Three Life Sentences

What a joke!!!

The Israeli Judea Military Court just sentenced the Palestinian mastermind to the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers to 3 life sentences. Shame on Israel and these judges because now this Arab monster will begin a new life of free room and board, health care, a library, a place to pray to Allah, cable tv and a variety of other activities, all paid for by Israeli society. Talk about spitting in the face of the Fraenkel, Shaer and Yifrah families.

Just think about it. Naftali, Gil-Ad and Eyal’s parents will arise every morning for the next 50 years to know that one of their sons’ murderers is exercising and eating a nice, healthy breakfast. Every single day they will think about their sons lying in their graves, while this subhuman is breathing the same fresh air as them and sharing the same sunshine. What a burden Israel has placed on the families and extended relatives/friends of these 3 young boys, whose lives were eradicated as teenagers.

What does that even mean, 3 life sentences? It is akin to telling the poor, suffering parents of the 3 boys that we simply will not listen to the most important document in Jewish history, the Torah, and we will just make up a fraudulent punishment that we can never enforce. Again, shame on Israel for following the morally bankrupt European Union by outlawing “Capital Punishment for murder.” Those “sophisticated” European progressives have evolved so far, that they can actually have compassion for the most evil actions on the face of the earth—murder of innocents. That certainly says a great deal about the European mind and soul.

It is America virtually alone that has the temerity to stand up to the world with great moral judgment, by executing individuals who murder our beautiful brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. Where does America get such arrogance? From the Bible of course. The only Biblical/Torah law actually repeated in each of the five Books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy— is capital punishment for murder. The idea that a Jewish nation might somehow imbibe these values seems a bit absurd to the Israeli elite. In this instance, America’s Judeo-Christian ideals are more in keeping with what God had in mind, and what is truly moral.

What Israel and the Europeans are announcing is that no matter how many lives you have taken, and no matter how cruel your torturous acts, we will allow you to keep your life. Granted, we take your freedom away and you can no longer go bowling when you want, but so what. You get to smell the flowers and enjoy the fresh air while your victims are rotting, and their families continue to suffer daily/hourly. Banning capital punishment means you are eliminating closure for the parents, relatives and friends of the victims. According to Israeli and EU laws, it would be forbidden to give Adolf Hitler capital punishment, if he were still alive. So how did Israel break its own law by executing Adolf Eichmann in 1962? The parents of the 3 teenage boys should be asking the Prime Minister and the Israeli military Court that exact question today.

And please do not fall into the immoral trap that Eichmann committed “genocide.” First of all, Eichmann never murdered a Jew himself—he took orders and handed them down. In addition, at what number does genocide actually begin. Is 500 genocide? 10,000? 6 million? How about more than one is genocide—which is the most moral way to think about these despicable acts.

Unfortunately, Israel has imbibed the ideas of the pseudo-intellectual European Left, with its flawed logic and neurotic reasoning. The four main arguments against capital punishment can easily be refuted by any thinking teenager. It is only when you get brainwashed at a university do you find excuses for cold-blooded murderers paying the ultimate fair penalty.

Fraudulent Argument #1—”An innocent person could get executed.” Although no one has ever proven that such an error has actually occurred, it is the only argument with any validity. However, many more innocent people get killed in automobile accidents, so perhaps we should stop driving. People fall from tall buildings, so perhaps we should stop building skyscrapers. People die from taking drugs, so perhaps we should stop making those tiny pills that save so many lives. Perhaps the police should stop carrying guns. Innocent people have been shot accidentally in crossfire.

The reality is that everything in life has risk associated with it, and in virtually every circumstance, innocent people will die. Unfortunately, that is part of life. The trick is to make the risk as small as possible, which includes making cars safer, buildings safer, drugs safer, cops safer and the court trial system as safe and accurate as possible. Societal laws are all about minimizing mistakes, because in virtually every case, from building codes to traffic laws, a mistake can take innocent lives.

Fraudulent Argument #2—”The death penalty does not accomplish anything, because you cannot bring back the dead person.” Of course it accomplishes something. In most cases, it revives the outlook and provides closure for the relatives of the dead person. There is immense relief. Just ask a mother whose daughter has become fertilizer, while her murderer watches cable TV and lifts weights in prison. We should be more concerned with the families of the victims, than with the murderer and his relatives.

Even more profound, the death penalty ends the murderer’s “essence” on earth. According to Judaism, when someone is truly evil, you say the words “y’mach shmo” after his name, which means “may his name be erased.” A murderer who lives, even in prison, still has a name, is interviewed on TV, has a web site like Charles Manson, emails people and even gets married while behind bars. Only when “his name is erased from life” does he stop enjoying it and will society stop hearing from him.

Fraudulent Argument #3—”Capital Punishment is state murder. Who are we to take a life?” Only the well educated can call capital punishment murder. There are two words for the act—killing and murder. Murder is taking an innocent life and killing is usually associated with a moral act, like in war, a policeman shooting a sniper or capital punishment. Killing Adolf Hitler would have been one of the most moral acts of the 20th century. The same act can be moral or evil depending on its context. Just like rape and love-making are the same act; one is truly evil and the other is one of the most beautiful acts in which a human can engage. So too, there is moral killing, and immoral killing, which is called murder.

In the final analysis, unless one believes in a God who tells us what to do with murderers, all punishments become intellectual exercises in higher education, which provide valid reasoning for somehow releasing a Joseph Stalin from his just desserts.

Amazingly, there are two words for that very same act in the Hebrew Bible, just like in English. Killing is taharog and murder is teertzach. The 10 Commandments say, “Lo Teertzach,” do not “murder.”

Fraudulent Argument #4—”Minorities are disproportionately executed.” This is simply a lie developed by the anti-capital punishment crowd. Minorities are disproportionately represented on death row, but not executed disproportionately. The true statistic is that “poor” murderers are disproportionately executed over “rich” murderers like OJ Simpson and Robert Durst. Fancy, expensive lawyers who could probably win a plea bargain for Pol Pot are the real problem. We should mete out the death penalty fairly, not drop it.

With few exceptions, the Israeli left has corrupted a society in the same way it has almost destroyed Europe today. When a country is guided by leftist ideals, it cannot make up its mind as to whether they should support Winston Churchill or Adolf Hitler—which was why Sweden remained neutral during WWII. That philosophy is now catching up with the Swedish population as the country continues to deteriorate daily. Watch out Israel and remember your roots.
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Irwin N. Graulich is a motivational speaker and author on ethics, morality, Judaism, religion and politics, and president of Bloch Graulich Whelan Inc., a leading marketing, communications and branding company in New York City.