Tomorrow is the 14th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He was murdered not by a Palestinian terrorist, not by a member of an Arab terrorist organization, but by Yigal Amir, a right-wing fanatic and Orthodox Jew. Amir opposed Israel's participtaion in the Oslo accords. Along with his brother, Hagai Amir, and their friend Dror Adani, he plotted and carried out an assassination as Rabin left a rally supporting the peace process.
May Rabin, a Righteous Man, be remembered forever.
I recently attended a presentation by Amos Guiora, a professor of law at the University of Utah and a well-known and well-respected authority on counter-terrorism. Professor Guiora lists among his other accomplishments his activities as a "Research Fellow at the International Institute on Counter-Terrorism, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzeliya, Israel, a Corresponding Member, The Netherlands School of Human Rights Research, University of Utrecht School of Law and has been awarded a Senior Specialist Fulbright Fellowship for The Netherlands in 2008." He is the author of an amazing paper on the dangers of religous extremism to modern society, which can be found at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1427998#
In the article, Professor Guiora notes that religious extremism can be distinguished by the lack of respect for secular authority. He offers that, as a short-term solution, governments must take extraordinary measures to suppress religous extremism and the terrorism that it begets. But, and this was a key point in his presentation, the mainstream members of the major religions must distance themselves, publicly and without equivocation, from the fanatics that menace our society. Amir's action contradict the spirit and the letter of the Torah, the Talmud and modern Judaism. Rabbis, priests, imams, et cetera must publicly denounce the murderers and suicide bombers. Oherwise, they will continue their terrorism.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel, often spoke against Rabin at rallies organized by the Likud party, where Rabin was portrayed in a Nazi uniform or shown in the cross-hairs of a gun. You need to know that Rabin was a member of the Israeli Palmach in the years before independence. He fough in the same mission wher Moshe Dayan lost his eye. Rabin served in the IDF. As Prime Minister, he was responsible for the airlift at Entebbe. This was not a man that deserved to be demonized by his opponents. By speaking at these rallies, Netanyahu lent credence to the fanatics. As far as I am concerned, he has the blood of an innocent on his hands.
In remembering Yitzhak Rabi, let me offer the words of Hannah Senesh, Jewish poet and freedom fighter:
“There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind.”