Ironic Death

I first saw this news story in The Internation Tribune, but the new rules from the Mother Ship in New York allowed only one viewing.  But, the overall decline in the newspaper business seems to have given a new lease on life to the wire services.  So, from Reuters, via Yahoo, we have this story on an Italian activist in Gaza, who was beaten and murdered by a violent fringe group that feels Hamas is not fringy and violent enough.

Journalist Mr Nidal al-Mughrabi tells us:

Hamas found the body Friday of a pro-Palestinian Italian activist who was killed by al Qaeda sympathizers in the Gaza Strip, raising questions about Hamas's control over the beleaguered enclave.  Two men were arrested and others were being sought for the abduction and killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, who was found strangled in an abandoned house Friday, Hamas officials said.

A group of strict Islamists aligned with al Qaeda, known as Salafists, had threatened Thursday to execute Arrigoni unless their leader, detained by Hamas last month, was freed.

It was an unprecedented challenge for Hamas, an Islamist group whose diehard hostility to Israel has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

The kidnappers claimed to want the release by Hamas of their leader and gave a 30 hour deadline.  But, the autopsy suggests the death was 24 hours before the deadline expired.

Lesson number one is that politics is about compromise and not enforcement of one's own views through violence.

Lesson number two is that confidence in the basic independence and fairness of the judicial system is fundamental to effective politics.

Lesson number three is that within any group there are those who are willing to resort to violence.

Regarding lesson three, fortunately, in these United States such people are in a minuscule minority, and often are more identified with mental illness than political ideology.  Not so in other parts of the world.  And, with lack of compromise, with lack of justice and with violence present it is hard for a region to pull itself up, thus engendering a cycle of poverty and violence.

Our condolences to The family of Vittorio Arrigoni.

A hat tip to Mr Brutally Honest.

Regards  —  Cliff