PrintMarch 27, 2011
Remember Haman
While the new Arab Awakening has seized the world's imagination, and a natural catastrophe has kept the world transfixed to hourly updates from Japan, soldiers of Allah, aching for butchery, have not been distracted by democratic forces sweeping the Middle East or seismic forces sweeping Asia.
It is the Purim season when Jews celebrate their escape from genocide in the 4th century B.C.E. at the hands of Haman, vizier of the Persian Empire under King Ahasuerus whom historians identify as Artaxerxes II. Haman was a descendent of the Amalekites, daunting enemies of the Jews from earliest times who slaughtered Hebrew slaves escaping Egypt during the Exodus. The Torah mentions them three times, noting their strength, ruthlessness, cunning and tyranny, and the Koran mentions them six times. Arabic for Amalek, imlaq, means giant. Arab historian, Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Mas'udi, says the Amalekites originated in Mecca before the time of Abraham, and the Torah calls them "the first of the nations." (Numbers 24:20.)
Now more than ever, Persian Amalekites must be kept in the forefront of consciousness as compelling world events threaten to distract us.
Last week, their proxies slit the throats of Jewish babies, visiting a personal holocaust on the two surviving Fogel children, an accidental oversight of Hamas's knife-wielding monsters, and on Sunday, Hamas unleashed a new barrage of rockets and mortars at other innocent Israelis, hoping to turn them all into Fogels.
The attacks are nothing new. Hamas, Iran's Gazan spear, has lobbed over 8,000 projectiles into Israeli villages and cities since the Jews evacuated the strip in 2005. The recent pattern, however, is noteworthy. In 2011, Hamas has already launched 124 jihad rockets, double the number of last year. Nearly half of them rained down on Israeli civilians last week alone.
U.N. Security Council resolution 1747 forbids Iran from exporting arms. Iran was not deterred. Last week, Israel seized the German-owned, Liberian-flagged, French-operated ship, Victoria, 200 miles off its Mediterranean coast, sailed it into the port of Ashdod, and offloaded thirty-nine containers the ship manifest said were filled with "cotton and lentils." Instead, inside were 60 and 120 millimeter mortar shells, rocket launchers, radar systems, nearly 70,000 rounds of rifle ammunition, and critically, Chinese-made C-704 shore-to-sea missiles sent by Iran to Hamas in Gaza. These powerful missiles carry 130 kg. warheads and have a range of 35 kilometers. The war-mongering mullahs were so bold they left Farsi instructions inside the missile cases.
This was hardly Iran's first war crime against Israel. In 2002, Israel seized the Palestinian ship, the Karine A, carrying fifty tons of Iranian weapons, including two and half tons of pure explosives. In 2006, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1701 to end the Lebanon war. It forbids arms shipments to Hezbollah. Iran was not deterred. On November 4, 2009, the Israeli Navy seized the Francop cargo ship carrying 500 tons of weaponry from Iran bound for Hezbollah, the "Party of God" in Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the Security Council convene a special meeting in response. Predictably, nothing happened. War crimes against Israel, just like the slaughter of Jewish babies, simply are not considered important by the so-called "international community."
The weapons were loaded on board the Victoria in Latakia, a coastal city of Iran's poodle, Syria. As Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, pointed out, Iran's latest attempt to arm Hamas was an act of war, and under international law, Israel is within her rights to attack Iran in response - now or sometime in the future.
Where is the dithering U.N.? It is finally willing to rein in madman Moammar Gaddafi, intent on burning down his village to save it, but not Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and their Hamas allies.
State Department Spokesman Mark C. Toner released a statement lamely reiterating America's "strong condemnation of illicit smuggling activities," and the matter quickly fell off the front pages.
For decades, war or the threat of war with Israel kept restive Arabs in check, redirecting their frustrations. Their leaders were not at fault for stagnant economies, backward education, lack of basic freedoms, and miserable lives - it was the evil Jews. After all, Mohammed said they descended from pigs and monkeys (Koran 5:60) which Palestinian clerics repeat ad nauseam in mosques and on television.
Today, the bloodthirsty theocrats in Tehran, intent on becoming Middle East hegemons, are scared to death Iranian public squares soon will be filled with decent folk like those in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Syria who are sick of living in totalitarian hell and willing to risk life and limb to stand up to the tyrants who have kept their societies in darkness for decades. Most Iranians oppose the mullahcracy and want an open society. Hence, the Iranian government is desperate to provoke a war with Israel.
While Japan and Arab democrats deserve our fervent support and attention, we ignore Iran's latest act of war at our peril.
Mr. Abady taught criminal and constitutional law at the City University's Urban Legal Studies program, and was Editor-in-Chief of the largest weekly newspaper in Westchester County, New York.
Update: Although some sources say Purim happened in the 5th Century B.C.E. as I stated in the article, apparently more accurate sources put it in the 4th Century B.C.E. (specifically the year 355 B.C.E.), so that date has been changed
Update: Although some sources say Purim happened in the 5th Century B.C.E. as I stated in the article, apparently more accurate sources put it in the 4th Century B.C.E. (specifically the year 355 B.C.E.), so that date has been changed
