Yassin’s Execution
People are asking me what I think about Ahmed Yassin’s execution by the IDF. Like many Israelis, I’m anxious about what the response will be, but I believe he deserved what he got.
Yassin was a murderer, plain and simple. Some people want to portray him as a harmless, wheelchair-bound old man, but one does not have to be young or able-bodied to incite to murder. Read Yassin’s own words at Meryl Yourish’s site for a clearer picture of the man and what he stood for.
Joseph Farah, an American of Arab extraction, gives his take on the assassination here. I think it’s well worth reading.
And what do I say? Good riddance to murdering rubbish.
I believe the Arab-Israeli conflict is not about a land dispute. If it were, Oslo would have solved it. This conflict is about one thing: long-standing, implacable hatred of Jews. I believe that a profound and impartial investigation of its history, together with a good, hard look at where the billions of dollars the European Union sent to the Palestinian Authority over the past decade ended up, will bear this assertion out. I also believe that terrorism in any form, whoever the perpetrators may be and whatever grievance they may claim, is not a legitimate expression of anger or frustration, as so many would have us believe. It is pure evil.
Just this week I had to pass up the chance to stay the night at my friend’s house in the north because that would have meant coming home by public transportation on Friday morning, when it is especially crowded, and I was afraid of what could happen. I still am. Last month the man who made sandwiches for people at my workplace, who was married and the father of two children, was murdered in a bus bombing. He was returning to his shop after giving in his new car for repairs, and when I went to his store for sandwiches that morning, shortly after the attack, I found his brother on the phone trying frantically to locate him. It was too late. My co-workers and I will never again enjoy the sandwiches he made with such care and good cheer, and his family will never see him again.
I do not gloat over the death of any human being, no matter how despicable his actions. But I am not the least bit sorry Yassin is dead. Time will tell whether I—and the rest of the country—ought to be relieved.
