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Jewish World ReviewSept. 19, 2003 / 22 Elul, 5763 Sam Schulman
I Second Uri Dan --- Try Arafat for Murder
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Trying Eichmann - for the murder of individual Israelis and Americans - would have the virtue of using the "world community's" own favored tools - the trial - for a serious purpose. A prosecutor could easily make the case that Arafat has ordered the deaths of individual civilians throughout his career - and it would case light on his role in terrorist murders from the 1974 Olympics to the recent murders by his own Al-Aqsa Brigade, performed by his direct orders. It would give Israel the opportunity to show that its citizens have the same standing as citizens of America and European countries to demand criminal justice from terrorists - and by bringing in citizens of other countries as victims of his crime, creating solidarity behind its efforts to fight terror at home. And it would focus the world's attention on the hypocrisy of the UN and bien pensants everywhere - for Arafat is clearly far more guilty of killing civilians than, for example, Milosevic. The case that so many brave columnists like those who write for JewishWorldReview.com have made - that far from being a "partner in peace," Arafat has used the "peace process" intermittently - at other times, riots and murders to achieve his unwavering aim - the eradication of Israel within the pre-1967 borders. How much more effective would it be to have the world's press present at a trial - rather than mingling with the flunkeys, henchmen and useful idiots that now hover around Arafat - and would continue to do so even if Arafat were exiled far away.
Israel has been dithering too long, and has erred in doing so in public. Now is the time for a new idea - and a simple one: justice for Arafat.
JWR contributor Sam Schulman is a New York writer whose work appears in New York Press, the Spectator (London), and elsewhere, and was formerly publisher of Wigwag and a professor of English at Boston University.You may contact him by clicking here.
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