Rest in Peace, Richard -- Or Not!

 

There are two ways (at least) of viewing the late Richard Ben Kramer, the Pulitzer Prize laureate journalist who died on 7 January 2013.  The MSM obituaries praise his brilliant journalistic talent, and point to his political campaign and sports writings as exemplars for the Fourth Estaters.

But Richard Ben Kramer's writings also gave aid and comfort to the downtrodden unfortunate darlings of the Left, the so-called Palestinians.  During some of the active conflicts such as the Yom Kippur War, RBK went in to write about the sufferings of those people, in a way which somehow blamed if not criticized Israel for defending itself, nay, even existing.

Accordingly, he can be viewed either as (1) a true humanitarian who genuinely believed that some empathy and understanding could bring about peaceful co-existence; or (2) a self-hating Jewish dhimmi useful idiot.

Quite frankly, I remain undecided.  The reason I give RBK the benefit of a concededly tenuous doubt is that I recall one article, after a series of Israel-bashing ones, which, for a change, was sympathetic to the Jews who could not leave Damascus, where their families had lived for hundreds of years and who were oppressed by the Assad regime in Syria.

While my assessment of RBK's intent is undecided, I can state, without reservation, that whether through design or ill-advised ignorance, RBK's hands have some sprinkles of the blood of the thousands of Jews, Israeli and otherwise, killed by Muslim terrorists in the years following RBK's Middle East reporting junkets.

G-d will decide whether Richard Ben Kramer rests in peace or burns in Gehinnom.