Osama Bin Laden is Dead

That is a message we have all been expecting for almost 10 years. In some ways, his future was signed on September 11, 2001, every bit as much as the people he murdered. I got the message on my phone, as I do many messages, and wondered, as I often do, if the information was accurate. I see on various sites that this has been reported elsewhere and so I will tell you the three thoughts, the three truths that came to mind as I read the message.

One thought the world will probably not notice; the second, they will learn with great sadness; and the third, the world will never admit.

The first is that while Americans and most people the world over will sigh with relief, there will be no dancing in the streets. No one will hand out candies and there will be no great celebrations. Americans understand, as we do, that those who were murdered 10 years ago in the World Trade Center, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon do not return. Evil has been eliminated, but the good and the righteous cannot return.

The second great truth is that for each one Osama bin Laden that dies, five more will come to replace him. Perhaps ten, perhaps more. This is another truth the world will know, though now it is too painful to believe. There is a culture of suicide bombers, of hatred, martyrdom, and death. These are the world of Hassan Nassralah, not me. He admits that his people love death and he believes that he will defeat the Jews, and in his mind the west as well because we…and you…love life. We love our children, we love our freedom. He sees this as our greatest weakness, never understanding it is truly our strength and all that we are.

But others, like bin Laden, like Nassralah, like Saddam Hussein, like Gaddafi and Bashar Assad…others will rise up and continue. It is a matter of culture, this great divide, a matter of belief and yes, religion.

And the third great truth is that what begins in Israel, too often comes to the world. This was true of the suicide bombers that began with buses in Jerusalem, malls in Tel Aviv, and innocents all over our country, and led to 9/11, Madrid, Bali, London. And this is true of the nuclear threat we face from Iran today.

Osama bin Laden is dead. No the world is not a better place today, but perhaps for a short time, we can hope that his death has granted life to what would have been his future victims.

Above all truths is that above all of us, there is a God who watches over, who determines the paths of all of us, our futures and those that we love. He controls all and He will determine all.

Today, a great evil has been removed. For that, we can be grateful. We will not celebrate death – it is not our way but we can sigh in relief…until those that will come to replace him begin their work. And in the future, those truths will again come to that final of truths because, as a young Holocaust victim wrote in her diary long ago, good will triumph over evil. Anne Frank went to her death still believing in the essential good of mankind.

Today, while much of the world discusses Osama bin Laden, Israel will stand for two minutes of silence and remember another great evil and his victims.

May God bless the memories of those who were murdered by this man, this evil, this culture of death. May the families find comfort that now Osama bin Laden will meet his True Judge and true justice for all the days of eternity, he will pay for each precious life he stole, each family he devastated.

May God bless the memories of those who were murdered in the Holocaust by Adolf Hitler and those evil ones who served him and his culture of hatred and death. May the families of those who survived find comfort that as Osama bin Laden now begins his eternal suffering, Adolf Hitler and countless others remain in the hell they deserve.

11 Comments

  1. Sorry to disappoint you but Americans are dancing in the streets, celebrating with joy, handing out candies. One old timer said; “It feels like V-J Day again!”

    We celebrate the death of evil. We have a right to do so.

  2. Long time lurker of your blog, I love it!

    I just wanted to say how sad I was to see Americans shouting in the streets and chanting things like “USA! USA! USA!” and “Ding dong the witch is dead”. It really reminded me of exactly what you were saying, people handing out candy in the streets after attacks, on Israel and the United States. We have a right to “closure” in a sense, but that doesn’t mean we should celebrate the act of killing. Somebody still died, though he may have been responsible for deaths of innocent people, I had assumed Americans would accept his death with an understanding. We watched those celebrations after 9/11 and thought “How barbaric!”…did America not act in much the same way last night? May an end to terrorism come, so that we should never have to rejoice in the news of a death again.

  3. Hi Findalis…I think I am disappointed. I understand the anger people feel towards bin Laden, even the hatred. I get that people are happy he is dead and hope he died so incredibly painfully…but no one won here – not in his murdering so many on 9/11 and not on his death. The Arabs see America and Israel as evil and so they dance when we suffer. I would have rather America teach the Arabs that death, even the death of such evil, is not a cause for celebration. In the Bible, when the angels celebrated the drowning of the Egyptians who were chasing after them after they crossed the Red Sea, God told them to stop – that even though they were evil, they were still his creations.

    I certainly do not mourn the death of Osama bin Laden…I’ll curse his life, his evil. But dance? No…I can’t dance – he murdered more than 3,000 – what’s to dance about?

  4. I agree, Paula. I see the (mostly younger) people waiving flags and dancing in the street in front of the White House on FOX and I immediately thought of the Arabs dancing and waiving flags on Al Jazeera after 9-11.

    Not exactly our finest hour, IMHO.

  5. I hate him. I’m glad he’s dead. I hope he suffered and will suffer for all he did for all eternity…and no, it wasn’t America’s finest hour. I’m sorry. I just can’t see this as right. I would obliterate his memory and all he stood for…but my heart aches for those who died and the one great truth I learned when I studied the Eichmann trial was that even when you remove evil, the goodness they destroyed doesn’t return. The orphans are still orphans, the widows still in mourning. The tears just don’t stop. I feel anger, relief…fear because I know, I know what will come now…I just don’t feel happy the happy that brings about smiles and dancing. I just…am lost to explain it. I was wrong about some Americans dancing…I just didn’t think it would happen. When Arafat died…we didn’t dance. When we finally get Nasrallah (may it come soon) and Ahmadinejad (may it come even sooner) – I won’t dance.

  6. The news was brought to me first by my son this morning before he left for school: he asked me about bin Laden’s being killed, and that is how I learnt about it.

    Obviously he was anxious to see my reaction: he was not 4 yo when 9/11 occured, and he has been living since with the current narrative about the evil being personified by this man that just got killed by the soldiers of his country.

    My reply was that we do not rejoice over the death of a human being, but that this is an important news. I would never use the word “good” in that case.

  7. God Bless you Paula,you have such a beautiful way of expressing yourself. God really gave you a talent for writing. Thank you for sharing your gift with others.

  8. Hi Ricki’s Mom – I agree with you 100%. I’m not equating the two instances at all – that of Palestinians celebrating in 9/11 and Americans celebrating now. All I am saying is that I don’t think it is necessary or good. There are no winners from 9/11 – this is the end of one road that began then. It was and always will be a horrible violent tragedy. I just don’t agree with the dancing – but check out my next post and you’ll see I don’t disagree with a nice simple smile.

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