The first successful suicide attack inside Israel in the last year appears to have a singularly screwy motive: As the killers from Hamas continue to square off with the killers from Fatah, the bomber – whose mother thought he was such a good boy for blowing himself up along with three others at age 21 – apparently intended to send the message that the Palestinian mafias were killing the wrong people and that it was time to stop screwing around and get back to killing Jews.
In the West Bank and Gaza, this was widely accepted as a brilliant insight.
But for the alert thinking of the man who picked the bomber up – and who, realizing his intentions, drove away from the busy center of town – the death toll might have been much worse. It was certainly intended to be. All of this is worth keeping in mind when Israel’s government is criticized for not being more flexible in land-for-peace negotiations, or for putting up a separation wall that was in this case circumvented by the bomber routing himself through Jordan, because for large and powerful segments of Palestinian society those are only enabling objectives towards the real goal – pushing the Jews into the sea.
Golda Meier is looking smarter all the time. When asked when there might be peace between Palestinians and Israel, she answered, “When they learn to love their children more than they hate the Jews.”
This from Shrinkwrapped:
“The most instructive comparable cultural comparison would be with the various cultures of the Far East. China, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam all were, if anything, much more materially impoverished than the Middle East after the second World War. Those nations which fell under the sway of Communism progressed relatively slowly until they were able to escape the trap of the Communist Utopian Stasis. They were able to take advantage of the loosening of ideological strictures because the cultures in much of the Far East were primarily past and future oriented. Parents were thus expected to work hard, not for their own immediate benefits, but to show reverence for their ancestors and in order for their children to have a better life. A Chinese parent would much sooner sacrifice his own life for the life of his child. Communism could not destroy such forward looking cultural tendencies (if anything, with their emphasis on creating a “new man”, Communism always had its focus on the future; unfortunately, the future Communism hearkens to is a disguised rendition of a fantasied Utopian past, but that is a discussion beyond the bounds of this post.)
In much of the Islamist world, the direction of gratification is reversed. The sacrifice of children for their parents is the norm.
[Please note, this does not mean every Arab or Muslim parent would use his children in such away, but enough do, and enough aggrandize the sacrifices of such "martyrs" that the society becomes defined by such regressive tendencies.]
Despite those who insist that this question has already been answered, I prefer to believe that there remains a chance for the Muslim world to enter the world of Modernity, although their window of opportunity is closing. ”
http://shrinkwrapped.blogs.com/blog/2007/01/culture_and_dem.html#more
Said the bomber’s older brother: “I knew that he was going out to launch a martyrdom attack and I wished for him to become a martyr,”
I think the window of opportunity has been closed. With this kind of thinking (even his wife is proud of him…) – and the monetary rewards that I believe these lunatics get – what incentive do they have to “enter the world of modernity”. Their entire faith is rooted in ancient dialogue and ideals. They don’t move with the times because they don’t want to. They’d rather live their backward ideologies, torture their women and kill innocent people. All in the name of religion and their god…
Actually, if you read the entire thing you would see that his daughter died and he was unemployed. the guy was probably actually suicidal and maybe had nationalistic martyr complex, but he probably wouldn’t have done it without the other two.
Not excusing him, simply pointing out that it takes a real scumbag to allow some depressed guy to kill himself so you can get a little mojo for your cause.