Howard Bass doing an interview with Maoz after Teitel's sentencing
Howard said, “He
(Teitel) has no regret for what he did. He
said he’s proud of what he did and would do it again. So I’m happy that the
judges gave him all that they could.”
Bass made a
very important observation in this interview.
He said, “I think the Ortiz’ were exemplary in bringing this to the
fore. I don’t think without them Teitel
would even have been caught.”
For those who do not know, the investigators did not want to aggressively
pursue this religious bombing of a Messianic Jewish family wherever it led,
because early on, it led directly to religious Jewish accomplices.
The Ortiz family, like many Messianic ministers in Israel, is equipped with
security systems because of the threat to their personal security by religious
opposition. So the family had security
tapes that actually captured the street view when Jack Teitel was dropped off
and then picked up again after he had placed the booby-trapped gift basket on
the Ortiz family doorstep.
What many Christian onlookers do not realize is what a disappointing roller
coaster ride the Ortiz family has endured seeking accountability for the
bombing of their son in their home because of their faith in Yeshua.
It is wonderful to see Jack Teitel finally being brought to some measure of
accountability but the accountability falls short of exposing the religious persecution against their faith that drove the bombing. Therefore the
threat remains in play for the entire Israeli Messianic community from religious
zealots like Jack Teitel. Even the
Israeli public is not aware of all the damning evidence that was buttoned down
and not allowed to emerge in a trial.
All along there has been reluctance by Israeli officials to allow the facts
specifically of the Ortiz bombing to be aired in open court. Even the Israeli public has not seen the hard
evidence that Jack Teitel did not act alone.
There is the security tape and Teitel’s own admission to police investigators
that he worked with Yad L’Achim (Hand to Brothers), a religious activist group
that works relentlessly against Messianic Jews in Israel.
.jpg)
Decmber 2005 an angry religious mob surrounds and invades
the Beer Sheva Messianic congregation
Yad L’Achim is also the group that was behind stirring up the two mob actions
(1998 and 2005) against the Beer Sheva congregation, and although the Israeli
courts called the 2005 mob action an "extremely serious event," ultimately
they failed to find the religious leaders accountable for directing the
mob. This was a civil trial brought by
the Beer Sheva congregation in order to discourage similar religious actions
against other congregation or individuals in the Body of Messiah in Israel.
So the backdrop to Jack Teitel’s bombing of the Ortiz family in 2008 is that
Israeli police investigations have never been aggressive in pursuing arrests –
even in various fire bombings of Messianic congregations and facilities, much
less other acts of intimidation and vandalism.
After Jack
Teitel also set a bomb at a Leftist Israeli peace activist’s doorstep in
September 2008 the investigation into Teitel picked up. At the same time the Israeli
LGBT community began to receive threats similar to fliers that had been circulated
against professor Sternhell and the Messianic Ortiz family before they were
bombed.
In May of 2009, a little over a year after the bombing of Ami Ortiz, two FBI
agents visited Israel with information on Jack Teitel, including the fact that
Teitel had a police record in the U.S. So
it is clear that Israel already had focused eyes on Teitel months before
arresting him. Tietel was finally
arrested in September 2009 but due to a gag order placed on the case, no one
could report it until November 1, 2009.
Throughout the investigation, the Ortiz family was kept in the dark about the
status of the investigation. What little
they knew, might have come from the U.S. investigations of the case because the
FBI became involved early and directly with the Ortiz family because of their
dual US-Israeli citizenship.
According to de-classified documents from the State Department obtained through
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the U.S. government has for years kept
track of religious persecution incidents reported to Israeli police, as well as
any incidents involving American citizens either as victims or perpetrators.
Although the Israeli Shin Bet were supposed to notify the FBI that American
citizens had been involved in an attack, they failed to make the FBI
notifications for almost a year after the bombing. Once Teitel was arrested Israel officials
were still not eager to bring the facts about the bombing of the Ortiz family
into the courts and after Teitel’s arrest the information lock out of the
family did not change.
The State Prosecutor tried to keep the Ortiz family – and their lawyer – out of
hearings and other court proceedings by failing to notify them of hearing cancellations
and rescheduling. For most of the hearings, the family was not even allowed to
be in the courtroom. They still made
great effort to be in attendance for proceedings, if only in the waiting areas
outside the courtroom.
Three years passed as the case was delayed from coming to trial as Teitel’s
defense attorneys were allowed repeatedly to get new mental health assessments
for their client. Time after time court
appointed psychiatrists concluded that Teitel was mentally stable to stand
trial, but the defense was allowed to try, try again for someone who would say
Teitel was mentally not accountable for his actions. If the security tape evidence
that investigators had from the beginning had ever seen the light of day in court,
mental fitness is an idea would have been put down completely. It is pretty hard to make a case for mental
incapacity when a conspiracy to commit a crime is in play.
Is it any
wonder that the Ortiz family were on an emotional roller coaster for several
years not knowing if the man who tried to kill their family and who represented
a distinct existential threat to the Israeli Messianic community might walk
free after serving only a few years in a mental facility? Three years is an excessively long time for
any court to kick around a mental assessment of a confessed murderer and
attempted murdered.
Then in May of 2012, Israeli newspapers noted
that judges had accepted an “unusual plea bargain” between the State Prosecutor
in the case and Teitel’s defense team which would allow Teitel to admit to the cold
blooded murders of two Palestinians conditioned upon the State dropping the
indictments against him in the attempted
murders – including the bombing of Ami Ortiz.
As it was framed in the media explanations the attempted murder indictments
were to be dropped because the authorities had foiled the attempts. Certainly that was not the case in the
indictment against Teitel for bombing Ami Ortiz.
According
to the Jerusalem Post on May 29,
2012: “The amended indictment includes 10 of the original 14 charges
against Teitel, including two murders and two attempted murders, after the prosecution agreed to remove
charges relating to attempted attacks that the authorities had foiled.”
Finally in a
surprising turn of events in January 2013, the judges did a turnaround on the
plea agreement and convicted him not only of the murders of two Palestinians in
cold blood, but also for the attempted murders of Ami Ortiz and Professor Zeev
Sternhell. In the words of the Ortiz family at that time,
“For three years the hearings revolved only around Teitel's
mental state and when all those attempts were exhausted, a guilty plea was
given, preventing a trial and the witnesses who could have testified and
revealed who he worked for, and who helped him plan, prepare for and carry out
his crimes. There has been so much in this case that has been hidden in
darkness and obscured. Only the Lord can now uncover what needs to be
brought into the light.”
After the
sentencing was finally passed and after more defense delays, on April 9th
the Ortiz family was finally able to talk about the fact that the Israeli
government has not recognized the bombing as a terrorist act. That means that financial medical and legal
assistance normally given to terrorism victims was denied to Ami.
The state of Israel declared the bombing a “criminal” act not a “terrorist” act,
in the thinking that a Jew cannot commit an act of terrorism against another
Jew. So the families of the two Palestinians
that Teitel shot dead have received Israeli government financial assistance for
legal expenses stemming from a terrorist act, but Messianic Jewish Ami who was
packaged bombed is considered only to be a criminal case.
Even the ruling of the judges specifically calling the bombing of Ami “terrorism”
has not changed the government recognition of Ami as a victim of terror. However, the judge calling it terrorism does
open a case for the Ortiz family to appeal for the government to begin
extending benefits to their son who is still in need of surgical procedures.
Just last month another piece of shrapnel surfaced in Ami’s eye while away at
college in the U.S. and had to be removed. His body still has pieces of
shrapnel and there is also extensive scarring that Ami hopes to have surgically
removed later this year by a technique developed for wounded warriors returning
from Afghanistan.
The Ortiz family wrote a few days ago, “Throughout these five years we have
been financially drained because of legal expenses for the uphill battle we
have waged to protect our civil and human rights, and our right to be heard and
respected as Jewish believers in Yeshua the Messiah, and the extra medical
procedures Ami has needed.
“Many individual believers and believing organizations have greatly helped us,
and we are very grateful. But because this has dragged on for five years, it
has been very difficult to catch up to and maintain the costs of fighting this
battle on all fronts.”
Others have said it more plainly: even with the help of believers worldwide this
family has been devastated financially.
Ami immediately after the bomb blasted in his hands
Ami has many more surgical procedures in front of him even though he is a
walking miracle to the grace and power of God.
Just surviving the arrival of the ambulance after the bombing was a
miracle of God’s grace toward the family.
From someone who has followed this case from the first news of the bombing by
every report from the family and the believers in Israel, I can say without any
reservation that the Ortiz family walked out this devastating event with the
clear grace of God upon them. That is
why this morning it made me smile as I thought about David and Leah standing
before the cameras and press outside the courtroom after sentencing on Teitel was
passed.
Then I had a sobering thought. This
family is like the witness to Israel that Stephen was in Acts 7.
Stephen prayed for the religious zealots even while they were stoning him to
death. Thank God that Ami Ortiz did not
die and it was a miracle of God that he did not, but that does not lessen the
impact of the powerful witness by the Ortiz family throughout their ordeal, and
even toward Jack Teitel who continued in unrepentant gloating even at his final
sentencing.
The Ortiz family
admits that it is their desire that someday God will soften Jack Teitel’s heart
enough for them to go visit him in prison.
It is not out of the question that such a thing should occur, after all,
a young man who was present at the stoning of Stephen – an ardent
anti-Messianic Jew named Saul – eventually was given a revelation of Yeshua the
Messiah. He then repented, changed directions and became the Apostle to the
Gentiles, Paul.
As David said in the interview with Maoz, “I really feel bad for him, I really
do. We’ve been praying for him.”
David said they pray for a time when Teitel is a little more sober in his mind
that they can go to jail and speak to him.
“We would like that,” David said, “and we think that day is going to
come.” “He is bound by sin,” David said,
“and we pray that he will be redeemed.”
Christians
need to know the fuller picture behind this case and to understand what David
Ortiz meant when he said after the sentencing that the family had “received a
little bit of justice” but “we’re not in heaven yet.” Full justice has not been delivered in this
case – not for Ami, not for the family, and not for the whole Messianic
community in Israel.
Still, as David notes that because of their personal ordeal in the bombing,
with the press, “The name of Yeshua is mentioned all the time. There has not
been a time with the journalists that that the name of Yeshua has not come up.”
“The LORD has
in His mercy,” David said, “chosen us to suffer for His Name’s sake that His
Name should be lifted up. That’s the only thing we take with us. Only Jesus.”
Please pray for the Ortiz family to
be granted favor in their appeal of the terror victim benefits before the
Israeli government.
If you would like to make a financial contribution to the family or toward
the legal expenses, here’s how:
Donations
to the family ministry:
Regular dollar check or international money order to PO Box 1903 | Ariel |
40700 | Israel
Or by wire transfer: Bank Leumi |
Branch 943 | 7 Habanim Street | Hod Hasharon Israel | Account:
66169/34 | Swift #: L U M I I L I T T L V
Donations
to Legal Expenses: HATE CRIME PREVENTION FUND (HCPF) at www.amiortiz.com http://www.amiortiz.com/fundraiser.cfm
Arrows from Zion
is a Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from the Israeli Ministries.
Compiled from actual ministry prayer letters received each week from both Messianic Jewish and Arab Christian pastors,
this summary will put strategic arrows into the hands of intercessors
who desire to pray God's will and vision for the salvation of Israel.
Romans 9-11 is the starting place for understanding
the mystery of the plan of God for Israel and the Church in our days.
Apply for subscription by writing
Donna Diorio at arrowsfromzion@gmail.com
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)