May 4: Readers respond to the death of Osama bin Laden

The United States is the embodiment of the strength of a free democratic nation. It is a lesson for Israel.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
letters (photo credit: JP)
letters
(photo credit: JP)
The death of Osama bin Laden is most welcome news (“A decade after 9/11, US hails killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan firefight,” May 3).
September 11 was an attack on the free world and gave impetus to all Muslim and fundamentalist terror groups. The United States is the embodiment of the strength of a free democratic nation. It is a lesson for Israel, because Israel represents the same concepts of freedom and democracy.
The US realizes that terror cannot be submitted to and made a way of life. People in free nations like the US and Israel are strong when they have the will and determination to root out terror wherever it exists.
TOBY WILLIG Jerusalem
Sir, – Approximately two years ago President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Today we find him engaged in three wars against Muslim extremists, and he will get the credit for killing the Number 1 terrorist in the world in a covert operation that will probably go down in history as a brilliant combination of excellent intelligence gathering and flawless execution.
While the destruction of one terrorist will not change the equation between good and evil, it certainly will put those people who are intent on bringing chaos to the world on notice that they, too, can be brought down unless they change their ways. By confronting the extremists, Obama is truly earning the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded so early in his presidency.
PAUL BERMAN
Shoham
Sir, – Somehow I cannot join in the glee described by President Obama at the death of bin Laden. It is not that I don’t believe in the punishment of the guilty, in the restoration of American pride. What bothers me is that the powerful US took 10 years to capture this devil.
If war could be made against the Taliban, why did it take so long to find bin Laden? And why was careless security allowed to lead to the hijacking of four planes by terrorists who had trained in US flight schools? Obama should be ashamed of failing to effect this outcome years ago.
Sure, it is good that bin Laden is dead. But his followers have only been encouraged by the failure of the mighty Americans to kill him earlier, and to avoid 9/11 in the first place.
JACOB CHINITZ
Jerusalem
Sir, – May I humbly suggest that Prime Minister Netanyahu commit to memory the following quotation from President Barack Obama’s announcement of the death of bin Laden, and speak it loudly and clearly when necessary: “As a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens....
We will be true to the values that make us who we are.”
JOEL KUTNER
Jerusalem
Sir, – The next time Binyamin Netanyahu needs to defend a lethal Israeli response to a terrorist attack against Israeli civilians, he would be wise to cite the words President Obama used with his own people.
NATHAN and SHARON LAUFER
Efrat
Sir, – Osama bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.
But if indeed it is the slaughter of Muslims that worries President Barack Obama, how does he justify the death of so many Muslims in Iraq after the US imposed a brutal and destructive war in the heart of the Middle East? How does he account for the death of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanistan at the hands of US forces? The Muslim world does not view its relationship with the West through the prism of 9/11.
It views it in regard to the foreign policy pursued by Western nations toward it – and here there is ample evidence to suggest that the West is at war with Islam.
Justice may have been done, and closure achieved for the families that suffered losses on 9/11.
But the Muslim world stills mourns the death of millions of its own sons and daughters, with no justice and no closure, rather with the pain of seeing the occupiers, with the help of treacherous Muslim rulers, continuing their atrocities in Muslim lands.

MOEZ MOBEEN
Islamabad, Pakistan
Sir, – I wish to thank America: Bin Laden, the devil’s henchman, is no more.
Now, the devil’s handlers in Gaza await the lance of IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz.
AARON BASHANI
Jerusalem
Sir, – Osama bin Laden has finally been removed from this Earth, and his remains – like Adolf Eichmann’s, whose trial we now commemorate – have been similarly disposed of at sea where none can lionize him or convert him into a martyr for their cause.
What a pity then, that the pinpoint strike by American special forces is viewed by the world-atlarge with such approval, and yet our own pinpoint targeting of Hamas and like-minded murderers, bomb makers and sundry thugs in Gaza is howled down with cries of shock, dismay and profound disapproval.
What a crazy world in which we live!
STANLEY COHEN
Jerusalem
Sir, – I am flabbergasted at the attention and concern given to ensure Osama bin Laden a proper Muslim burial. Since when does a mass murderer deserve such honor? His burial should have been the same desecration his crimes against humanity were.
SHOSHANA WEINSTEIN
Kfar Adumim
Sir, – “Justice has been done,” crows President Obama with the announcement of bin Laden’s elimination.
How moral is the war on terror when waged by the US and its allies. But how dastardly it is when Israel (allegedly) takes virtually the same measures to eliminate no less despicable mass murderers of its citizens, such as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

HARVEY LITHWICK
Meitar
Sir, – The US has exceeded the limits of acceptable civilized behavior. Targeted assassinations have been deemed unlawful and a total disregard for Western standards of jurisprudence.
Did Osama bin Laden have his day in court? Were all the democratic guarantees of due process and the presumption of innocence extended? No! What about the collateral damage of innocents who happened to have been used as human shields? Where did I hear this before? The point is that the shoe is now on the other foot. The superpowers have to answer to no one. Rest assured that there will be no attempts to bring President Obama to the International Court of Justice or before a UN investigative commission.
Nor should there be – not for the US or for Israel. Justice was done. God bless America!
ROBERT DUBLIN
Jerusalem
Sir, – In his column “Hate bin Laden, but do not rejoice at his death” (No Holds Barred, May 3), Shmuley Boteach makes a strong case as to why we should tone down the celebration.
I would like to make the following compromise: Half the day should be spent in prayer for the people bin Laden murdered, and the other half should be celebrated in the happiest way possible, by concentrating on the fact that good triumphed over evil and justice was served.
We should celebrate the results of the operation rather than the death of this despicable person.
P. YONAH
Shoham