A few years ago, I had the opportunity to become involved with One Family Fund, which was founded in 2002 by Marc and Chantal Belzberg of Jerusalem. Their daughter, Michal, was celebrating her bat mitzvah at the time of the Sbarro pizza store suicide bombing and she chose to donate the money to be spent on her Bat Mitzvah party to benefit those affected by terror attacks in Israel.
I got the chance to meet a couple from Haifa who had lost their daughter, son-in-law and only grandchildren in a suicide bombing of a restaurant in Haifa. One Family Fund had sent them to Europe for a short period of time to be hosted by a European family, to have a change of scenery and to speak to others about the organization. I took them on a sightseeing trip of the area where I lived and they opened up to me. They explained to me how the female suicide bomber had walked into the restaurant, seen their granddaughter in a stroller, bent down to caress the toddler, and proceeded to blow her up with twenty other people.
What a display of humanity the suicide bomber exhibited as she caressed the child. What compassion.
The term compassion came up today regarding Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill stated that "al-Megrahi faces a sentence imposed by a higher party that is terminal, irrevocable and he is going to die. "
"...Mr. al-Megrahi did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. ....But, that alone, is not a reason to deny compassion to him and to his family in his final days." Therefore, it is his decision that al-Megrahi be released on compassionate grounds and be allowed to return to Libya to die.
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