are so fond of saying.

but the earthquake also pushed off the headlines about Libya. Goes to show the press's priorities.

I don't think apathy is really the problem. The 'West' has an attention problem. The Western news focuses on the bigger problem which happened to be the quake and tzunami damage and death brought live via the web and tv which took the west's short attention span for days. Although my heart is with the Fogel's, let us be honest with ourselves, the West is not apathetic, they mere did not consider since bigger things happened.

still, it doesnt helpe us when ynet publishes a story on how israel's response to the japanese disaster is worry over the supply of sushi

Israel has history and more truth on its side than the syrian, egyptian, iraqi, lebanese, sudanese arab muslims and white bosnian muslims who collectively are caled the "palestinians" I just got a shot of bosnian palestinian family at a mall the other day, red hair blue eyes on the baby. what a joke the world has been conned by. Yet we owe our primarily leftist leaders for being clueless that the joke was on us. Jordan is Palestine. sign the petition from eldad (google it)

Obviously if Japan hadnt happened at the same time this would have been given more coverage- Japan even pushed Libya off the European news. Israeli need to get out of their bubble and put things into perspective- the horrific murder of 5 people vs a one in a lifetime disaster in which maybe 20,000 people died? I wonder what will make the front pages?

Do you think that the world worries about a criminal act concerning a settler family while tens of thousands have died in Japan? Which news is more worthy of coverage, a horrific little massacre at Itamar or the blow out of two or three nuclear reactors? As #10 'C' has said, you are not the center of the universe anymore!

6 million dead Jews in about 5 year time span did not move them, you think a few dead Jews in occupied territories is going to move them. Forget it. My heart goes out to my brethren, the settlers, the villified settlers, they are the cream of the crop of the Jewish people. The best of the best in Jewry, the Israeli government does not do enough to prtotect them.

There is not one sentence in your drivel, short it may be, that isn't free of outright lies and slander. not one. Therefore, proudly accept the title that you are sadly a vicious antisemite and an enemy of humanity. Live with it you ugly brute!

Sadly, your residence is a very dangerous and sad place to dwell; both for Jews and gentiles.

Dear all, I am from the Netherlands and have been following news in Israel for a while. The Itamar murders are horrible and despicable, let me begin to say that. I wanted to give my feelings about the European responses to these murders. The first thing to know is that Israel has long lost the public relations war in Europe over who has right to the Westbank/ Judea and Samaria. Opinion in most European countries, as far as I can tell, is overwhelmingly in favour of the Palestinians. The settlers are largely seen as aggressive intruders who push away those living there, burn olive orchards and cars, are aggressive and often fanatical and stand in the way of a fair compromise between the two sides. A murder of settlers may then be seen by Europeans as horrible, but also as something that the settlers are partially contributing to by their own actions. This does not condone murder, but places it in a wider context. I must admit here that I too find it hard to understand why the settlers, especially those deep in the Westbank/ Judea and Samaria are so adamant about building houses there, living there, despite the clear opposition from those already living there. Also, they do often seem to be aggressive and condescending, threatening to the Palestinians, from what I can see in the media (Jpost, Ynetnews, Haaretz) Any informative responses (please no name-callings, I am open to reactions, not to being insulted) are welcome. Second, there is a widespread feeling that the current Israeli government does not want peace, and does not want to give up the Westbank/ Judea and Samaria. The immediate response to approve construction of 400 more houses affirmed this feeling among many Europeans, and made the Israeli response to the murders look calculated, even cynical. Any European feelings of sympathy towards the settlers and Israel were undermined by this response. It did give Israel - again - the odour of being the aggressor. Rightly so? Always hard to tell. Thirdly, I believe that many media outlets choose not to shock their readers with such gruesome pictures. This is more of a cultural approach to shocking events, be they in Europe, Japan or Israel. In Europe, we may prefer not to see too much blood, from a traffic accident, from war or from murder. In this sense, the pictures were maybe simply too shocking to be published? Just some thoughts from my side. Anyone wishing to seriously respond to me is heartily welcome, I am the first to admit that I do not know all about the situation. Just keep it civilized, please.

Olaf- Excellent post! The sad thing is that the people who should read it, won't. Annalisa- Thank you!

This is the situation here. The foreign press are invited and, in some cases even prepare a report, visual or written, but the news editors say it is not newsworthy. Yesterday we saw the total disinterest of the foreign press at the unloading of the weapons on the Victoria. They were all there and then they just walked away.No doubt their editors told them to. Of course, had an Israeli massacred Palestinian children in their beds, the BBC, SKYNews, France 24, FOXNews and so on would have had news teams all over the story. The fact is Olaf, Israel bashing is in and as long as the international Jewish community allow the Arabs to control the media and the companies that own the media, there is very little we can do. About the pictures. Israelis are very divided on this issue. Many feel we will be stooping to the level of the Palestinians who thrive showing off dead bodies, real and fake! I thought we should publish them but then I thought of the surviving Vogel chilren. Haven't they been through enough?