Gastón Perpiñal
was 15 years old and had immigrated to Israel from the Province of Córdoba,
Argentina, seven months ago. He had been an excellent student in Córdoba,
but a new language in Israel made studies harder. Therefore he was very
pleased to have just gotten an A in math.
He was on his way home from school at five in the afternoon and was passing by the shopping center of Kfar Saba, where Julio Magran, 51, another Argentine immigrant who had been in Israel for one year, was a security guard. He had been trained to detect suspected suicide bombers – those who have explosives strapped around their waists and are prepared to take as many people as possible (as long as they are Jews) with them through the jaws of death. Presumably there is a point where the victims’ souls are separated from the assassin’s, for the latter is destined to eternal bliss in paradise as reward for his evil deed.
A good security guard must be highly motivated and have intuition – and Julio had both. He spotted a young man slipping through a side door into the center. Convinced that there was something wrong, Julio jumped the man just as he detonated the explosives, thereby preventing many more deaths. He didn’t save his compatriot, Gastón, however, who happened to be next to the assassin at that moment.
The Jahid Islamica Suraya al Qud, who identified the suicide as Nabil Sawalhe, of Nablus, carried out the attack. So in reality there were more than two victims. Nabil must be counted as the third victim, along with the two Argentine-Israelis. He had been so soul-washed that he believed the sheiks and mullahs with the unshakeable faith needed to commit suicide for a false cause and a lying, fanatical interpretation of religion.
I refer above to the Palestine cause as a false cause. This will surely seem strange to the European peaceniks who demonstrate in the streets wearing PLO checkered headscarves and demand that Israel stop the violence. I would not object to them demonstrating for the rights of the Palestinian people, but to equate Arafat and the PLO and the suicide bombers as peace loving and Israel as the villain is a demonstration of well-intentioned ignorance. It is almost as bad as the cynical politicians who demand a “democratic” Palestinian state, claiming that the bestowing of statehood would somehow stem the killing.
The real villains of the piece are, however, the despots governing Arab states (Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, et al) who finance, train and arm the Palestinian terror. They need the Palestine-Israel conflict in order to retain power, divert their people’s attention from their corruption and oppression and supply a sacrificial scapegoat - Israel. Peace in the region is not on their agenda.
This doesn’t mean that the Israeli’s hands are clean. Their policy of an eye for an eye, besides being brutal, is ineffective, as it seems to motivate the Palestinians to even more violence, and plays into the hands of the movers. The parliamentary system, which works positively in, for example, Germany, where a small party like the Greens exerts a positive influence unrelated to their numbers (9% of the electorate), in Israel is devastating. The small fanatically religious parties are able to dictate policies which are contrary to Israel’s interests. The result is a democratic theocracy, an oxymoron if there ever was one. Israel would do well to re-invent itself as a secular state and enter into the twenty-first century before it’s too late. Paradoxically, in my experience at least, most Israelis are secular-minded, but the historical persecution of the Jews holds them in the straightjacket of a religious state, which helps to make them prey to the Muslim fanatics of their own theocracies.
Southern Cross Review is currently publishing a series of Lectures by Rudolf Steiner about the manifestations of karma. What must we think about the karmic relationship between the 15 year old and the 51 year old Argentines who emigrated to Israel to escape the economic depression in their home country, and the Palestinian youth who killed them without even knowing of their existence, and who killed himself without knowing who he was and who had been convinced by the real killers that death is more valuable than life? I don’t know the answer, but it’s worth thinking about.
FTS
He was on his way home from school at five in the afternoon and was passing by the shopping center of Kfar Saba, where Julio Magran, 51, another Argentine immigrant who had been in Israel for one year, was a security guard. He had been trained to detect suspected suicide bombers – those who have explosives strapped around their waists and are prepared to take as many people as possible (as long as they are Jews) with them through the jaws of death. Presumably there is a point where the victims’ souls are separated from the assassin’s, for the latter is destined to eternal bliss in paradise as reward for his evil deed.
A good security guard must be highly motivated and have intuition – and Julio had both. He spotted a young man slipping through a side door into the center. Convinced that there was something wrong, Julio jumped the man just as he detonated the explosives, thereby preventing many more deaths. He didn’t save his compatriot, Gastón, however, who happened to be next to the assassin at that moment.
The Jahid Islamica Suraya al Qud, who identified the suicide as Nabil Sawalhe, of Nablus, carried out the attack. So in reality there were more than two victims. Nabil must be counted as the third victim, along with the two Argentine-Israelis. He had been so soul-washed that he believed the sheiks and mullahs with the unshakeable faith needed to commit suicide for a false cause and a lying, fanatical interpretation of religion.
I refer above to the Palestine cause as a false cause. This will surely seem strange to the European peaceniks who demonstrate in the streets wearing PLO checkered headscarves and demand that Israel stop the violence. I would not object to them demonstrating for the rights of the Palestinian people, but to equate Arafat and the PLO and the suicide bombers as peace loving and Israel as the villain is a demonstration of well-intentioned ignorance. It is almost as bad as the cynical politicians who demand a “democratic” Palestinian state, claiming that the bestowing of statehood would somehow stem the killing.
The real villains of the piece are, however, the despots governing Arab states (Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, et al) who finance, train and arm the Palestinian terror. They need the Palestine-Israel conflict in order to retain power, divert their people’s attention from their corruption and oppression and supply a sacrificial scapegoat - Israel. Peace in the region is not on their agenda.
This doesn’t mean that the Israeli’s hands are clean. Their policy of an eye for an eye, besides being brutal, is ineffective, as it seems to motivate the Palestinians to even more violence, and plays into the hands of the movers. The parliamentary system, which works positively in, for example, Germany, where a small party like the Greens exerts a positive influence unrelated to their numbers (9% of the electorate), in Israel is devastating. The small fanatically religious parties are able to dictate policies which are contrary to Israel’s interests. The result is a democratic theocracy, an oxymoron if there ever was one. Israel would do well to re-invent itself as a secular state and enter into the twenty-first century before it’s too late. Paradoxically, in my experience at least, most Israelis are secular-minded, but the historical persecution of the Jews holds them in the straightjacket of a religious state, which helps to make them prey to the Muslim fanatics of their own theocracies.
Southern Cross Review is currently publishing a series of Lectures by Rudolf Steiner about the manifestations of karma. What must we think about the karmic relationship between the 15 year old and the 51 year old Argentines who emigrated to Israel to escape the economic depression in their home country, and the Palestinian youth who killed them without even knowing of their existence, and who killed himself without knowing who he was and who had been convinced by the real killers that death is more valuable than life? I don’t know the answer, but it’s worth thinking about.
FTS