Twenty years after Daniel Pearl's death, the fight for justice continues
Twenty years after his death at the hands of terrorists, the fight for justice for journalist Daniel Pearl continues, with the United States urging Pakistan to keep his kidnappers behind bars while his killer awaits a 9/11 trial at Guantanamo Bay .Bernard-Henri Levy: A Plea to My German Friends
Pearl, a 38-year-old Jewish American known as “Danny” to friends and family, was in Karachi after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, investigating Pakistani terrorist groups on behalf of the Wall Street Journal. He was following leads on al Qaeda and Richard Reid, the British-born “Shoe Bomber” accused of trying to blow up an American Airlines flight in December 2001 when he was abducted. Just over a week later, Pearl was beheaded on video by al Qaeda operatives on Feb. 1, 2002.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the terrorist found guilty in Pakistan for the kidnapping-for-ransom and murder of Pearl, had his conviction overturned in 2020 by a Pakistani court, though he has remained imprisoned as legal proceedings continue.
“The United States remains deeply concerned by the developments in the case of those involved in Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “We continue to expect the Pakistani government to ensure that justice is served and that Sheikh and his accomplices remain in government custody without relaxing current security restrictions.”
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, dubbed “KSM" and described as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” in the 9/11 Commission Report, was a close ally of Osama bin Laden and was repeatedly waterboarded while in U.S. custody. He confessed to planning the 9/11 attacks and to being Pearl’s killer, and many experts agree he was the masked figure who beheaded the journalist in a horrifying video. Mohammed was charged in a death penalty case for 9/11 alongside four co-defendants, but that trial still hasn’t begun.
"We often wonder what Danny would say about the world in which we find ourselves today. We are still confronting the destructive ideologies of extremism and antisemitism that took his life,” Dr. Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father, told the Washington Examiner. “One thing we know for sure is that Danny lived and loved life to the fullest and would want us to do all in our power to ensure free press and meaningful steps towards a hate-free world."
Given this confusion, German allies and friends, there’s only one solution.The Israelization of Judaism or the Judaization of Israel?
Rekindle the spirit of Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein, Wilhelm Roepke, the anti-Nazi and anti-Stalin founding fathers of the European Union.
Remind yourselves of that wall of shame, crossed under machine-gun fire, and brought down by Rostropovitch’s bow like the walls of Jericho by Joshua’s trumpets—and then remember how you grandly consecrated those lost in the Shoah with ash-colored stelae in the heart of Berlin.
Do not forget that you are the country of Kant’s categorical imperative, of Habermas’ constitutional patriotism, and also, before that, of a light Nietzschean wisdom that rejected the weight of a certain German spirit sick with power, hopeless prosperity, and satisfied conscience.
And hear those who, as I do, permit themselves to urge you: friends of science and philology, disciples of Hoelderlin and Novalis, heirs to Thomas Mann, Adorno, and the Countess Doenhoff, inhabitants of that Lorelei of thought and beauty which, as French poet Guillaume Apollinaire would have it, made all Europeans around her swoon—you deserve better than to serve as Putin’s doormat.
The limitation in the argument that Judaism is being Israelized is the fact that Israel itself is becoming more and more Jewish. And the Judaism of Israel is not simply a Bible and Hebraic culture-centric Judaism sought, at various moments, by David Ben-Gurion and other founders of Israel. Diaspora Judaism has struck back.
Yossi Shain is of course aware of this fact, and he is not exactly happy about it. In fact, beyond the obvious political dilemmas the country faces, one thing that could sabotage the continued development of The Israeli Century, according to Shain, would be if ever larger numbers of ever more religious Israelis decline to work.
It is easy to understand why some Israelis have been angry about welfare-receiving Haredis who do not serve in the military and who are paid to study while others risk their lives on the front lines and are called to service in thousands of other ways through their lives. But, beyond arguments about the need for the perpetuation of traditions of learning, this idea no longer captures the quickly shifting religious landscape in Israel.
One little-noticed reform (outside of Israel) during the early 2010s was a modest but noticeable cut in stipends for those Haredi students who opt to learn full time. And, as a result of this and other trends, many more Haredis have been joining the workforce. Along with this, there has been the continued rise of Israelis who define themselves as Hardal—a blend of Haredi and modern Orthodox who fully participate in the public life of the state.
The Judaization of Israel is, however, somewhat hard to see because very much of it is in flux. Traditions and observance are growing across the Israeli public sphere. But what forms will Jewish belief and practice take in the years ahead? Will mysticism grow still stronger? Will a more rationalistic Orthodoxy, compatible with both patriotism and liberalism, continue to grow? Will the older and newer diaspora religious movements (Conservative, Reconstructionist, etc.) finally take off in Israel even as they fade in North America? Judaism may be transformed in Israel but it will not escape the forms and practices developed in the diaspora. It may well be that the greatest role diaspora Jews can play in an Israeli century to come is to help Israelis think through the politics of religion.