A Lesson for Israel From California Gov. Gavin Newsom

Ma’ariv, Israel, January 23

Sirhan Sirhan is a Palestinian who immigrated to the United States with his family and, in June 1968, assassinated Sen. Robert Kennedy, the brother of President John F. Kennedy, at the Ambassador Hotel in California. Robert Kennedy, who was running for president at the time, died the following day. Sirhan didn’t deny what was attributed to him and claimed that he committed the murder because Kennedy was one of Israel’s ardent supporters and agreed to supply the Israeli air force with 50 modern fighter jets. He saw this as an act of aggression against the Palestinians. He was sentenced to death, but shortly thereafter the California Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, and Sirhan’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Since then, Sirhan has been behind bars. He is currently 77 years old. The assassination shocked America, in part because it occurred a few years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. After the assassination of his brother the president, Robert Kennedy was the hope not only for Democrats, but for America as a whole. He was a descendant of a privileged family from Boston, and as charismatic as his brother. America needed a personality like him to recover from the shock that befell the nation after the assassination of President Kennedy. Sirhan actually killed hope and, with it, a popular national symbol. Some argue that this assassination was the first political assassination related to the Middle East conflict. Since being imprisoned, Sirhan has filed several appeals against his verdict, all of which were rejected. In recent months he has managed to persuade the court committee to accept his appeal on the grounds that he no longer poses a danger to the public. A California parole panel, flagrantly ignoring the severity of Sirhan’s crime, advocated for this early release, and the decision was subsequently brought to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Kennedy family objected to the appeal and release. The governor dismissed the appeal, and with it the possibility that Sirhan will be set free. This was the right decision, and one we should learn from in Israel as well. The governor claimed Sirhan didn’t even express remorse for the murder, in addition to the severity of the act. Newsom, who rejected the appeal, set an example for those of us who are considering appealing and releasing those who murdered a political figure for ideological reasons. The governor of California must be lauded for making the right and obvious decision. Sirhan will continue to serve his sentence in prison. That’s the only way in which the US legal system will continue to deter those who take the law into their own hands. Releasing Sirhan would have done the opposite. – Yitzhak Levanon (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)