Word: amirs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Amir was different in that he saw it as his mission to act on the words of the militants, and in so doing, he revealed himself to be an assassin and a zealot like Paul Hill or Sirhan Sirhan or Lee Harvey Oswald. Fundamentalists are distinguished not by their cause but by their mind. Cause provides fundamentalists with the vehicle for their designs, but then again, a rational purpose is not always required...
...righteousness of the hero is corrupted in the arrogance of the zealot. The zealot's mind mixes faith, reason and ego to come to its fatal conclusion. Amir's "wisdom" brought him to interpret the militants' belief in a divinely ordained "Greater Israel" as an end in itself, worthy of denying the divine principle of justice on which such a state must be founded...
...Amir recognized Rabin's peace as a threat to this goal and hence Rabin as a traitor to his people. Others may have called Rabin names, but only Amir arrived at the logical conclusion of that charge. Traitors must be killed before they can do harm...
There is a final piece to the assassin's mind, and it is the piece that puts the gun in his hand. From the statements of Intimates, Amir appeared quite sane. But behind his reticence and behind his ideas lurked powerful impulses that drove him to murder...
...Amir saw himself as an agent of God, much as Lee Harvey Oswald saw himself as an agent of "history." The young man's mania lay in this desire for greatness. Amir created a destiny for himself that would make him greater than Rabin. One brutal act would propel him out of obscurity. One brutal act would make him a hero or a martyr...