re: Freed Jordanian who killed 7 Israeli girls shows no remorse

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Baruch Kopel Goldstein (Hebrew: ???? ???? ???????????; December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994) was an American-Israeli physician, religious extremist and mass murderer[2] who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshippers and wounding another 125.[3][4] He was beaten to death by survivors of the massacre.

The Israeli government condemned the massacre, and responded by arresting followers of Meir Kahane, criminalizing the Kach movement and affiliated movements as terrorist, forbidding certain Israeli settlers from entering Palestinian towns, and demanding that those settlers turn in their army-issued rifles,[5] although rejecting a PLO demand that all settlers in the West Bank be disarmed and that an international force be created to protect Palestinians.[5] Jewish Israelis were barred from entering major Arab communities in Hebron. The Israeli government also took extreme measures against Palestinians following the deadly riots after the massacre,[6] expelling them from certain streets near Jewish settlements in Hebron, such as Al-Shuhada Street, where many Palestinians had homes and businesses, and allowing access exclusively to Jewish Israelis and foreign tourists.[7]

Goldstein's gravesite became a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists.[8] The following words are inscribed on the tomb: "He gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land."[7] In 1999, after the passing of Israeli legislation outlawing monuments to terrorists, the Israeli Army dismantled the shrine that had been built to Goldstein at the site of his interment. The tombstone and its epitaph, calling Goldstein a martyr with clean hands and a pure heart, was left untouched.[9] After the flagstones around it were pried away under the eye of a military chaplain, the ground was covered with gravel.

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'THERE are no innocent Arabs. These deaths were necessary and it is necessary to kill a lot more. Baruch was a hero, a hero of all the Jews. He was a perfect man, a kind man and a sweet man.'

The words of the settler were only just audible yesterday over the sound of the thunder and driving rain which swirled around the Hebron settlement of Kiryat Arba as the moment for the funeral approached. A few yards behind, sods of thick orange mud were slopping into a newly bulldozed grave, dug in the settlement's Kahane Park, named after Rabbi Meir Kahane, the militant anti-Arab leader assassinated in 1990 in New York.

From this far corner of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, it is possible, on a clear day, to see down to the busy streets of Arab Hebron's Old City, where stands the Tomb of the Patriarchs, scene of Baruch Goldstein's slaughter of at least 43 Muslims at Ramadan prayers.

'All of them have done evil,' continued Shmuel Hacohen, 34, an immigrant from Virginia in the US. 'I have served in the Lebanon war - I have seen how Arabs kill Jews. They have the blood of Jews on their hands. They have killed Jews in ways I cannot explain,' he said, grimacing with disgust. 'They had cut bits off people's bodies. Their so-called mosque is the burial place of our forefathers. There they sing 'Death to the Jews' - is that what you call innocent people?'

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"Everyone who comes to visit wants to see the grave of
Dr. Goldstein. People appreciate what he has done. Especially
the American visitors, they praise him to the high heavens."
About 10 percent of Kiryat Arba's 6,000 residents are American-born,
as was Goldstein, who immigrated from New York's borough
of Brooklyn 11 years ago.
Kiryat Arba is a stronghold of the extremist Kach movement,
which calls for the expulsion of all Palestinians from Israeli-held

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Goldstein committed his massacre on Purim, which in that year was also during Ramadan. He did it while Israel was negotiating the Oslo Accords with the PLO. Those who knew him said that he did it because he had lost his mind after seeing a friend and the son of a friend slain by Palestinians even as he, a physician, was unable to help them and one died in his arms. Maybe true, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. His murderous actions are despicable. Later polls in Israeli society showed a vast majority, nearly 80% of Jewish Israelis opposed to the attack and only about 3.5% in favor – which in a typical poll could mean virtually 0% support because it is within the margin of error, but unlikely in this instance. Three percent sounds about right.

Those 3% supported the attack, presumably extremist settlers from the most extreme outposts of Israeli settlement, Kiryat Arba and Hebron. Many made pilgrimage to Goldstein’s grave. The Israeli government then created a law prohibiting monuments to terrorists and eliminated the pseudo-shrine that had been built on his burial site. Still, there are those who still commemorate him and his act fondly.

They are despicable people. They are exactly what Rabin said about Goldstein: errant weeds that are a stain on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism. Nothing less.

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