I suppose he had a difficult childhood, or something, and we should treat him gently.
See this article in the Jerusalem Post.
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Antigonos has lived for slightly more than 40 years in Jerusalem, and is by profession a Certified Nurse Midwife for 50 years, [just retired in the spring of 2012] in three countries, with an interest in history, Judaism, embroidery and other handcrafts, cooking, and suffers from intense curiosity about the world in general, a generalized cynicism and, occasionally a certain ennui, if not depression, about the way things are turning out.
Milon (Glossary)
OLEH: an immigrant to Israel. The root of the word comes from the verb "to ascend". The plural is "olim". A female is an "olah", and a bunch of female immigrants is "olot".
YORED: an emigrant from Israel. The word means "to descend". Plural is "yordim".
MA'ABARA: pl. "ma'abarot". Tent cities which were built as transit camps in the years immediately following Israel's independence, as nearly two million Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab countries arrived, often only with the clothes they wore.
MEDURA: pl. "medurot". Campfire.
TZENA: austerity, the name given to the period between Israel's independence and the mid 1950s, when times were very tough.
SHEMITTA: every seventh year, the land in The Land is supposed to lie fallow. Since this would lead to starvation, the ancient Sages developed a whole body of law that permitted cultivation using certain methods and/or the legal fiction that the fields in question were "sold" to a non-Jew for the year. Not all the ultra-Orthodox (virtually none of whom are farmers, and who lived for centuries in non-Jewish communities in the Diaspora where this wasn't a problem) will accept these ways around the commandment, and will only eat either imported produce or produce grown at vast expense in trays of soil raised OFF the ground (therefore not technically being grown "in" the Holy Land. Only a Jew would think of this)
CHAMETZ: literally, "leaven". It means all food which it is prohibited to have "in one's possession" during Passover. Different Jewish ethnic groups interpret this in different ways. Obviously yeast and fermented items are forbidden, but some communities will eat legumes and others will not; some will not eat anything made with matzah or matzah meal which has been in contact with water (gebrochts) like matzah balls. Some communities will eat rice, others will not.
TZITZIT: ritual fringes that males wear, often on the edges of a scapular worn under a shirt, or on the prayer shawl worn in the synagogue. There is a precise way to tie them, so that the knots and twists will add up to 613, the number of the commandments in the Torah.
SHAKSHOUKA: Eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce. See http://www.recipezaar.com/148450 for a recipe.
TESHUVA: Penitence.
LITVAK: An very Orthodox Jew from Lithuania. The foremost sage in that community, in the 19th century, was the Vilna Gaon, who excommunicated the hassidim as schismatics because of their mystic belief in their "wonder-working" rabbis. The Hassidim promptly returned the favor. "Litvaks" are noted for their minute, but rationalist, dissection of Jewish texts, and have a distinctive accent in Hebrew. The two communities both wear the black long coats (capotes), have long beards and sidelocks, and are often confused by outsiders as being the same.
YORED: an emigrant from Israel. The word means "to descend". Plural is "yordim".
MA'ABARA: pl. "ma'abarot". Tent cities which were built as transit camps in the years immediately following Israel's independence, as nearly two million Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab countries arrived, often only with the clothes they wore.
MEDURA: pl. "medurot". Campfire.
TZENA: austerity, the name given to the period between Israel's independence and the mid 1950s, when times were very tough.
SHEMITTA: every seventh year, the land in The Land is supposed to lie fallow. Since this would lead to starvation, the ancient Sages developed a whole body of law that permitted cultivation using certain methods and/or the legal fiction that the fields in question were "sold" to a non-Jew for the year. Not all the ultra-Orthodox (virtually none of whom are farmers, and who lived for centuries in non-Jewish communities in the Diaspora where this wasn't a problem) will accept these ways around the commandment, and will only eat either imported produce or produce grown at vast expense in trays of soil raised OFF the ground (therefore not technically being grown "in" the Holy Land. Only a Jew would think of this)
CHAMETZ: literally, "leaven". It means all food which it is prohibited to have "in one's possession" during Passover. Different Jewish ethnic groups interpret this in different ways. Obviously yeast and fermented items are forbidden, but some communities will eat legumes and others will not; some will not eat anything made with matzah or matzah meal which has been in contact with water (gebrochts) like matzah balls. Some communities will eat rice, others will not.
TZITZIT: ritual fringes that males wear, often on the edges of a scapular worn under a shirt, or on the prayer shawl worn in the synagogue. There is a precise way to tie them, so that the knots and twists will add up to 613, the number of the commandments in the Torah.
SHAKSHOUKA: Eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce. See http://www.recipezaar.com/148450 for a recipe.
TESHUVA: Penitence.
LITVAK: An very Orthodox Jew from Lithuania. The foremost sage in that community, in the 19th century, was the Vilna Gaon, who excommunicated the hassidim as schismatics because of their mystic belief in their "wonder-working" rabbis. The Hassidim promptly returned the favor. "Litvaks" are noted for their minute, but rationalist, dissection of Jewish texts, and have a distinctive accent in Hebrew. The two communities both wear the black long coats (capotes), have long beards and sidelocks, and are often confused by outsiders as being the same.
5 comments:
The Bastard should be executed. I am a firm believer in non organized thought and these are some of the reasons.
Eh, he probably did have a difficult childhood and if by "treat him gently" you mean "not torture him" I'll agree with your sarcastic suggestion.
Other than that, I'd suggest locking him up somewhere away from younger, less militant offenders who might still be rehabilitated and leaving it at that. Let him sit and read the Koran for the rest of his life. Maybe he'll get to the parts about forgiveness and love eventually and think better of his decisions. But probably not.
He shouldn't have been released. In my opinion. I don't agree with releasing murderers to get bodies back is a losing proposition. (Though, of course, I don't know whether the negotiators knew that they were going to get only bodies.) He should have just stayed in prison and been forgotten. Concentrate on those who can be saved from hatred instead.
Sorry about double posting, but forgot to add re difficult childhoods:
A lot of criminals had difficult childhoods. That's too bad. But we can't fix it. He's beyond medicine, psychology, and sociology's ability to fix what went wrong and he'll never be safe to have running around in the world. I don't know where one can really draw the line on "fault", but just as you can't allow someone who is blind from a childhood illness to become a pilot or taxi driver, even though you might feel sorry for their disability, you can't allow someone who is incapable of controlling themselves and settling conflicts non-violently to live his or her life without supervision, even if you feel sorry that his or her childhood wasn't the greatest.
The ONLY reason Kuntar was released was because we had no way of knowing whether our soldiers were alive or not--the Hezbollah deliberately refused all attempts at determining this, just as we have never been able to ascertain the fate of Ron Arad.
Everyone in Israel believes that Kuntar will not live much longer. We have our ways of dealing with criminals like him.
As for reading the Koran, the only part which interests someone like him is where it is stated that jihad is incumbent on all Moslems.
The ONLY reason Kuntar was released was because we had no way of knowing whether our soldiers were alive or not--the Hezbollah deliberately refused all attempts at determining this,
After posting I thought that must be so, but wasn't sure because people sometimes get sentimental about bodies to the detriment of live people.
I just hope that Kuntar's death is embarrassing and ignoble. Otherwise he'll be seen as a martyr and an inspiration. Which won't help anyone, including the idiots who decide to go kill someone on his example.
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