For This We Fight

I did not know him. And now, like so many before him, I never will. Yet, his life - and now his tragic death - touched a nerve that radiated across the world.

The lustrous light that was the life of Rabbi Dr. David Applebaum was extinguished when yet another Palestinian murderer walked into a Jerusalem café to kill and maim innocent Jews. Dr. Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who stepped out to share a few intimate moments the very night before Nava's wedding, were instantaneously killed.

The hundreds of wedding guests who planned to dance in joy stood mournfully instead at a double funeral the next day.

But they did not mourn alone. The world mourned with them, as Dr. Applebaum's life was featured on the front page of newspapers throughout the world. For Dr. Applebaum was, by all accounts, a man who had reached the pinnacles for which the Jewish people continuously strive.

He was a man committed to the Torah, the observance of Mitzvot, Tikkun Olam and the renaissance of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.

Dr. Applebaum studied Torah tirelessly, and made time to teach it to his children so that its message was relevant to them. He did countless acts of goodwill for the many sick and downtrodden whom he regularly met. Nava learned this lesson well, devoting her two years of national service to children with disabilities and terminal disease.

Dr. Applebaum published seminal works in prestigious medical journals, leading to a revolution in the treatment of cardiac patients. He single-handedly transformed the delivery of emergency care in Israeli society.

Dr. Applebaum was at the forefront in the treatment of terror victims; he headed the emergency room where victims were all too frequently rushed from the type of carnage in which he ultimately met his end. Only hours before his murder, Dr. Applebaum lectured about standards for the treatment of terror victims at a program in New York commemorating the September 11 destruction.

Thousands came to pay their final respects to this fabulous man. They came from all walks of Israeli society, a testimony to the sweeping impact that he had in his life. They came to celebrate, even in his death, the spirit for which he stood - the spirit of the prophets of Israel: to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly in the way of G-d.

They stage celebrations too in Gaza, in Nablus, and in Tulkarm, and from wherever else Palestinian murderers set out on their journeys to sow mayhem and death. Thousands join these ghastly gatherings. Parents sing praises and teach their children to rejoice when one of their own succeeds in detonating a charge of explosives and spewing sharp metal objects into the organs, skulls and spines of young children and frail adults. "Religious leaders" extol these murderers and their deeds.

There are arguably few nations that have made the per capita contributions to the health and welfare of civilization that the Jewish people and the state of Israel have made. And there has certainly never been in the tortured history of mankind cultures as depraved and morally bankrupt as the militant Islamic and Palestinian societies that raise their children to murder and maim civilians the way they have done in recent years.

Political correctness, moral equivalence, and Orwellian excuses can no longer be tolerated. The world must finally recognize that there is good and evil in this battle, and it must choose between them.

As the dark clouds of war now congeal over the holy land, as the battle lines harden once again, it is essential that there be no doubt about why this fight is being waged.

The Israeli Defense Forces fight to preserve the light that the Jewish people shine forth unto the nations. They fight to preserve decency, dignity and morality. They fight to preserve the precious lives of the Jewish people from an enemy which knows only terror, destruction and death. And they fight so that more David Applebaums can complete their work, and so that little Jewish children can grow to emulate him.


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Mr. Raskas, a Baltimore attorney, is a member of the Public Policy Committee of the Orthodox Union.

posted to JLaw.com: 11-21-03