This amazing story can be read more fully at Religion News Blog:

….On March 20, 2008, Ami Ortiz, then 15, opened a gift basket that someone had left anonymously at his family’s home in Ariel. The basket disappeared in a massive explosion that destroyed much of the Ortiz home and shattered Ami’s body.

When he arrived at the hospital, Ami was clinging to life. He was bleeding profusely, had burns covering much of his body and was full of needles, screws and glass fragments the bomb-maker had built into the device.

The doctors had little hope for him and listed his condition as “anush,” meaning his soul was about to leave his body.

After countless hours of surgery and even more spent in prayer, Ami went from “near dead,” to burned and blind and eventually to playing basketball on a national youth team. Both his parents said his recovery was nothing sort of a miracle from God….

[….]

….Jack Teitel, 37, who in November was indicted on two charges of pre-meditated murder, three charges of attempted murder and numerous weapons charges, is expected to enter a plea on Sunday (Sept. 5)….

[….]

….When Teitel was arrested in October 2009, police found him hanging up posters celebrating the shooting of two teenagers at a gay and lesbian community center in Tel Aviv.

Teitel’s background is still somewhat of a mystery. An emigrant from the United States, he became an Israeli citizen in 2000, got married not long afterwards and is the father of four children. Usually portrayed in Israeli media as part ultra-orthodox ideologue and part fringe survivalist, it is clear that Teitel was motivated by a fascination with end-times prophecy and an extremely violent interpretation of Judaism and Jewish nationalism.

He is a self-described follower of such anti-missionary groups as Yad L’Achim. According to authorities, Teitel sought to kill those he deemed enemies of traditional Judaism: Palestinians, homosexuals, liberal Jewish intellectuals and, in the Ortiz case, Messianic Jews…..

…(read more)…

One Messianic Jew I enjoy and follow – Rosh Pina – has some great insight that builds on how God builds a bad situation into one that the greatest good can come from:

In a place filled with the type of hatred that causes people to strap bombs to their bodies to kill others, the attack has given people a reason to think and, for some, to choose forgiveness and peace.

Ortiz said he has gotten calls from Palestinians who had said if he could forgive a man who bombed his child, then they can forgive what has happened to them. Orthodox Jews have called him and asked forgiveness for their hatred toward Messianic Jews. Muslims have called Ortiz offering blood for transfusions for Ami.

Here is more on Teitel:

(NECN/ABC) – His acts of terror have spanned more than a decade. Jack Teitel, a Jewish-American extremist, was smiling as he appeared in a Jerusalem court today, now charged with multiple counts of murder. But, what has shocked Israelis the most, is that Teitel targeted not only Palestinians, but fellow Jews. Israelis are calling him the “Jewish Terrorist.” And, in a Jerusalem court today Jack Teitel showed no sign of remorse. He is charged with killing two Palestinians in 1997, a taxi driver and a shepherd – in revenge he claims, for Palestinian suicide attacks. In custody, he also professed his hatred left wing Israelis and homosexuals and his charge sheet lists 14 offenses. One of them: sending a bomb to the home of this left wing Israeli professor, and this is him leaving a bomb at the home of a family of Messianic Jews – Jews who believe in Jesus. This 15-year-old boy was the one who opened the parcel. Teitel moved to Israel from Florida in 2000 and set up home in this settlement in the occupied West Bank. Police arrested him five weeks ago distributing posters praising the recent murder of homosexuals in this Tel Aviv club – back at his house they found an arsenal of handguns and rifles. His neighbors and family say they had no idea. For now, his wife Rivka is standing by him, although he has freely admitted the charges against him. For Israelis it’s been an unpleasant reminder, that within their midst there are also Jews capable of terrorism, just a few days after the anniversary of the murder of their prime minister Yitzhak Rabin 14 years ago, by a lone Jewish gunmen.