Opinion Forum

Heroic Terrorist

December 20th, 2008

Ami Pedazhur, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin, wrote an interesting article on terrorism and its methods over the years in The New York Times on December 20. He relates that in 1979, Samir Kuntar

led a group of terrorists to the beach of Nahariya and shot a police officer and a civilian, Danny Haran, before smashing the skull of Haran’s 4-year-old daughter, Einat. Mr. Kuntar was released this year from Israel in a prisoner exchange, and in Damascus was awarded the Syrian Order of Merit.

You can’t find the words Islam, Muslim, islamist, and islamic in the article. Either Professor Pedazhur was smart enough to know that the NYT wouldn’t publish the article with those kinds of details, or some editor removed them. Kind of surprising that the editors left in the fact that an Arab government which supports islamist terrorism considers Sami Kuntar, a savage murderer, to be a hero.

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: islamist, Israel, press, terrorism
Categories: Media, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

One Response to “Heroic Terrorist”

Kevin | December 21st, 2008 at 11:22 am

In all fairness and honesty, there is both a philosophical and a theological argument to be made here.

Does claiming to be a Muslim make one a Muslim?

That Sami Kuntar is a murderer is objective fact. That he is a “Muslim” or “Islamist” seems to me to be significantly more subjective.

Look at it another way. Would you accept Al Sharpton as a stand-in for “Christian”? Many obviously would. But many more obviously wouldn’t. It’s no different with this Kuntar character.

As for the Syrians… Their ethics are very nearly matched by Israelis accepting settlers who maim or murder Palestinians. The whole region is swimming in blood and I personally see precious few on either side whose hands aren’t bloodied.

PS. I am an ethnic Jew… technically. The reality is that I have very little Jewish blood but I do have the maternal lineage that is deemed all important in determining these things. Thus I am a Jew.