9 thoughts on “Pakistani-American Gunman Kills 1, Wounds 5 in Seattle Jewish Federation Shooting – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. While we know very little about the attacker and the motives for the attack other than they must be rooted in great Arab anger toward Israel and the Jewish community for the violence in Lebanon,

    He said that he is angry at Israel, but he didn’t say what for. It could be Lebanon, it could be something else. To rally for a ceasefire based upon the actions of a lunatic is Chamberlainesque. So my dear Neville, I would suggest that we wait and see what happens.

    Unfortunately this jerk is now in the category of Buford Furrow and the Egyptian who shot up the El Al counter at LAX.

  2. He said that he is angry at Israel, but he didn’t say what for. It could be Lebanon, it could be something else.

    Hmmm. Angry at Israel? Couldn’t have anything to do with Lebanon or the Gaza invasion, now, could it? Probably just had a bad flight once on El Al and needed to vent.

    The shooter may or may not be a lunatic. But even if he is, then there are tons more out there waiting to take their turn next. The best way to steal their thunder is to lance the boil & negotiate an end to both the Lebanon and Palestinian conflicts.

  3. When we were on our honeymoon in Paris, my wife and I were a bit taken aback by the security at the Jewish Art Museum. Sadly this will have to become the norm.

    As far as the attacks from the right on your comments, I have to agree – I would formulate it as “This is yet another reason for the urgency for a cease-fire”…

    Especially considering the futility of policy. Whether or not the shooter is a lunatic of one sort – I can’t stop beliving that the one thing the US, Britain, and Israel have in common, are lunatics of a different sort setting military policy.

    The attack on Lebanon will not achieve ANY of Israel’s goals, and will in fact do the opposite. Like in Iraq, only deploying a massive number of troops – with enormous consequences in loss of life – would Israel be capable of defeating Hezbollah. In Iraq it’s way too late. In Israel, even if they were willing to commit those forces, there would be many unintended consequences.

    So by continuing the bombinb campaign, all that will be accomplished is more loss of civilian life, more loss of infrastructure. More hatred of Israel, more hatred of the US. The winners will be Hezbollah who will be viewed as defeating the IDF. Iran and Syria will also be winners…

    And the consequences in Seattle are unspeakable… So many lives now will never be the same.

    The only answer is peace. The only long term solution is peace. Violence only breeds more violence. The neo-conservative idea that violence is the answer is complete and utter lunacy.

  4. I, too have read/heard about the shooting that took place at Seattle’s Jewish Community, and have to say that I sincerely hope that the person responsible gets a life imprisonment sentence, because that’s exactly what he deserves.

    However, as horrific as the present situation in the Mideast is, and as excessive as Israel’s incursions into Lebanon, not to mention their horrific policies in the Occupied Territories are, and as much as I agree that negociations for a permanent peace pact between Israel and the Arab World, including the Palestinians are, along with the implementation of the necessary 2-state solution, I also believe that this person responsible for the shootings at the Seattle Jewish Community Center is somebody who has always harbored a hatred for Jews, and that his anger towards Israel is a rationale for going out and doing something that he would’ve gone out and done sooner or later anyway.

    This kind of lone wolf behaviour pattern, where an independently operating person like the one above takes matters into his own hands, is by no means new. Timothy McVeigh, who, with no threats or anythings, went out, planned and carried out the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City is one example of that. Other examples, which go furthur back are James Earl Ray, the man convicted and imprisoned for life after assasinating Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as Sirhan Sirhan, the mentally ill Palestinian man who shot and killed Robert F. Kennedy, supposedly for his support of Israel during the 6-Day War. Both of these assisinations occurred during the year 1968, a year, that, as Jules Witt, the author of the book “1968: The Year the Dream Died”, pointed out, that the dream really did die.

  5. his anger towards Israel is a rationale for going out and doing something that he would’ve gone out and done sooner or later anyway.

    That the shooter hates Israel and possibly Jews seems almost undeniable. But that he would’ve commited the crime w/o a spur to do so is by no means a given. Those driven to political or religious murder may be motivated by a specific event or act; or they may be driven by something more internal to themselves alone.

    I’d argue that the war in Lebanon & the destruction wrought there by Israel could be a powerful motivating factor. That in no way excuses his crime–far from it–but it places it into context.

  6. While it’s possible that the latest crisis in the Mideast is a motivating factor, I firmly believe that there was undoubtedly more to it than that—that there were other things at play. The person responsible for this hateful crime was undoubtedly an extremely hate-filled individual who was looking for an excuse to go out and commit a crime like this, and–having said that, if it weren’t his anger over Israel’s invasion of Lebanon that motivated him, it would’ve undoubtedly been something else, imo.

  7. Regarding the comment

    “What has brought us to this pass? Undoubtedly the ongoing U.S. war in Iraq plays a role. And the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays an even larger role for people like our gunman.”

    In March 1994, a busload of Lubavitch yeshiva students while driving on the Brooklyn Bridge were fired upon by a Lebanese immigrant Rashid Baz resulting in the murder of Ari Halberstam, A”H.

    At the time, Rabin and company were involved deeply in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority for the previous six months following the initial agreement of the Oslo accords and it seemed there was progress.

    If I remember correctly, Baz’s defense attorney mentioned something about his client experiencing a flashback of Israel’s invasion of his village in Lebanon in 1982. Of course, how black suited and hatted yeshiva students could be mistaken for IDF soldiers and why Baz had several shotguns in his car was too suspicious for the Grand Jury panel to deliver anythng but a guilty plea and fortunately Baz is serving a 150-year sentence.

    While defense lawyers have no shortage of cynical ideas in their arsenal which is guaranteed to infuriate at least someone, I had a sense of foreboding over Baz’ particular defense.

    This should make one very hesitant and suspicious towards accepting the ideas about political cause-and-effect pretexts which inevitably gives a shade of respectability to their defense.

    I smell a double-standard. If a neo-Nazi shoots a Jewish person would not any defense with a political tinge be handed the dismissal that it rightly deserves? Would he be given any creedence that somehow the Jewish collective was in some way responsible for one of their own getting murdered?

    However, now if any member of the Islamic Umma has a beef with Jews all he has to do is cite some injustice committed by the State of Israel whether past (as in Baz’ case) and he can rest assure that there will be those in the victim’s country or community ready and willing to politicize the murder as an extension of MidEast or international conflicts and it can even play a role in determining an outcome.

    IMO, this is not only a double standard, it sends a dangerous signal to would be terrorists that their act of murder will be given a more respectable analysis than for example a white power killer.

    In the 70s the KKK once bombed a schoolbus full of children that was part of a school busing campaign. Imagine if at the time a local legislator who was known to oppose busing said “The KKK was of course wrong and the perpetrator should be given the maximum penalty. But also, in the interest of preventing similar reoccurances, we should stop the busing campaign”.

  8. now if any member of the Islamic Umma has a beef with Jews all he has to do is cite some injustice committed by the State of Israel whether past (as in Baz’ case) and he can rest assure that there will be those in the victim’s country or community ready and willing to politicize the murder as an extension of MidEast or international conflicts

    Let me make clear that I do not countenance such violence by saying it has a political context that somehow excuses it. No, far from it. Anyone who kills while motivated by hate should be fully prosecuted (though this individual seems genuinely mentally ill which complicates that). But I am saying that Israeli actions can exacerbate the hate and that I’d rather see less such motivation or fuel provided to the lunatics if possible.

  9. A hate crime or a terrorist act is a hate crime or a terrorist act, regardless of who committs it, and, it’s agreed that that a permanent, just peace settlements of the present ongoing crises in the Middle East is necessary. While it’s possible that the present turmoil in that part of the world could be a motivating factor, it also doesn’t change the fact that, historically, there’ve been people who’ve committed those kinds of acts WITHOUT the impetus of incidents like those. Just my two cents.

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