{"id":64,"date":"2010-07-19T10:30:50","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T10:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/07\/tom-friedmans-soft-spot-for-terrorist-fadlallah.html"},"modified":"2010-07-19T10:30:50","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T10:30:50","slug":"tom-friedmans-soft-spot-for-terrorist-fadlallah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/07\/tom-friedmans-soft-spot-for-terrorist-fadlallah.htm","title":{"rendered":"Tom Friedman’s Soft Spot for Terrorist Fadlallah"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn’t all that surprising to hear that Britain’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy, publicly mourned the death of the arch-terrorist and spiritual head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. After all, Britain is the country whom, we now know, did a deal with Muammar Kaddafi in 2007 to grant BP oil drilling rights in return for the release of the Lockerbie bomber, the worst mass murderer in British legal history.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

Still, Guy’s praise for the terrorist,
\ndescribing him as someone who made you into a better human being, seems
\nunhinged. “I remember well, when I was nominated ambassador to Beirut, a
\nMuslim acquaintance sought me out to tell me how lucky I was because I would get
\na chance to meet Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. Truly he was right…You
\nknew you would leave his presence feeling a better person. That for me is the
\nreal effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets,
\nno matter what their faith… If I was sad to hear the news I know other
\npeoples’ lives will be truly blighted. The world needs more men like him.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hmmm.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Tell that to the families of the 300
\nAmerican Marines and Embassy personnel who were killed in a massive suicide
\ntruck bomb attack in 1983 that Fadlallah personally sanctioned. Tell it also to
\nthe families of the Western hostages of the 1980’s in Lebanon who were
\nkidnapped and lost years of their lives at Fadlallah’s command. Tell it
\nespecially to the Israeli civilians who have lived and died under Hezbollah’s
\nrockets from Lebanon, all authorized by Fadlallah. Just imagine what would have
\nhappened to Guy had she publicly lamented the death of an unrepentant IRA
\nterrorist who murdered hundreds of British civilians and then died peacefully
\nin his sleep. Does Britain make a policy of employing Ambassadors who are
\ncertifiable?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But even more puzzling is the New York
\nTimes column about Fadlallah penned by Tom Friedman, a man for the whom the
\nline between right and wrong is increasingly blurred by the day.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Recall that three weeks ago Friedman
\nwrote a column accusing Israel of employing ‘Hamah rules’ in Gaza, thereby
\ncomparing a thriving democracy battling Hamas, a terrorist organization that
\nfired thousands of rockets at its citizens, to a bloodthirsty tyrant in Syria
\nwho mowed his people down with tanks when they dared rise up against his brutal
\nregime.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, in his column on Fadlallah, Friedman
\nbegins by condemning CNN for firing its senior editor for Middle East affairs,
\nOctavia Nasr, after she tweeted that she was ‘sad to hear of the passing of’
\nFadlallah, adding for good measure that the terrorist was ‘one of Hezbollah’s
\ngiants I respect a lot.’ Friedman concedes that Nasr’s posting was ‘troubling,’
\nbut not because she lamented the death of a terrorist but because ‘reporters
\ncovering a beat’ undermine their credibility when they ‘issue condolences’ for
\nthe people they cover.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If that amorality weren’t wacky enough,
\nFriedman then begins to personally praise Fadlallah, quoting Richard Norton of
\nBoston University who said that Fadlallah supported women and ‘was not afraid
\nto speak about sexuality,’ adding that ‘he even once gave [a mosque sermon]
\nabout sexual urges and female masturbation.’<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the long line of recent bizarre
\ncolumns by Friedman, this won wins a prize.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For the record I too am a cleric who
\nwrites about sexuality. My book “Kosher Sex” has appeared in seventeen
\nlanguages throughout the world and its follow up, “The Kosher Sutra,” was
\nlikewise a best-seller. Having been raised by a single mother and as the
\n father of six daughters, I too am a strong advocate for women. But I have
\na sneaking suspicion that if I were the spiritual head of a genocidal terrorist
\nmovement who publicly preached about the need for more suicide bombs against
\nchildren then notwithstanding how many lectures I might give about masturbation
\nit would not save me from being seen as a monster. Friedman’s train has simply
\nleft the tracks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But lest you conclude that the three-time
\nPulitzer-prize winner has lost all sense of morality and has lost the ability
\nto condemn murder, he does confess that Fadlallah “was not a social worker. He
\nhad some dark side.” Well now, Tom, you don’t say. Really?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dark side, Tom, is Mel Gibson who is a
\nracist and misogynist. But even Mel hasn’t killed anyone or advocated that
\ncivilians be blown up (at least not yet). But here is Fadlallah in a 2002
\ninterview with The Daily Telegraph: “I was not the one who launched the
\nidea of so-called suicide bombings, but I have certainly argued in favor of
\nthem…. [the Palestinians] are in a state of war with Israel. They are not aiming
\nto kill civilians but, in war, civilians do get killed…” Fadlallah is, of
\ncourse, lying through his teeth as the first target of a suicide attacker is
\ncivilians which is why, after the Mercaz HaRav
\nmassacre<\/span><\/a> in Jerusalem of 6 March, 2008, when a Palestinian gunman
\nwalked into a Yeshiva and shot eight Rabbinical students dead, Fadlallah called
\nthe attack “heroic”. While some Imams courageously ruled that suicide
\nbombings were against Islamic law, Fadlallah defended the religious basis for
\nthese terrorist attacks to The Daily
\nStar<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The State Department officially
\nclassified Fadlallah a terrorist and, according to Bob Woodward, it was the CIA
\nwho, in 1985, was behind an attempt to kill Fadlallah with a car bomb in
\nBeirut.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, not all journalists have
\nabandoned reason when it comes to Fadlallah. The London Telegraph<\/span><\/a>‘s
\nexecutive foreign editor Con Coughlin<\/span><\/a>
\nwrote of Fadlallah, “When you look back at his track record you can see he was
\nright up there with other infamous terror masterminds, such as Abu Nidal<\/span><\/a> and Carlos the Jackal<\/span><\/a>.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I recently wrote that Tom Friedman is
\noften difficult to read because he seems enraptured with his own genius. But
\nnothing excuses a level of arrogance that rewrites the Western world’s most
\ncherished values, among which ‘Do not murder’ is the most simple and basic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

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It wasn’t all that surprising to hear that Britain’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy, publicly mourned the death of the arch-terrorist and spiritual head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. 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