or glorified terrorism, stating that the title character is "the opera's moral core, the one fully functioning human being." He described the opera as "imperfect" and "politically troubling", writing that its attempt to show the historical justifications for both sides is both needlessly provocative and hampers the drama: "Explaining historical events is not an opera's job, and never has been. [...] What matters is how vast events frame a human drama, translated into musical form." He also said that the decision to model the opera on the Bach Passions "might actually be the most offensive thing about the opera, since a Jewish murder victim is conscripted to serve as a Christian symbol of redemption." First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams wrote in October 2014 that, though there were no First Amendment issues: "the killers ... chose to commit their crime. So did Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray and Osama bin Laden. We can expect no arias to be sung in their defense at the Metropolitan Opera, and there is no justification for any to be sung for the Klinghoffer killers." Former New York City mayor and opera fan Rudy Giuliani wrote that while the Met had a First Amendment right to present the opera, Equally, all of us have as strong a First Amendment right to ... warn people that this work is both a distortion of history and helped, in some ways, to foster a three decade long feckless policy of creating a moral equivalency between the Palestinian Authority, a corrupt terrorist organization, and the state of Israel, a democracy ruled by law. American writer and feminist Phyllis Chesler, an opera aficionado, conceded the legal and artistic right to perform the opera, but claimed that it "beatifies terrorism, both musically and in the libretto". In support of the production, Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of The Public Theater said: "It is not only permissible for the Met to do this piece – it's required for the Met to do the piece. It is a powerful and important opera." References External links Libretto, Boosey & Hawkes Mitchell Cohen, "Going Under with Klinghoffer", Jewish Review of Books, Spring 2015. Bernard Jacobsen, "Seen and Heard International Opera Review", performance of February 18, 2005 of The Death of Klinghoffer, Philadelphia, on musicweb-international.com. Retrieved June 26, 2014. "Alice Goodman: The furore that finished me" by Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian, 30 January 2012 "Klinghoffer at