The end of Bin Laden

Reflections from Eichmann in Jerusalem

Abstract

This paper aims to explore how the operation that ended with the life of Osama Bin Laden, founder of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, can be understood considering the grounds used by Hannah Arendt in her work “Eichmann in Jerusalen”, regarding the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann by the Israeli secret services in Argentina in 1960. By saying that the latter action was legitimate since Argentina refused to extradite Eichmann to Israel, Arendt also points out that his execution was a fair punishment because Echmann was a hostis humani generis, an enemy of mankind.

The resemblances among both cases allow for this kind of theorical comparison. On May 2^nd, 2011, a special group of American forces killd Bin Laden at a residential compound in Pakistan. This cover operation was held amid tensions and mistrust between the two countries, in the same manner that Israel and Argentina managed the Eichmann crisis in 1960. The links among both scenarios will allow us to explore how Hannah Arendt could have understood the situation developed in 2011, considering the positions she adopted in the early 1960s.