Plane diverted by tefillin

Consolation
Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:52:49 +0000

I know that we haven’t had Jewish terrorists as far as I can remember, but anything is possible including having a terrorist who’s not Jewish impersonate a Jewish person.



Remember Meier Kahane and the JDL? They perpetrated a number of murders and bombings inside the US and elsewhere. Baruch Goldstein (correct name?) who massacred Muslims in a mosque in the 1990s was a member or former member.

That’s of course leaving aside the assassination of Count Bernadotte and various massacres and other acts generally considered to be terroristic in nature by Irgun and the Stern Gang back around partition in 1948. (Menachim Begin was a former leader of Irgun, if memory serves.)

So there have been some.

Leaving that issue aside, disguising oneself as a harmless person or person from a group not readily suspected of terrorism would be a pretty obvious ploy. And if the teffillin did indeed contain explosives, only physically ripping them from his grasp would have even a decent chance of preventing them from being detonated.

I agree that obvious public displays of prayer, no matter what kind, are not the norm in our society, and on a plane or in an airport, are likely to arouse suspicion.