Some noteworthy coverage of the horrific mother suicide-bomber:
In a certain sense, a suicide bomber’s sex is irrelevant. Male or female, they’re all reprehensible and tragic figures — primarily because of the victims they create and secondarily because of the perversion of humanity that these acts represent. But when the Palestinian terror masters send out young mothers so parts of their bodies can, as Al-Reyashi herself put it, “fly all over,” they know they’re trafficking in a different kind of terror. And so do we….
It’s a strange kind of mother’s love that abandons two young children. But, then, it’s a strange kind of love of country that’s founded on suicide attacks.
* Joel Greenberg of the Chicago Tribune focused on one aspect of Riyashi that was overlooked by everyone focusing on the mother-bomber angle: Riyashi’s family was unusually outspoken against the bombing and angry at Hamas:
Taysir Shamalah, a cousin who works as a lifeguard with Reem al- Riyashi’s husband, dismissed claims by Hamas that the suicide mission was an act of religious sacrifice.
“There’s not a bit of religion in it, and the faith doesn’t say this,” Shamallah said. “A mother with children should bring them up.”
* Even Chris McGreal of The Guardian has a similar report about the family of Iyad al-Masri being very angry with Islamic Jihad for sending him to die.
* But then there’s this headline, from Newsday: ‘Mother Turns Martyr’
Wouldn’t a more appropriate headline have been ‘Mother Turns Suicide-Murderer’?
UPDATE: How’s this for an thickening plot – JPost has a Yediot Achronot report that the suicide bomber had cheated on her husband with another Hamas terrorist, and the act was ‘punishment’ for her adultery:
IDF sources said that the investigation has already revealed that Al-Reyashi’s husband, an activist in the Hamas organization, not only knew about his wife’s plans in advance, but even encouraged her to carry out the suicide attack. And that the person who recruited Reem to carry out the suicide attack and equipped her with the explosive belt was none other than the lover with whom she cheated on her husband. The Sunday Times reported Sunday that the husband drove his wife to Erez Crossing.
