The Executioner
by David Wilder
The Jewish Community of Hebron
9/11 2005
The irony of it all. Sometime tonight, probably still 9/11 Israel time, and undoubtedly still 9/11 New York time, Osama bin Laden will finally receive the first installment of his due reward.
One might expect, that on such an inauspicious day, most countries of the 'free world,' i.e., those opposing barbaric Islamic terror, would make a concerted effort to express their repugnance to mass slaughter of innocent civilians, such as those who perished when the twin towers collapsed and the Pentagon was bombed, four years ago. One might expect a unified show of disgust at the use of primitive butchery to make a political, religious, or economic point.
The last thing any normal person would expect, on such an ominous date, would be total surrender to terror. However, that is exactly what is happening. In the coming hours, the State of Israel is going to deal Arafat the beginning of his posthumous victory, and send strong signals to bin Laden that he's following the right track. The last Israeli soldier will leave the land once called Gush Katif, and all of Gaza, Israelrein for the first time in thirty eight years, will fully belong to the terrorists.
It has been reported that Neve Dekalim, z"l hy"d, will be called Arafat City. Who knows what will become of Kfar Darom z"l hy"d, Morag z"l, Netzarim z"l hy"d and the other communities. What is certain is that our enemy will have cause to celebrate, and celebrate big time, they will. Because Israel, the country of Entebbe, leading the fight against world terror, caved in. Israel collapsed. Israel acquiesced to the Arafats and the bin Ladens of the world. On 9/11.
It's mind-boggling.
It's even more mind-boggling that most people, intelligent people, around the world, haven't picked up the significance of the event. And the most mind-boggling fact is that not only the terrorists will be celebrating tonight. Jews, in Israel and elsewhere, and leaders of the 'free world,' will raise a figurative 'l'chaim' to Ariel Sharon's great courage and statesmanship. The same people who lambaste bin Laden, and who are investing millions of dollars to find and kill one of the most evil men ever to walk the face of the earth, will give credit to Osama's alter ego, thank G-d, dead and buried, Arafat. They both desired the same thing – the difference being that the former is smarter than the latter. But that makes no difference. Arafat and bin Laden represent exactly the same thing – kill, kill, and kill, and you will be justly rewarded. So it is written in the Koran. And if anyone thought it wasn't true, well, Israel is helping the world to believe.
Maybe, just maybe, we might not expect the rest of the world to catch on – after all, Islamic terror in the United State is only a few years old. It takes time for the truth to sink in. But Israel? How many people have died at the hands and bombs of our bloodthirsty neighbors? Obviously, not enough. We still haven't learned. G-d help us.
The past few weeks have been filled with finger-pointing. This one is guilty, that one is guilty, we should have done this and we should have done that. It's true; the events of the past year or so must be studied, analyzed, lessons learned and corrected, while getting ready for round two. But, somewhere we've lost track of the real villain, and it's really too soon to forget.
When my friend Noam Sudri was being expelled from his home in Kfar Darom, z"l hy"d, he asked the soldier pulling him out, "if you were given orders to destroy the Kotel – the Western Wall in Jerusalem, would you do it?" The soldier replied positively. So then Noam asked him, "and if you were given orders to shoot and kill me…?" The soldier said that he'd have to think about that.
The brainwashing involved in the destruction of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron is beyond any of our wildest imaginations. The following story, as far as I know, has not yet been publicized. The names and places are intentionally left out, for the benefit of the people involved. But, it is one hundred percent true.
A young Israeli officer, religious, from a community in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza), was in a bind. He was ordered to participate in the expulsion, what should he do? Consulting with rabbinic authorities, who knew him and had taught him, the answer was clear: Disobey orders – don't partake in expelling Jews from their homes.
But, as an officer, feeling responsibility towards the soldiers under his command, he was reluctant to abandon them to their fate, without him. Recent events caused him to think twice, maybe, despite everything, he should stay with them. And that's what he did. With a kippah (yarmulke) on his head, in direct contradiction to all he'd learned and believed in, he participated in the expulsion process.
And then, students from his old high school, a yeshiva where he had studied, saw him, saw him not as an old friend or comrade, but 'one of them,' of the evictionists. They yelled at him, screamed at him, disgraced him. "How could you – how could you be ONE OF THEM?!
It was too much. The young officer couldn't take it, couldn't live with the incongruity, obeying orders or obeying G-d, responsibility to a squadron of soldiers, or a responsibility to the Jewish people, to Eretz Yisrael, to the Torah.
The young officer put his weapon to his head and fired.
This man, he didn't commit suicide. He didn't kill himself. He was executed. He was murdered, no less than thousands of Jews who have been slaughtered by Islamic terrorists. The only real difference is that all the others, they were killed by Arab terrorists. This man, he was executed by one of his own. By the one person who gave the orders, by the one man standing behind the brainwashing, by the one man who, himself, accepted responsibility for the destruction of Gush Katif, by the Prime Executioner of the State of Israel.
Today, 9/11, four years later, Ariel Sharon and Osama bin Laden are on center stage: Gentlemen, please take a bow.
