CNSNews.com - Americans Press Israel to Find Culprits in Attack on Pastor's Home

June 23, 2008
By Julie Stahl, CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An American lawyer is pressing Israel to move ahead with the investigation into the bomb attack on the home of Messianic pastor. The pastor's son was seriously injured in March, when he opened a gift basket that had been rigged with explosives.

"Justice has to be served," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington-based conservative civil liberties law firm.

"This was an attempted murder because of religious belief," Sekulow told Cybercast News Service in a telephone interview. Sekulow, who is currently visiting Israel, said he and other lawyers want to make sure that there is no "trend" of religious persecution developing here.

Ami Ortiz, 15, suffered serious burns and shrapnel wounds in the explosion just before the Purim holiday. He lost two toes and suffered hearing loss.

Ami's mother Leah Ortiz told Cybercast News Service that her son will undergo surgery this week to repair nerve damage to his arm. He faces additional surgeries on his feet, and he will have to wear a pressurized suit for the next two years to limit scar tissue buildup. It's a slow process, Leah Ortiz said, one that requires patience and prayer.

Details of the investigation have not been released by order of the court, but members of the Ortiz family believe that ultra-Orthodox Jews who oppose their faith are the culprits.

Ami's father David Ortiz is a Christian who has worked extensively in the Palestinian areas telling Muslims about Jesus, and he also leads a Messianic Jewish congregation in the West Bank settlement of Ariel where the family lives. The Ortiz family moved from the United States to Israel in 1985.

Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah but they still consider themselves to be Jews. (Ami's mother Leah is Jewish and therefore Ami and his five siblings are considered Jewish according to Israeli law.)

Some Messianic Jews -- who say they have experienced persecution here -- believe that police are hesitant to make arrests in connection with the attack.

But Leah Ortiz told said she believes that any international pressure, especially from Jewish or Evangelical Christian sources, may force progress.

Sekulow said he met with Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and had been assured that Dichter himself is monitoring the case.

Barak Seri, media advisor to Dichter, told Cybercast News Service that Dichter had met with a group of Evangelical Christians and assured them that the attack was an isolated incident and not part of a growing phenomenon.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the investigation is continuing. No one has been arrested yet, Rosenfeld said by telephone on Monday.

Several weeks ago, a weekly news magazine on Israel's state-run television aired a program on the case, but only after a court fight with police, who insist on keeping details secret. Rosenfeld said police objected to the program because they don't want anything to damage the investigation.

Although the Ortiz case is the most serious, there have been other recent attacks or insults aimed at Messianic Jews here recently.

In May, the deputy mayor of an Israeli town near Tel Aviv allegedly incited a group of Jewish religious school students to burn hundreds of New Testaments.

Also in May, Israel's chief rabbis called for the cancellation of an annual Bible quiz here because a Messianic Jewish teenager was chosen as a finalist. Late last year, arsonists torched a Jerusalem church where two Messianic Jewish congregations meet.

Sekulow said that people in the U.S. are viewing the attack on the Ortiz family quite seriously. It was an act of violence and attempted murder, he said, unlike the cases involving the Bible burning and the Bible quiz.

There has been a lot of negative reaction, Sekulow said. He said that his group wants to be careful that the incident does not drive a wedge between the Evangelical Christian community (who are staunch supporters of the Jewish State) and Israel.