HR Comment: Lauding a Suicide Bomber
March 9, 2011 19:55 by Simon Plosker
Nothing prepares you for your first physical encounter with a terror attack.
Walking up Jaffa Street, the main thoroughfare in the heart of downtown Jerusalem on January 27, 2002, I happened to bump into a friend. As we chatted, the shockwave of an enormous explosion made us instinctively cower. And then the surreal second of complete silence as the world seemed to come to a complete halt. A couple of hundred meters ahead, a ball of flame and a thick cloud of black smoke rose into the air.
And then the screaming. The audible screams of fear from fellow bystanders and no doubt, the screams of pain and anguish from some of the 150 people injured as Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber murdered an 81 year old man and created carnage as she detonated herself.
I was reminded of this deeply horrible incident after reading that a Fatah-affiliated youth center in the Ama’ari refugee camp south of Ramallah has named a sports event after Wafa Idris. While this strikes a personal chord, all of us should be outraged that the lauding of terrorists and the related incitement against Israel and Israelis is still deemed acceptable in Palestinian society and the Palestinian Authority.
We should also be outraged that, despite the sterling work of organizations such as Palestinian Media Watch in exposing the incitement, the mainstream Western media still has a blind spot on this issue.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, at the time of the bombing, the media preferred to write full-length features about Wafa Idris herself, described by the New York Times as “a volunteer medic who raised doves and adored children” while the BBC interviewed Idris’s mother in an attempt to “explain” the terrorist’s motivations.
I am also reminded of a press conference I attended in 2003, organized by some so-called human rights non-governmental organizations as well as the Palestinian Red Crescent. The assembled media gorged itself on the usual fare of alleged IDF abuses of Palestinians in the West Bank, including stopping Red Crescent ambulances at checkpoints. In the absence of any hard-hitting questions, I confronted the PRC director with the case of Wafa Idris who had entered Israel in the back of a PRC ambulance and how I had nearly experienced a close encounter with her in Jerusalem.
There was a stunned silence from the press corps. How could someone have changed the narrative from one of Palestinian suffering to legitimate Israeli concerns about security and terrorism? The PRC director responded with a frantic rant aimed in my direction prompting some personal apologies from some of the event’s organizers at its conclusion. Still, had I been in Ramallah and not Tel Aviv, I would have feared a lynch mob.
And yet, several years later, the mainstream media will not ask the difficult questions and confront the important issues. As the Mideast convulses with revolutionary fervor, arguments abound as to the apparent moderation of the Muslim Brotherhood who are only “moderate” when compared with the nihilism of Al Qaeda.
Likewise, despite holding terrorists such as Wafa Idris on a pedestal, the Palestinian Authority and Fatah are variously described as moderates in the Western press, particularly when compared with Hamas. Meanwhile, Israeli politicians are variously described as “hard line” or “extreme”.
Perhaps Wafa Idris’s despicable actions did not, by themselves, present a clear and existential threat to the State of Israel (although they did certainly present an existential threat to my own life at the time). But there is a clear thread that runs through the terrorist atrocity of January 2002 all the way to the Palestinian sanctification of Idris in 2011 and the surrounding war of incitement and demonization that has put Israel on the back foot.
Palestinian incitement isn’t only confined to sporting events in the West Bank. This week sees the launch of the annual hate fest across North American and European university campuses that is Israel Apartheid Week. This is but one example of the Palestinian-backed campaign of demonization and delegitmization that finds expression in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and the diplomatic efforts to isolate Israel in international bodies such as the UN.
How quickly the media forgets. The period of daily terror for Israeli citizens has thankfully passed and we no longer have to wonder whether a bus journey or a drink in a café could be our last. Instead, those measures that have saved thousands of lives, such as the security barrier and IDF operations to bring terrorist rocket attacks to an end, are endlessly assaulted in the media and through the use of “lawfare”.
As the veil is lifted from the decades-long abuses that various Arab regimes have carried out against their own people, it is becoming clear that for all the attention directed towards the Palestinian cause, Israel is not actually the center of Mideast instability as the prevailing wisdom of the media suggested.
The Palestinian tribute to Wafa Idris is but one nasty little blotch on the Palestinian copybook. It’s time that the Western media also shine the spotlight on the PA and the society it purports to lead.
Damon
8:56 pm
Mar 09, 2011
Aren’t we honoring them by even calling them “Suicide Bomber”? They aren’t just killing themselves, are they? They don’t strap explosives to themselves and then go to some remote location & blow themselves up. They go to the places where they can kill as many innocent people as they can, right? So their suicide is incidental to the murders that they commit.
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brian
11:58 pm
Mar 09, 2011
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Mickey
1:32 am
Mar 10, 2011
You forget to mention that after the bombing of the King David hotel, the Jews of then Palestine were so horrified & revolted that they actually turned in Irgun members to the British authorities at the time. So they were not lauded at all. In fact there was a big rift between the mainstream Jewish community and the Irgun, & Lechi to the extent that the Haganah actually sank an Irgun boat loaded with weapons (the Altalena) which landed in Israel during a cease fire in 1948.
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zvi tusk
2:22 am
Mar 10, 2011
you also did not mention that the day of the King David Hotel bombing, the bombers called and warned the hotel to empty out. The British ignored the warnings.
suicide bombers do not give warnings.
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Raul Hector Urban
9:34 pm
Mar 09, 2011
O nome é “terrorista suicida” ou “Assassino suicida” “doente assassino”
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Marucho
10:02 pm
Mar 09, 2011
Please, send a copy of this article to Mario Vargas Llosa and ask him to read it completely. He doesn´t waste any occasion to discredit Israel and its leaders by calling them butcher (Arik Sharon), extremist or fundamentalist (Netanyahu), exterminating comandos loose in Gaza who assassinate children, women and old men in the streets jammed of hunger and misery (IDF), in every article he writes about the Middle East, even in those cases in which Israel has nothing to do with the events reported. Please, send another copy to Haaretz and his star journalist Gideon Levy. Send some other copies to the european and american governments that heavily fund the Public Schools in the West Bank and Gaza that teach 6 year-old students to hate Israel and all that smells Jewish.
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M
11:47 pm
Mar 09, 2011
Both the UN and the USA leaders which include their journalists and media people have been putting Israel down since its inception by the Balfour Declaration (let’s not forget that the Bible promised this land to them way before that too). Mario Vargas Llosa is just one of the many anti-semitic, hate-mongers, who, like the Islamic extremists, fundamentalists and even some in the Christian groups (BUT NOT ALL…BECAUSE some Christians are the backbone in saving Israel and the Jewish people.; but this man and others like him only promote death, violence, inhumanity to man, wars and basically lack one thing in common. This “thing” is called GOOD VALUES and they vilify the word PEACE in exchange for the extermination of the innocent while multiplying and teaching EVIL and death-practices, lies and propaganda. If you look and dig closely into the lives of each one of these hateful writers who don’t know diddly squat about real Judaism, you will find that they have had pasts that were either filled with violence, perversion, taught to hate, were abandoned (like BHO); were influenced by fanatics (because they never learned to be good writers who look at BOTH SIDES OF A STORY – only THEIR SIDE), or simply were brought up without love and/or don’t have what is imperative to be a fair and balanced journalist, speaker or leader, and that is “CONSCIENCE!” Those that compare Israel to anything but a truly democratic nation, insinuate bloodshed and destruction of morality, humaneness, benevolence, peace, compassion, empathy, ethics and all the values that make HUMANS different than wild beasts who merely live on instinct and follow the pack (but then again, there are some animals that are more decent than these type of human beings). Delve deep into what these reporters pasts were, who their mentors were, their “friends” are, their experiences and so on, and you will find that they weren’t shown kindness; many are ignorant of the humanitarian things that Israel does for even the Muslims (behind closed media); that “hatred” only begets devastation and loss, whereas “love” develops good and noble characters WITH CONSCIENCES and with the moral fortitude to truly promote the betterment of mankind and prosperity for humanity.
The UN and USA have done NOTHING to stop the teaching of barbarism amongst Islamic children in the GAZA as well as in many of the non democratic, Babylonian-style dictatorships that are prevalent throughout this world. This goes for other religions too. Look, too, how this world is…! Take each country and compare their educational systems and their value systems and see WHY we have so much hatred and violence instead of learning, at LEAST “tolerance”, and, NOT “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Mr. Llosa needs to go to Israel and be shown through the eyes of the Israelis, what compassion and LOVE OF LIFE really means. He, and others are magnetized in cults which invariably only lead to the disaster of our world right now. He needs to see the truth, as do many writers and learn the difference in “mentality” before he or anyone should comment. I personally dare him to try and have an open mind…that goes for the media in general too-could you honestly be FAIR as writers or are you AFRAID of the flack you might get as well as the THREATS? Let’s see if you have it “in you” to be UNBIASED?!
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Nathan Zafran
12:10 am
Mar 10, 2011
How can anyone, but anyone, even contemplate making peace with such despicable and atrocious beings as the gloryfiers of such primitive barbarians as Wafa Idris? The Palestinians were never a nation and Palestine was never a country. With such behaviour they should never achieve these goals – for the good of mankind and the normal and civilized world. The so called “civilized” world should show less support for these barbarians, even if they are harrased and terrorized by oil, petrodollars and the fear of Islamiic terrorism. Where have courage and integrity vanished? Disgusting how so many crawl and grovel to Muslims and Arabs.
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ticotitao
12:40 am
Mar 10, 2011
In order to change the media’s attitude, Israel should start advertising brands on CNN, BBC, Skynews, etc., in the same way Arab companies advertise their brands on these TV channels. TV anchors would thus change their comments respecting Israel.
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Frank O'Donnell
8:09 pm
Mar 10, 2011
Forget the BBC they are not a commercial channel, they are funded by the British people who are forced to pay for a TV license even if they never watch a BBC channel.
Most people are fully aware that the BBC are pro-Palistinian and anti Israel, the bias varies between subtle and outright bigoted anti-Semetic propaganda. I find it galling, as do many thousands of Brits to be forced by law to fund such bigotry.
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Brent Pudsey
3:14 am
Mar 10, 2011
Israel has again been maligned by the media. It is a shame that the only democracy in the Middle East is continually potrayed in a poor light. The question about what other countries in the Middle East do is never taken into account.
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Michael
4:38 am
Mar 10, 2011
There cannot be peace negotiations on one hand and incitement on the other. The Arabs feel they do not have to negotiate, and the world will impose a settelment.There cannot be peace in the middle east until the world sheds its antisemitism. There can be no justice without freedom from bias.
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NESSUS
5:49 am
Mar 10, 2011
Obviously, they named it after a suicide bomber because that is considered a sport to the Palestinians, like being the fastest runner, fastest swimmer.
They have no meaninful lives, so they created the sport of blowing themselves up, along with Jews who have meaninful lives.
Remember the Berlin Olympics in 1936? Instead of being the Master Race, the Palestinians are the low life race.
Nessus
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David Ang
9:48 am
Mar 10, 2011
Hello,
Your report is not too late – Look there is this muslims brother hood’s bully boys out in Egypt killing Christians just when the muslims in egypt burn churches and now targeting the christians – this is exactly the same of Iran – when Iran after chasing out the Shah of Iran. These muslims started to kill and chased out the Christians and the Jews – Today in Iran there is just a handful of christians and Jews just for the “showcase”"
When muslims get to gather in large groups their evil intentions will “POP OUT”".
There is in fact this muslim agenda to kill and conquer all who are not muslims.
Look you can see this coming soon in Egypt, Tunsia etc.
You can see this in Germany, England, Spain,France and Italy etc all had supported huge muslim population, that went over on the basis of work and also humanitarian help basis, today saddle your european nations and christians with demands that they are separate and have their own laws and also demands to be paid for work, for which social service cannot support as these muslims do not want to work and also keep on producing babies as there is no stopping them as they had the ulterior motives to spread their numbers ”quietly” into your Europe and to dominate with their numbers on the basis that they have a right to be of the europe as they are born there.
How silly can you get when they come to contribute nothing but to suck and suck the social system dry – this is one big reason that the european welfare system is made bankraupt. Bankrupt because they is no return by these immigrants and today these pokers want a part of your country – their ‘Sharia Laws’ means they automatically become a separate state within your country – Your country had been fought with blood by your father etc and today these muslims want your blood too – just like that they walk in and have half of your country.
Wake Europeans ????
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Steve Mann
12:41 pm
Mar 10, 2011
What is about Islam that the Western politicians and left wing ideologists fear?
For the atrocities carried out by these Jihadists are so arrogantly displayed- and yet the Western world constantly ignores and makes excuses for their actions- Then in a spiteful manner turns on the only democratic state in the M.E- Israel- Why?
And especially the “Left Wing” elite- Who`s philosophy on life is diametrically opposite to that of Islam- Yet those like Chomsky and the others would rather defend a regime that has- Stoning, public hanging, limb amputation and even crucifixion written into their justice system than support Israel which no longer has the death penalty.
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SM ISAC
4:43 am
Mar 12, 2011
I had the same question re rewards for female in Paradise until I saw a young Muslim woman claiming on YouTube that she would be the prettiest of those 72 virgins. Sick and pathetic.
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brian
6:41 am
Mar 12, 2011
Let’s not forget one more delightful reality of the Israeli Justice System. They have never initiated laws prohibiting money-laundering. This has made banking in Bat-Yam a most pleasurable experience, reminiscent of Miami, Florida at the end of the 70′s.
In fact, I have been told by Tel-Aviv Bankers that shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union, not unlike that iconic wall, also came crashing apart resulting in one of the longest running fire sales known to man. These sales – anything from nuclear Submarines to yellow-cake uranium, were auctioned off to the highest bidder in relative silence. All deals seemed to be facilitated by reformed criminals who’d gone into banking. All through 1993, 95% of Nationalized banks in Moscow had been sold to these criminals or their oligarch front-men.
Those quiet men in Tel-Aviv are in tune. They know when a diamond goes missing on its way to Antwerp from a money changer in New York. They know when tons of cocaine have landed in Ibiza, from Medellin, Columbia. They know intimate details of the Russian Mafyia because, it is these men who come to Israel with their cash – millions upon millions. These Russian criminals share Jew’s blood. They are welcomed as brother, as patriots. They are Vor.
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Alexander Kalinin
2:01 pm
Mar 10, 2011
Suicide bombers have been adulated and admired for years. They even give them 72 virgins. What female suiciders get is not yet clear.
So what is the big news here???
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Itam
3:25 pm
Mar 10, 2011
People who laud evil have no soul and need to be pitied.What legacy do such communities and world bodies bequeath to generations yet unborn.Let us continue to sound the alarm perhaps those who have ears will hear.
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SM ISAC
4:45 am
Mar 12, 2011
Totally agree. How about mass murder-suicide bomber?
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sawman357
4:02 pm
Mar 10, 2011
I’m totally confused! Why are these cowards called suicide bombers? Why aren’t they called homicide bombers? Killing themselves is secondary but murdering as many innocent people they can and instilling fear is their primary goal. Terrorist are the world’s lowest form of cowards. They are lower than snakes that crawl in the dust or PIGS that wallow in the slop! At this point they become less than human and become an animal forsaking God and showing no value for God’s gift of life. ONLY A COMPLETE MORON COULD LET THEMSELVES BE BRAINWASHED INTO BELIEVING A GOD WOULD REWARD MURDER AND COWARDLINESS!
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Henry Federman
11:18 pm
Mar 10, 2011
Unfortunately you cannot convince those murderers they have been brainwash from the age of two,you see them on television 3 and 4 years old repeating that Israel does not exist and that Jews come from monkeys and pigs.The Koran says that anybody not believing in allah can be killed,they can kill their daughters,sisters for dishonoring the family,and if they can kill members of their own family,certainly strangers would be no problem for them. I think that by naming certain places for Goldstein (who killed Arabs on the Dome of the Rocks)and Ariel Sharon(Whom they hate) would be something to think about.They might realize that they are not the only one who can play the game!
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sawman357
1:05 am
Mar 11, 2011
“Love acts with humility and good manners graciously and voluntarily choosing the highest good of another always speaking truth regardless of acceptance or reaction and without personal benefit or profit as a motive.”
This is the kind of conduct God will reward not the killing of any innocent people. If Allah rewards murderers, liars and thieves, he is not a god but a demon. I hope these terrorist like to be girlie men when they die because serving the devil is just going to get them screwed. literally!
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Patrick B. Leek
2:25 am
Mar 12, 2011
Isn’t this what Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and other popular musicians supporting the BDS is doing? Or are they too dumb to realize the realities of their actions? Come on, Roger Waters on Al Jazeera? How obvious could he be?
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Nathan Zafran
10:34 am
Mar 12, 2011
Last night, Friday 11th. March an infiltrator (or possibly more) entered the settlement of Itamar and butchered with knives two adults and three of their chidren, one a baby several months old. There’s no doubt that they will be eventually caught, but unfortunately the death sentence in Israel is not implemented. Thus, they’ll get fat in jail, watch TV and possibly achieve a university degree and receive family and Red Cross visits. Hamas was quick to praise the “act of heroism” on their internet sight and you can bet that it won’t be long before a street or square is named after them. Such disgusting and despicable barbarians, (I almost said “animals”. but these do not deserve the comparison to such pestilence) should never achieve statehood.
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