Today, we honor Daniel Pearl

Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist.

At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between Richard Reid (the "shoe bomber") and Al-Qaeda. He was subsequently beheaded by his captors^.

In July 2002, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin, was sentenced to death by hanging for Pearl's abduction and murder^.

In March 2007, at a closed military hearing in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said that he had personally beheaded Pearl. Current al-Qaeda leader Saif al-Adel has also been connected with the murder of Daniel Pearl.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl


My dear friend Batya, from Haifa, wrote a poem about him. Daniel's father carries a copy of it wherever it goes. It's one of the most beautiful poems I've ever read:

AKEIDA- THE SACRIFICE
By Batya Dagan

A lamb is being caught in the thicket
trapped in the green was it there all this time

when Abraham bound his only son
the light of his eye the heart of his life
to the altar he built because so commanded his God

Abraham does not ask

does not wonder and just does

for God knows and he does not know.

He only knows that his heart is exploding
that his veins are freezing
that his mouth is full of ashes

then God's voice is being heard
a voice sweeter that honey
clearer than a running brook
and the voice says to Abraham

leave the child alone.

Here in the thicket is your sacrificial lamb
my son my beloved the father of my nation
all I gave you you gave me
never will I try you again

but the sweet voice of God was not heard
when Daniel was bound
and there was no lamb in the thicket
only death was caught in the green.

I am a Jew says Daniel
and to this altar he was tied
and on this altar he was sacrificed

and all of Israel is crying
and all of Israel is mourning
the loss of Daniel

Daniel who stood the test
and gave his God all that God gave him.