It recently came to my attention, however, that among thsose released toward the end of May was the murderer of Yehoshua Friedberg, ob"m. I am certain that Yehoshua's murderers were not the only murderers released. But this particular case is of specific interest to me as Yehoshua was my own age, and of the same community as me.
Yehoshua Friedberg was born and raised in Montreal, not far from where I was born and spent the first few years of my life. While I did not grow up in Montreal, many of my friends from there knew him personally. Yehoshua went through the religious school system in Montreal, and upon completion, left for Israel to study in a hesder yeshiva and complete military service as a foreign volunteer. He was planning to enter the officer's training course, and was three days short of completing his initial enlistment, when he was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists and shot with his own weapon. His body was dumped by the side of a highway where it was found three days later after a massive manhunt by Israeli General Security Service personnel.
Members of the community in Montreal, as well as relatives and friends in Toronto were in shock. Israeli law enforcement officials promised the family that Yehoshua's murderers would never again see the light of freedom. Sixteen months later they are free to kill another Israeli soldier.
Yehoshua was the embodiement of true Zionism. He left the comfort of a safe North American city with a sizeable and influential Jewish community so that he could contribute to the defense and development of the Jewish state. He enrolled in an institution of higher religious education to further instill himself with the traditions that are meant to guide Jews and Israelis, and then set out to defend those traditions and those people simply because he was one of them.
Yehoshua gave his life for his people and his country, and he did so voluntarily. Yitzchak Rabin has now seen fit to forget all that Yehoshua gave. His contributions were ultimately meaningless to Rabin, and that is one of the many tragedies of the Rabin regime.
But it is by no means the only one. Margalit Ruth Shohat and Rafael Yairi contributed in comparable terms to Yehoshua. Margalit and Rafael were recent immigrants from Holland. Both had recently converted to Judaism. Their entire lives were changed because they identified with the Jewish people and the Jewish struggle toward respectability. They gave up their identities, their livelihoods, and their homes to identify as totally as possible with Judaism, and began an entirely new life in Israel, among Jews, at home.
For Margalit and Rafael, they did not have to be Jews. They, like Yehoshua, did not have to move to Israel. They could have simply remained non-Jewish Dutch citizens and ignored Israel and its problems. But they chose the lot of the Jews and of Israel. They were killed because of it, by Palestinian terrorists.
The terrorists who killed Margalit and Rafael were never caught, nor will they be. Under the new policy of forgiving terrorists their crimes, there would be no point in arresting them just to let them free.
These three cases, among hundreds and thousands of others, are quite instructive in examining the nature of Zionism. Yehoshua Friedberg, Margalit Ruth Shohat, and Rafael Yairi were true Zionists. They embodied the ideals of Herzl in rejecting the existence of the Diaspora, and the ideals of Jabotinsky in giving of themselves in the defense of their country, their people, and their ideals.
I do not know the particular politics of any of the three of them, nor do I care to. It is not important. What is important is that these people placed Jewish existence, Jewish independence, and Israeli security above all else. What is important is that they paid the ultimate price for that selflessness. What is important is that Yitzchak Rabin does not care.
One of the ideals in which Yehoshua, Margalit, and Rafael believed, and for which they fought, was that terrorism and murder, that attacks upon innocents, do not pay. This has been an ideal that Israel alone has championed for decades. This was one identification that they felt with Israel. Yitzchak Rabin has proved them wrong.
As Yehoshua, Margalit, and Rafael are testimony, terrorism does indeed pay high dividends. For committing such crimes as the murders of these three, Palestinian terrorists have been granted personal freedom, national autonomy, and the elevation of their terrorist master to the status of venerated head of state.
May G-d avenge the deaths of these three heroes of Zionism among all the other victims of Arab terrorism. May G-d punish those responsible for such reprehensible crimes. Because G-d knows: Yitzchak Rabin will not punish them.
Copyright 1994. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
