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This week, a Los Angeles cleric, Rabbi John Roseove, wrote a piece entitled “The New Mandela”, in which Rabbi Roseove compared the venerable freedom fighter Nelson Mandela to the Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti
http://www.jewishjournal.com/rabbijohnrosovesblog/item/the_new_mandela_20120331/
Rabbi Rosove may not be in touch with the reality of Marwan Barghouti, whom he describes as “moderate” and “soft spoken”.
As a social worker trained in criminology, who now works in the media, lesson one in the study of criminal behavior is that when a perpetrator does not think that he has done any wrong, he will often speak in a moderate, self assured tone.
I covered the court proceedings in the press gallery, a few feet away from Marwan Barghouti when he was brought to trial, as he stood up and declared how proud he was for ordering these acts of murder, which he called acts of freedom for Palestine. Indeed, he was calm and composed when the court issued the verdict; A conviction for 13 murders out of the 33 murders that he was charged for.
The convicted killer expressed no regret. Instead, he smirked at the families of his victims.
Rabbi Rosove only tells part of Marwan’s public record,
On January 22, 1995, after Hamas massacred 19 Israelis at a bus stop in Beit Lid – a village near the coastal city of Netanya, located within the 1967 lines – Barghouti declared on the Saudi-owned MBC television network that “we cannot condemn such an attack, since this is an area that we have not yet liberated.”
It was Barghouti who, on the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, became the head of a joint coordinating body of all armed Palestinian factions – including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, all three of which are listed by the American government as terrorist groups.
The Marwan Barghouti whom Rabbi Rosove compares to Mandela is responsible for the murders of: Salim Barakat, 33, from the Druze village of Yarka in the Galilee, who survived by his wife, daughter, parents and seven brothers and sisters; Eli Dahan, 53, of Lod, who is survived by his mother Sarah, wife, Ilana, two daughters, two sons and three grandchildren; Yosef Habi, 52, of Herzliya, who is survived by his wife, son and daughter; Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, 34, a Greek Orthodox monk from St. George’s Monastery in Wadi Kelt near Jericho, and Yoela Chen, 45, of Givat Ze’ev, who is survived by her husband and two children.
Nor are they Barghouti’s only victims. At his trial, people who were maimed as a result of Barghouti-sponsored attacks appeared as witnesses to the pain he caused them – pain they will experience for the rest of their lives.
Chicago-born Alan Bauer and his then 7-year-old son Jonathan were among those witnesses. They were five minutes from their home in Jerusalem when a Barghouti-funded bomber blew himself up three feet away from them on March 21, 2002. Two arteries in Bauer’s arm were severed. A screw went all the way through little Jonathan’s head, causing permanent damage to the boy.
The article by Rabbi Roseove refers to Barghouti as calling for a “Third Intifada, a non-violent mass uprising in the spirit of the Arab Spring”
A closer look, suggest that Barghouti is not restricting his call for the Palestinians to use only non-violent means.
The Palestinians, Barghouti has just said have an “absolute right to use all methods and means to resist occupation”(emphasis added)
http://www.jpost. com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=264407
This week, in a letter sent out to his supporters, Barghouti praised members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah who were responsible for carrying out murders throughout Israel.
He said he was very proud of the commanders of Fatah’s armed wing, Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, who were killed or arrested by Israel during the second intifada.
Barghouti also praised Fatah’s two female bombers, Wafa Idris and Ayat al-Akhras, who blew themselves up while murdering Jews in Jerusalem.
As a Rabbi and as a family man with two sons, it has hard to imagine why Rabbi Rosove would paint such a rose colored portrait of a man who has admitted to such acts.
And the comparison to Mandela?
I have met Mandela and personally know his lawyer.
Throughout the years of Mandela’s successful fight against the Apartheid regime, Mandela never ever ordered the murder of anyone.
Perhaps Rabbi Roseove and the Jewish Journal would consider an apology to Mr. Mandela,who is aging but alive and well in South Africa
To compare one of the greatest fighters for freedom in this century to a man who is proud to be convicted of cold blooded murder should warrant a public and a private apology to Mr. Mandela, from both Rabbi Roseove and from the Jewish Journal.
