Netanyahu visits families of Toulouse victims

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the wife and mother of three of the Toulouse victims Thursday morning, saying afterward that he saw the “depth of her grief.”

“I saw the depth of grief of a young mother who lost her husband and children,” Netanyahu said after visiting Eva Sandler and her family, who are sitting shiva, the traditional seven-day mourning period, in Jerusalem. “I saw the sorrow of an interrupted life and collapsed hope. What sort of barbarism can bring a person to commit such an inhuman act?”

French Ambassador Christophe Bigot also visited the family. As he left the building, Bigot told reporters that he had found “a very brave and strong family with a message of life and love, a message of strength.”

Eva Sandler is mourning her husband, Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, and her two children, Arieh and Gavriel, who were all shot dead in the attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday.

“I think that for killers like this, every place, every centimeter that a Jew walks on is conquered territory,” Netanyahu said. “As far as they are concerned the Jews have no place anywhere in the world and they want to kill them where ever they are. That is exactly why the State of Israel was founded. Together with France we will continue to fight these atrocities.”

Bigot echoed Netanyahu’s words, saying the French would fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism. He added that he visited “to express our friendship and the solidarity of the French people in this shocking case.”

Both Netanyahu and Bigot also paid condolence visits to the family of Miriam Monsonego, who was also killed during the Monday attack.

“If they could have, these murderers would have murdered every Jew,” Netanyahu said after visiting the Monsonego family. “To think about little Miriam, who was murdered so brutally, this is awful. Bereavement is like disability; it is painful and debilitating, like a limb has been cut off. We all pray that you will find the strength to deal with your pain.”

Netanyahu also suggested to Miriam’s father, who is the principal of the Ozar Hatorah school where the attack occurred, that the school be renamed after the victims.