Yshai Amichai
Yshai AmichaiCourtesy

I am writing this piece in response to a recent post by the dear Frimet Roth, who lost her daughter, Malki Roth HY”D (may she be avenged), to Arab terrorism and to the recent spate of terror attacks in Jerusalem..

Malki Roth was murdered by a suicide bomber in the Sbarro massacre in Jerusalem.

An accomplice to the murder, Ahlam Tamimi, was apprehended by Israel and sentenced in 2003 to 16 life sentences. She was released by the Israeli government in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange with Hamas.

Tamimi married her cousin, Nizar Tamimi, while in Israeli prison. Nizar was held on a life sentence for the murder of Chaim Mizrahi. Both murderers were freed in the Shalit deal.

Terrorist Tamimi
Terrorist TamimiYsahi Afsai

Tamimi was released to Jordan, where she received a hero’s welcome and where she began hosting a talk show. She has become a celebrity for murdering Jews, one who brags about her exploits. May she receive her long due reward.

Her husband, Nizar, was initially not allowed to reunify with her in Jordan. He petitioned the Israeli authorities enough times until he got his way a year later, with relative silence from the media. A happy ending for the murderers of Jews, whose butchered victims include Jewish children and a pregnant woman. They cut our children’s lives short, but they got to raise a family of their own in Jordan.

If that does not make your blood boil, you might be a reptile. Oddly enough though, the Israeli government doesn’t seem to understand this. The Israeli government is heartless with its misplaced compassion. Which led the American victims’ families to appeal to the Americans for help.

The US Department of Justice took action, and in 2013 filed a criminal charge against Tamimi and issued a warrant for her extradition and arrest. A $5,000,000 bounty was placed on her head. Tamimi was added to the FBI list of Most Wanted Terrorists. The maximum penalty for her crime is death.

Jordan has refused to extradite Tamimi to the US, and with Tamimi’s fame, largely gained due to the negligence of the Israeli authorities and media, the case has been politicized. A terrorist like that should have been convicted and executed on the spot, certainly not given access to the press.

The irony is that America’s most wanted terrorist is not hiding. Quite the opposite, she appears on tv and mocks her victims in plain sight. The $5 million reward for information leading to her capture should be viewed as an invitation for the public to act. Similar to the posters of the past which read: “Wanted: Dead or Alive.” Dead will suffice.

Tamimi is a tried and convicted terrorist with 16 life sentences. In America she would likely be executed for her crimes. She is also a confessed murderer who encourages others to murder Jews like her and get away with it.

Avengers of the Blood

If you’ve heard of the Noahide Laws, you may know that God Demands certain things of all people, Jews included. The main Demand is related to blood and blood guilt, that we must avenge the blood of the murdered.

This ties in with Cain’s murder of Abel and the degeneration of mankind leading up to the flood Noah survived with his sons. We inherited the world from the murderers, the stain of their bloodshed washed away before us, but we have a responsibility to God.

“But only your blood for your lives will I Demand, from the hand of every beast will I Demand it; and from the hand of man; from the hand of a man for his brother, will I Demand the life of the man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the Image of God He Made man.” (Genesis 9:5-6).

This responsibility was not the sole domain of governments, it was required of all of us then, particularly a man for his brother or for his brethren. The authorities might have sought justice, or they might have neglected to do so, being complacent, complicit, or even murderers themselves, but this did not detract from our obligations as people. We were responsible to God and to the murder victims, to avenge their blood.

"One who strikes a man, so that he dies, shall surely be put to death. But for one who had not lain in ambush and the Lord had caused it to come to his hand, I shall provide you a place to which he shall flee. Yet if a man shall act intentionally against his fellow to kill him with guile, even from My Altar shall you take him to die." (Exodus 21:12-14).

“If he struck him with an iron implement and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if with a handheld stone… Or with a handheld wooden implement, by which one could die, did he strike him, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. The avenger of the blood, he shall put the murderer to death. When he encounters him, he shall put him to death.” (Numbers 35:16-19).

"You shall not accept atonement for the life of a murderer who is worthy of death, for he shall surely be put to death. ... You shall not defile the Land in which you are, for the blood will defile the Land; and the Land will not have atonement for the blood that was spilled in it, except through the blood of the one who spilled it." (Numbers 35: 31,33).

"Innocent blood shall not be shed in the midst of your Land, which the Lord your God Gives you as an inheritance, for then blood would be upon you. If there will be a man who hates his fellow, and ambushes him and rises up against him, and strikes him mortally and he dies, and he flees to one of these cities [of refuge], then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and place him in the hand of the avenger of the blood, and he shall die. Your eye shall not pity him. You shall remove the innocent blood from Israel, and it will be good for you." (Deuteronomy 19:10-13).

We Should Know Better

Justice must be done. We don’t need to rely on the Torah to know this. We should know that murderers must be punished. An avenger of the blood, often the brother or close relative of a murder victim, would know this in his heart.

It did not matter if the avenger was government sanctioned or not. The demand for justice once did not stop with a complaint to the officers, a plea to the court, or even the murderer’s apprehension and detention. The demand lived on with the murderer, and with the unatoned for blood. So long as the murderer lived, the stain was upon us. More so when the murderer was free and mocked us.

Most people know this today, which is why murder is taken very seriously in most countries. Murderers have been executed throughout history by most peoples.

Lately western nations have become neglectful, having compassion for murderers, but we need not learn from them. Their compassion stems from their own wickedness, their lands stained with the blood of many victims, particularly those of countless Jews whose blood was profusely spilled in Europe, Jewish blood which remains unatoned for.

It would be ideal for the government of Israel to act righteously and to pursue true justice, and we need to make that happen. These officials have been authorized and funded by us to do precisely that, and yet we are repaid with injustice.

This does not mean that our hands are tied or that we have contractual obligations to evil doers. It means that we must make them take the necessary actions to change things. This is our Land and our country, and we must rule it with justice. Governments’ hands may be tied by technicalities, but justice must be served.

Israel is not a Land where murderers may roam free, or purchase their freedom with bribery, garnish international sympathy, or obligate us to guard and feed them till old age. It is a Land where the likes of Tamimi must be silenced and executed. A Land Reserved solely for righteous and innocent Jews to inherit.

Yshai Amichai is an Israeli citizen who demands justice in accordance with the Torah.