Moshe Ben-Chaim
Watching the news last night, I further admire President Bush on how he expressed his condolences to the “Palestinian people”. I applauded his denial of any talks with Arafat, viewing him as an unfit partner in peace due to his known terrorist activities and support of Hamas and Hezbulla. Then I heard Clinton’s condolences, and a clear distinction was noticed:
“Bill Clinton offered his
condolences to Arafat's family, to his partners in the PLO and to the
Palestinian people.”
President Bush stated choice words, not recognizing Arafat at all or even mentioning his name, addressing the “Palestinian people” alone:
“We express our
condolences to the Palestinian people. For the Palestinian people, we hope that
the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their aspirations for an
independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors. During
the period of transition that is ahead, we urge all in the region and
throughout the world to join in helping make progress toward these goals and
toward the ultimate goal of peace.”
The President in no way addressed or recognized Arafat, only the Palestinian people, as his concern is to assist a people who have long been misled by this terrorist leader. The President desires to see all mankind benefit from a democratic government, guided by God’s Biblical morality. As President Bush views Palestinians as a people who are comprised of both - terrorists and those who are not – he sees this nation as possibly embracing moral and just codes, while eradicating terror. This is the President’s view and vision.
The President has again earned my respect in his unwavering commitment to identify terrorists, and not conceding to any emotional sentiments, even when “death” evokes these feelings in others. The President has displayed a praiseworthy character. This is no small point, and one, which must be valued by us all. Many times our emotions sway our logic, and when one of the most powerful emotions is awakened, I mean “pity”, most people succumb, abandoning true values. The President has remained firm, consistent, and committed to his clear perception of a just morality. It is disheartening that a majority of Jews do not recognize this, even suggesting the unthinkable: that Arafat deserved medical attention. In contrast, no excuse is available for Bill Clinton and Kofi Anan, both expressing condolences for Arafat’s family, as if some loss exists, thereby displaying some value for this known terrorist. This contrast is the point I wish to commence with.
The Bible contains precise, consistent definitions, including who is categorized as evil, and how evil must be viewed and treated. The Bible is a system of absolute truths and values formulated by God - the first and last word.
In Deuteronomy 25:17-19 we read of the Amalek nation. They sought to destroy the Jews, not based on national or military concerns, but due to their opposition to the philosophical role Jews possess as Bible leaders, and thus, their identification with God. Verse 18 says, “and they did not fear God”. We learn that Amalek is not defined through lineage, but through their deadly values. Therefore, all those who embody the Amalekite personality are equally defined as “Amalek”, and eventually, must be obliterated. Arafat, more than anyone, embodied Amalek’s trait of denying the Jews’ role of Bible recipients and its teachers. His desire for the Palestinian capital in Jerusalem denied God’s Biblical oath that Israel and Jerusalem are gifted to Abraham and his descendants. Our receipt of the Bible on Mount Sinai was for the express purpose of studying God’s word and teaching all mankind in His ways. Arafat saw to it that far fewer Bible scholars exist to address God’s mission. Arafat was truly one who “did not fear God.” This defines the Amalek personality.
So essential is the identification and uprooting of evil, that the Bible’s 613 Commandments include the remembrance of Amalek as one of those commands: (Exod. 17:14) “And God said to Moses, ‘Write this remembrance in a book, and place it in the ears of Joshua, for you shall utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens’.” In this very command, God instructs Moses to “place these words in Joshua’s ears”. Why Joshua? The reason is because Joshua will next lead Israel, thus, God’s command hints to the ‘successive’ need to address new incarnations of Amalek throughout time. Identifying and uprooting evil will always be a leader’s chore. But we may ask why Amalek is a recurring phenomenon.
This idea of “not forgetting” is an essential aspect of wiping out those who oppose God, and His Bible. “Don’t forget” is addressed to a part of the human psyche that wishes such supression. How do we explain this phenomenon? Why would one wish to forget the evils perpetrated by terrorists and evildoers? One answer may be man’s self image. Man wishes to be liked, and this is an understandable need. But man may feel that rejoicing in the death of the wicked, as King Solomon demands, is not morally correct. A person might feel poorly of himself for harboring such sentiments. However, the Bible teaches (Kings I, 3:12) that God granted King Solomon wisdom, unparalleled by any of his predecessors or followers:
“Behold I have done according
to your words, behold I have give to you a wise heart, and understanding, that
none were like you before you, and after you, none will rise like you.”
Knowing Solomon’s wisdom is of unmatched, Divine origin, we must now read his words on the death of evildoers: “and with the destruction of the wicked, [there is] song.” (Ecclesiastes, 11:10)
If we allow any pity for Arafat to resonate, as expressed by Clinton, Anon and France, we then initiate a journey down a dangerous and self-destructive path. For when we lack a clear definition of evil, we cannot identify and eradicate it: certainly when we show pity for evil. Evil will then most certainly thrive.
This view is what both Clinton and Kofi Anon expressed. They identified with Arafat, in some respect. It is one thing to identify a praiseworthy character trait in Jacob’s twin brother Esau, without praising the entire person. But it is dangerous and foolish, when one recognizes the ‘person’ of Arafat, and worse, suggesting he sought peace, and then mourning his death. However, King Solomon makes it clear: one must be on guard of his emotions of remorse that might be expressed at the death of the wicked. Therefore, King Solomon states we must sing: we must actively realign our emotions with God’s Biblical philosophy to deplore evil in death, just as in life. The bodily “action” of song is required to get our emotions back in line with truth: abstract opinions do not work here. Solomon knew how the emotions work, manipulating the mind by embracing remorse: normally a good emotion. One might also feel remorse at ALL deaths. Death is usually looked at as a sorrowful event. Therefore, this uneasy but Biblically mandated, “celebrative” view of Arafat’s death requires us to follow God’s reasoning and not our knee-jerk emotions. We cannot allow this emotion of pity and sorrow to monopolize our minds, and mitigate our view of “evil”. We must now rejoice in the death of this vicious murderer, this slayer of babies.
So evil was Arafat, a true Amalekite, that not only is his existence an evil, but even his remembrance must be blotted out. This is also a Biblical law. For as long as his name is recalled by humanity, the danger exists that man might be attracted to some element of his personality. But even more derailing of God’s goal that man learns the truth, is that God’s name is obscured, so long as evil exists. This is what is meant when Moses said, “For the hand is on the throne of God, warring with Amalek, from generation to generation.” (Exod. 17:16) Moses stated that God’s “hand” (as it were) is raised in pledge of an eternal war against Amalek – any individual who opposes God will be warred with. (Nachmanides) The word for throne in this verse is in an incomplete form, thereby teaching that God’s very name in the world is yet obscured and incomplete, as long as evil has followers. God’s Biblical laws and philosophies must be the exclusive guidebook for all mankind. There mere memory of Arafat is intolerable. President Bush was correct not to mention his name.
“From generation to generation” means that each generation must wage a war on terror, as it can always return. The very germs of Amalek have human personality as their origin, and we are all human. The real chance exists for Arafat’s philosophies to gain ground with others, and murder more innocents. Neo Nazis and other hate groups are proof. Allowing any recognition of evil to go unchallenged, allows the Arafat/Amalekite philosophy to fester, enabling atrocities to once again become commonplace. This cannot be. The evildoers must always be recognized and repudiated, and those who soften the blow, also must be censured: Clinton, Anon and France included.
In addition to God’s Flood and destruction of Sodom, the Bible is replete with instances condemning evildoers, and what our correct sentiments must be:
“God protects all those who love Him, and all the wicked He will destroy.” (Psalms, 145:20)
“God is only merciful to the merciful.” (Talmud Sabbath, 151)
“Because King Saul had mercy on Agag (the Amalekite) there came from him Haman who pained the Jews.” (Path of the Righteous, Gate VIII)
As recipients of God’s Bible, His Torah, which demands a clear identification and sustained condemnation and obliteration of evildoers and their memory, we must be thankful, praising President Bush for not wavering at all from his committed war on terror, as he expressed by not recognizing Arafat, even in death.
Yasser
Arafat, considered the founder of the modern-day terrorism used so widely by
Moslems, began a wave of murder against Jewish targets around the world shortly
after taking control of the PLO in 1968-9. Among the murderous exploits
he inspired were the following:
* the Savoy Hotel attack of March 1975, in which seven hostages and two
soldiers were killed after Fatah terrorists landed on the beach and seized the
hotel.
* the Maalot massacre in May 1974 in which a school building was taken over
while children from Tzfat on a school trip were sleeping there. Three
teachers and 22 schoolchildren were killed.
* the Munich Olympics slaughter, in which eleven Israeli athletes were killed
in September 1972.
* the Nahariya/Avivim school bus attack, May 1970. Palestinian terrorists
crossed the border from Lebanon, ambushed the bus with a barrage of gunfire,
and murdered 12 children and 3 adults, and left several others crippled.
* the Lod Airport Massacre, May 1972, carried out by three Japanese Red Army
terrorists in an operation planned and supported by PLO faction PFLP-GC,
killing 26 and wounding 78.
* the Kiryat Shmonah apartment building attack in April 1974: PFLP-GC
terrorists penetrated the Israeli border town, entered an apartment building on
Yehuda HaLevy St. and killed all 18 residents they found there, including 9
children.
* the Coastal Road bus hijacking of March 1978, in which 11 Fatah terrorists
,who infiltrated by sea, killed a photographer and a taxi driver and hijacked a
bus filled with adults and many children. The terrorists fired on passing
cars from the bus, and when they were finally stopped, they began firing
missiles. The massacre left 35 people dead and 100 injured.
* the brutal murder of three U.S. diplomats held hostage in Khartoum, Sudan, in
March 1973. The terrorists demanded the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the
Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. Arafat was recorded as having
given the execution orders.
* the Achille Lauro hijacking of a cruise ship in October 1985, in which
wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, 69, was shot and thrown overboard into the
ocean. Israeli intelligence later showed that the terrorists had been in
contact, via the ship's radio telephone, with a PLF coordinator in Genoa, who
in turn was in touch with PLO headquarters in Tunis for final instructions.
Arafat was famous for denying responsibility for the terrorism committed by his
underlings. Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former Romanian intelligence official who
defected to the West after working closely with Arafat, writes that Romanian
dictator Ceausescu advised him how to do this:
"In the shadow of your government-in-exile, you
can keep as many operational groups as you want, as long as they are not
publicly connected with your name. They could mount endless operations all
around the world, while your name and your 'government' would remain pristine
and unspoiled, ready for negotiations and further recognition.”
Describing Arafat in his memoirs, Pacepa writes that Arafat represented
"an incredible account of fanaticism ... of tangled oriental political
maneuvers, of lies, of embezzled PLO funds deposited in Swiss banks, and of
homosexual relationships, beginning with his teacher when he was a teenager and
ending with his current bodyguards. After reading that report, I felt a
compulsion to take a shower whenever I had been kissed by Arafat, or even just
shaken his hand."
Internationally, in 1972 alone, PLO groups blew up a West German electricity
plant, a Dutch gas plant and an oil refinery in Trieste, Italy. In 1975,
the presence of Arafat and his 15,000-strong army in Lebanon triggered a bloody
civil war that raged on for nearly two decades, costing 40,000 lives.
Arafat was banished from Jordan to Lebanon in 1970 in the course of a violent
war against the PLO by King Hussein, and from Lebanon to Tunis in 1982
following the Peace for Galilee War. He orchestrated the first
"intifada," beginning in 1987, from Tunis, though it had supposedly
started spontaneously.
In 1994, following the Oslo Accords, Arafat was allowed to enter Judea, Samaria
and Gaza. Israel essentially forbade him from leaving Ramallah for the
last three years of his life. Palestinian terrorists, funded and
encouraged by the "statesman" Arafat, have murdered over 1,300
Israelis since the signing of the Oslo Agreement.