The people were deficient in their duties. Why aren't motion or heat activated floodlights part of the fence? Why aren't night-vision cameras being used? So many deficiencies- I'm amazed that this hasn't happened many times before. Why no motion-detection lights by the houses? When living in a pit with vipers, take all precautions. And these are our future neighbors.

breached? they can detect anything. and that may have helped to save their lives

So how is this the responsibility of the IDF? My house has a security system, I paid for the house and I paid for the security system... so with all due respect to the residents of Itamar.... Why is it that I, as a taxpayer, have to take care of their security needs? If you can't pay for it yourselves then you shouldn't be living there!

Settlers should be alerted to the fact that even little chihaua dogs are useful guard dogs. My dog would bark her head off if she heard a door open,.

those in Kfar Tapuach. These dogs do not get by ANYONE. and arabs are deathly fearful of dogs anyways. and having an alarm system could have been cut but motion detector lights would have helped i agree. but the killers went to a empty home first. so if there was some kind of alram system in that house maybe it would have scared them off and run away. but who is to say they would not have tried it another night.

With all due respect to the murder victims, i cant help think how selfish of these parents to raise children in such a place, only to aware of the dangers. Parents that place their own so called religious idiology before the safety of their children should have asked themselves whether it is the correct thing to do. I love the land of Israel but i wouldnt raise my children in such a place.

it is well known that bureaucratic, procedural and legal obstacles are the real hurdles to life in Israel. The court put the existence of trees over that of the lives of people while the 'system' couldn't deal with the blind spot created. Still the responsibility lies with the beasts who committed the murder. Even if the security would have been more complete it may not have prevented the murders and certainly couldn't prevent the attempt.

When in the Air Force, we had similar alarm systems which went off because of animals, snow, wind etc, I honestly would not want to deal with 200 animal-related alarms per shift, but that's probably the cost for security. A fence which nobody can get past in 10s requires a large amount of money. Solutions do exist, though they look ugly, but they are probably far too expensive for a rather small community and they don't prevent attempts to murder, as #7 Ariel wrote.

B"H Jews routinely seek and attribute causes to effects according to a wider - divine punishment for sin - principle. As Itamar is known to willingly accept collaboration from missionary groups operating in the area and as it is against halacha, Jewish Law, in this context it is not only possible but probable that Hashem has struck down on it: "If you don't care keeping the Law I've given you at Sinai, concerning the presence of goyim and idol-worshippers on the Land I gave you in eternal inheritance, then don't expect Me to care about your safety there: If you murder Me, your G-d, by following your law and not keeping My Law, then I'll send murderers on you to murder you." (See Deut. 32:21). In Judaism nothing is by "chance".

Its now the year 2016. The government has forcefully evacuated and given away the whole of the west bank up until the border of Highway 6. Your home is now a few short kms from the border. The Arabs who wish to eradicate all Jews from the whole of Israel (if you didn't know) send a hit team to murder a family in your neighbourhood. The next day a parent from Tel Aviv writes into YNET telling us how iresponsible it is to live in the Sharon region. Don't you understand? These towns are your defence! The more we retreat the more terrorist attacks will increase until all the Jews have been eradicated from this land . The more families move into these frontline areas, the more Arabs will get the message that we are hear to stay.

Is it more responsible to use a bus in TA or in Yerushalayim or to wait for a bus? For our enemies each and every square meter is occupied land even Ramat haSharon. So you have to leave Israel with your children. I recommend NY, Madrid, London, Stockholm, Moscow, Bali or many morer... (But even there you will be a Jew.)

The: no dog response, the lack of training and equipment, the lack of anyone taking responsibility, the constant false alarms that lulled the sheep’s to the approaching slaughter…and last and most importantly, the get away without a trace; spells government intelligence agency operation. Could be US trained PLO, Iran, Syria…or Moscow. The main function of intelligence agencies is as the marketing team for the government’s weapons manufacturers, who spur weapons sales by manipulating ethnic masses et al; Weapons sales are primarily financed by high oil prices, that is why the US invades Iraq and Lybia: to keep their oil off the market and create shortages that keep prices high so bad governments have money to buy weapons. The dictators in Iran, that parade as religious, are the agent provocateurs that must be kept in power at all cost: they spur weapons sales…Mine is a better story than the press tells you…and represents the status quo…

...fact remains that if the settlers weren't there, the murders would not have happened. They are the ones insisting on living in isolated enclaves that have to be protected with enormous resources amid a hostile population. If they don't want to live inside Israel's borders, among Israel's people, then they should be prepared for this.