The year 2010 ushered in the 25th anniversary of the killing of Leon Klinghoffer by PLO terrorists aboard the Achille Lauro. Klinghoffer and his wife, Marilyn, were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary – double chai. Having suffered strokes, he was wheelchair-bound. In the course of a botched hijacking by members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and separated from Marilyn, Leon was shot and thrown overboard.

The terrorists negotiated safe passage to Tunisia in exchange for leaving the ship. When Egypt not only refused their arrest but provided a flight to safety, then-President Ronald Reagan ordered American fighter jets to force the plane to land in Italy where they were arrested and tried.

Some days later, Leon’s body washed up on a Syrian beach. The mastermind behind the hijacking, Muhammed Abu Abbas, was given refuge by Saddam Hussein. Captured in 2003 by U.S. forces in Baghdad, Abbas died in prison in 2004. Youssef Majed Al-Molqie, the terrorist who shot Klinghoffer and ordered his being tossed overboard, was sentenced to 30 years but escaped while on furlough in 1996. He was recaptured, but released in 2009 for good behavior.

Do these facts matter? You bet they do. They matter most when it comes to terrorism; there is simply no moral justification for killing innocents.

But out of the facts of the murder of Leon Klinghoffer comes from American composer John Adams, not “The Murder,” but “The Death of Klinghoffer,” as if the facts of that particular day don’t reflect reality. Consider the composer’s thoughts from a 1995 interview:

• “We weren’t making an overly conscious attempt to be neutral, but on the other hand, after reading about the background it was impossible not to have strong feelings…

• “I read the Old Testament for the first time since I was in Sunday school, and read many books on the history of the Middle East, the foundations of Zionism, the Balfour Declaration, Theodore Herzl, etc. And I read a great deal of Edward Said’s writing. I know Alice Goodman read most of the Koran. And I think we all felt independently of one another that the situation like any complicated political situation in the world is much too complex to fall into one easy answer or another…

• “There is in fact great uncertainty about the motives of the hijacking and whether the terrorists onboard had been duped by their handlers. And of course there is still a mystery about why an elderly handicapped man was chosen…

• “Whether they thought there was some moral advantage to choosing him rather than someone else is anyone’s guess. But in looking at this story, one finds that neither side is beyond reproach. Nor can either side be completely condemned…

• “And that upset a lot of people because many people, particularly American-Jews, much more so than European-Jews, felt that this was just an obscene and reprehensible act and there was no way that these terrorists should be given anything but complete, unconditional condemnation. And, of course, we didn’t do that, we certainly don’t let the terrorists off the hook morally-they murdered a defenseless old man, after all – but we do try to examine what their backgrounds were, what the forces were that brought them to this moment.”

Its complexity notwithstanding, terrorism cannot be rationalized. We disagree overwhelmingly with Adams. Where he goes terribly wrong is in attempting to explain Leon Klinghoffer’s murder from the terrorist perspective as personal or political dilemma. Terrorism does not lend itself to moral give-and-take. Perhaps the only acceptable debate? How best to fight and stop it.

Our sensitivity to the controversy reflected in presentations of the opera since its premiere is not diminished by the passage of time. The current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians reflects more divisiveness, complexity and strife now than it did in 1991. With the introduction of Iran into the international discussion on nuclear proliferation, with the instability of the so-called “Arab Spring,” the stakes across the Middle East are higher, and you may respond, but this is simply a regional theater production. On the contrary. We regard Opera Theatre’s stance among regional opera companies as significant; we know that its productions play beyond the St. Louis stage, and so we raise our concern.  

Terrorism can never be justified, even when cloaked in the respectability of artistic license.

Karen Aroesty is the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of Missouri and southern Illinois