(no subject)

[xiphias]

So, eleven years ago last Saturday, Yitzchak Rabin was murdered by a Jewish extremist who opposed Rabin's work for peace with the Palestinians.

One thing I notice about this is that, for the most part, we attempt to not mention the name of the Jewish extremist. Oh, it's not secret or anything -- it's in the Wikipedia entry, and it's not hard to find -- but, as Jews, one of the strongest condemnations we can do is to blot out someone's name.

We don't remember the name of the person who murdered Rabin. We remember Rabin's name. But his murderer, we blot out.

Names are important. And forgetting a name is powerful.

Comments

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Yes.

I find, unfortunately, that in the more UO parts of the Jewish blogosphere, people who didn't like Rabin write *that name* over and over again. Sometimes I think they're doing it to make the rest of us angry.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

Of course, most people would never have heard Rabin's assassin's name in the first place if he hadn't murdered Rabin.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

A similar thing is done by fans of John Lenon.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's more feasible with smaller scale killers. I'm not expecting Hitler's name to be forgotten any time soon.

Not in Israel

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

But then the media/left here just loves to drag out his name, every time they can, because they constantly try and make it synonymous with "all them settlers/religious fanatics". You should have seen the totally obscene, nearly-pornographic media-circus two weeks ago, when his wife was allowed their first "conjugal visit".

Personally, I don't see Yigal Amir any differently than any other murderer, and actually have less of an issue with assassinations or ideological motivated murders than with "regular" murder.