And so it goes, on, and on ...

Nine were killed and dozens more injured when a Palestinian suicide bomber hit a Tel Aviv restaurant earlier today. The attacker was little more than a child.

Samer Samih Hamad, from the West Bank village of Arakeh, near the pre-1967 border, is believed to be one of the youngest suicide bombers ever dispatched by a Palestinian group.

In a video "living will", he dedicated the operation to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Dressed in black with a yellow headband inscribed with Koranic verses, he warned in a clear, firm voice: "There are many other bombers on the way." Relatives said he had completed high school. But he looked more like a boy.

Nidal Hamad, 35, his cousin, told The Independent that Samer was 17 and had left home yesterday to go to his job in Jenin. Another cousin, Nazeer Hamad, carried out an earlier suicide bombing in Afula. "Jews have confiscated more than 50 per cent of our agricultural land, where we cultivated olive, almond and fruit trees," Nidal Hamad said. "I do not know what to tell you. Some youths believe that they should do something about it. Some people believe they should not. But you will never be able to make a distinction between those who believe in it, and those who do not."

These are the children of the Second Intifada. And they are legion.

Tonight, the news media are filled with this latest and unspeakable tragedy, as they should be. TDuring the 8:15 newsbreak during The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, I caught the presenter talking of the ''homicide bomber'' and the horrors he caused. I heard that U.S. President George W. Bush has rightly condemned the attack while Hamas has not.

I won't get into the politics here except to say that the suicide bombing, while understandable on one level, is not justifiable on any level -- and has not helped Hamas one damn bit. If it wanted the world's sympathy, it needed to condemn the attack, without hesitation, without equivocation.

That said, I have yet to hear Fox -- or indeed, most other news media -- talk of the horrors being rained down on Gaza in recent week. Here's Gideon Levy in Ha'aretz on the subject:

The scenes from Gaza are heartbreaking. Heartbreaking? That's not for certain. The sight of the Aben family from Beit Lahiya mourning its 12-year-old daughter Hadil last week did not stir any particular shock in Israel. Nor did anyone take to the streets and protest over the sight of her wounded mother and little brother lying in shock on the floor of their shanty in Gaza.

On the day Hadil Aben was killed, Yedioth Aharonoth carried a story about Nelly, the dog from Kibbutz Zikim that died of heart failure from the booming noise of the Israeli artillery firing into Gaza.

Instead of expressions of sorrow at the death of children, the upper echelons of the defense establishment came out with a stream of strident statements. The defense minister said that the only thing to do was step up the pressure on the Palestinians. The deputy chief of staff spoke about a possible invasion of Gaza and the head of army operations added, "what we've seen so far are only the previews." The IDF announced it would further reduce the "safety range" that is designed to avoid shells hitting the civilian population.

It was a chilling, united chorus. Israel is dropping thousands of bombs on towns and villages, on the "the launching pads" of the Qassams - another dubious term created by the defense establishment and blindly adopted by the press - and only the Palestinians, whose Qassam rockets haven't killed anyone since the disengagement, are called "terrorists."

<SNIP>

No Qassam justifies the killing and terror that the shells sow in Gaza. Cannons are meant for war against an army. Using them against a helpless civilian population is supposed to be beyond the realm of the legitimate, without any ifs or buts about it. A state does not shell towns. Period. Just like in the war against crime that is also deadly and endangers state security, no end justifies all the means. Would it ever occur to the Israeli police to evacuate an entire neighborhood from which some murderers came? Would anyone decide to shell such a neighborhood, even if it would mean minimizing the crime coming out of it?

Those who really want to end the Qassam launches from Gaza, should turn Israeli policy upside down. To show restraint in the face of the Qassams, to lift the siege, to immediately meet with the elected Palestinian leadership and call on the world to stop withholding the funds from the Palestinian Authority. Only a free and secure and thriving Gaza will stop launching Qassams. Have we ever tried that?

This must be asked in our media too.

But it won't be.

Comments

[Robert McClelland]

"while Hamas has not."

This is a big mistake from them. They have to realize they're the government now and if they want anyone to take them seriously they'll have to try to crack down on those who use violence as a means to an end.

[Maz]

The Israel-Palestine conflict reminds me of a story Nikos Kazantzakis relates in his travelogue ‘Travels in China and Japan’. While in China NK was told a cautionary tale of two merchants whose grocery stores were just across the street from one other, so that they were daily competitors. Of the two, one was such a runaway success in the way he ran his business that his less successful competitor was soon driven into bankruptcy. His failure in business drove him into a state of deep despair, so that he hanged himself -- from the very awning of the store run by his more successful adversary. Given the socio-cultural values of Chinese society, the grocer whose business thrived was blamed for causing his across-the-street competitor to commit suicide. Such that his customers abandoned him, seeing in him a man disgraced and morally responsible for the ruin and death of his neighbour. And soon after he, too, went bankrupt, and fell into despair. The moral of the story, as I recall, was that keeping the prevailing social harmony intact was to be valued far above any Darwinian winner-take-all capitalist ‘success’ story. I mention this because it seems to me the Israel-Palestine conflict is one in which the loser will take the winner down with him; one in which, ultimately, there will be no winner.

[Ron Mann]

From Article 28 of the Hamas Charter: “The Zionist invasion is a mischievous one. It does not hesitate to take any road, or to pursue all despicable and repulsive means to fulfill its desires. It relies to a great extent, for its meddling and spying activities, on the clandestine organizations which it has established, such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions, and other spying associations. All those secret organizations, some which are overt, act for the interests of Zionism and under its directions, strive to demolish societies, to destroy values, to wreck answerableness, to totter virtues and to wipe out Islam. ….. Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.”

Hamas does not want a "Jewish population" I recall that another political party in my
lifetime did not want a Jewish population.
By the way, far from wanting to "wipe out Islam", Islam thrives in Israel and recently
a major Islamic meeting was held in Israel.

[Jinoole]

Not a single media organization that I had read, listened mentioned the recent daily shelling of Gaza, including the mocking and threatening more shells from Israeli officials on context on this recent suicide attack.

Every action has a reaction abominable as it is, that is the basics of physics.

[Antonia Z.]

This is from a newsletter put out by Gush Shalom tonight:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en

"In Jerusalem, the swearing-in ceremony of the newly-elected Knesset goes ahead as scheduled, and is broadcast live. The eternal Shimon Peres is Acting Speaker. Not always our favourite among politicians. But in his speech today, he at least admits that the Palestinians are not solely to blame for the absence of peace, and that some Israeli mistakes also have something to do with it. This is not nothing, especially on such a day.

"The late night news is sometimes less tightly controlled than the prime time. The commentator reports about Defense Minister Mofaz holding consultations with his generals on the coming military response, and remarks: 'So, there will be a retaliation, and the Palestinians will retaliate to the retaliation, and we will retaliate again, and then what?' No answer was forthcoming."

[Julie Kruger]

You know it's been a good day for Palestinian terrorism day when Antonia hits us with her standard loony left moral equivalence post.

Turn the appeasement amp to 11 its everyone's favourite joke ... Gideon Levy!

He knows how stop the rocket fire - Israel should "lift the siege, to immediately meet with the elected Palestinian leadership and call on the world to stop withholding the funds from the Palestinian Authority."

Yeah, that should do it! Genius!

And if that doesn't work, Israel should give the Palestinians more rockets.

And if that doesn't work, then in an effort to maintain proportionately, Israel should randomly launch rockets at Palestinian towns.

***

56.2% of Palestinians strongly support or somewhat support "suicide bombing operations" against Israeli civilians.

http://www.jmcc.org/publicpoll/results/2006/no57.pdf

[Antonia Z.]

Perhaps you missed my last comment Julie?

It's not just Levy, not just me.

" ... Defense Minister Mofaz holding consultations with his generals on the coming military response, and remarks: 'So, there will be a retaliation, and the Palestinians will retaliate to the retaliation, and we will retaliate again, and then what?' No answer was forthcoming."

[Julie Kruger]

Yeah, that's funny. Follow up one loony left with another - this time radical loser Adam Keller.

Oddly, enough that "quote" is not reported anywhere else and no context is given. But since when was the truth an issue for the loonies.

Meanwhile, back in the real world:

***

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with top security officials Monday night to discuss how the army should react to the attack, and proposed several steps, which are subject to Olmert's approval. These include:

--- Stricter implementation of the policy of separating the West Bank into sections, in an effort to prevent Palestinians from moving from one section to another, especially from the Jenin and Tul Karm areas to Nablus and Ramallah.

--- Continued assassination of senior Islamic Jihad officials in the Gaza Strip and extended operations against Qassam-launching networks.

--- Expansion of major IDF patrol and arrest operations in the Jenin and Tul Karm areas (targeting Islamic Jihad, which is responsible for the murder of 33 Israelis since January 2005, in addition to those killed in yesterday's bombing) and in Nablus (targeting Jihad, Fatah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine networks).

--- Expansion of activity within the Green Line in an effort to expel Palestinians living in Israel illegally and arrest Israelis who help them get into Israel.

--- Continued closure of the territories, in light of the bombing as well as several warnings of suicide bombings planned for the coming days.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/706857.html

***
or here: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1143498867972&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Demosthenes]

Therein lies the problem, Antonia, both with the "retaliations" and with the current treatment of the Hamas government. While there are good reasons to retaliate, and good reasons not to treat with terrorists, nobody seems to be able to answer the question "so what happens next"? At best, you get vague justifications and apologias, but never anything concrete.

Answering to the simple question "who is a starving Palestinian going to blame, Hamas or Israel/the West" seems impossibly important... but nobody's willing to do so.

[Jay Currie]

Mofaz is certainly right so long as no Pali has the power or the intelligence to honour the roadmap commitment to disarm the terrorists. It is not as if Hamas does not know who they are.

And, as the Israelis have pointed out, now that they no longer occupy Gaza, their ability to retaliate with any degree of precision is greatly reduced. Right to the level of the thugs who fire the middiles or send children to blow up falafal stands.

Now, one alternative for the Israelis is to re-occupy Gaza, dig out the rockets, the rocket factories as well as the people who are willing to recruit and train the homicide bombers (the "suicide" part is hardly the objective.) AS it is apparent that the Palis either cannot or, with Hamas in charge, will not obey theyr treaty obligations Israel would be perfectly entitled to take this course of action.

The other alternative: doing nothing while the missiles fly would require a degree of forebearance which I cannot imagine any group of people having.

However, ask yourself this question: if the Palis stopped firing rockets what would happen? Do you really think the Israelis would continue shelling? I don't.

The problem is that the Palistinians have become defined by their opposition to Isreal and they have developed a politics in which only that opposition can be heard. Until they accept Isreal's existence and the fact that Isreal has a vibrant, largely freemarket, uncorrupt economy they are going to be excluded. That exclusion is of their own making.

Of course it suits various Arab and Islamic demagoges to keep the Palestinian sore open and so the thugs and the terrorist and the "militants" are funded while the more responbile Palestinians are ignore or, worse, executed as traitors.

At a human level it is tragic that children on either side are killed. But the solution lies squarely in the Palestinians' hands. They know who is firing the rockets and sending the homicide bombers - and only they can end the death cult Palestinian politics has become.

[sooey]

i'm pretty sure the election of hamas was the mother of all retaliation. but it's not like there was peace or any hope of peace in the middle east anyway.

[Ti-Guy]

"Turn the appeasement amp to 11 its everyone's favourite joke ... Gideon Levy!"

As a Canadian, the only appeasement I've felt compelled to engage in lately (completely unsuccessfully, I might add) is to resist responding to juvenile taunting from rightists who get off insulting everyone with their sneering and derision.

What is it with these rightists? It's like they're about to go postal any minute. I suppose the consequences of their utter amorality are probably staring them full in the face these days, considering how their direction and support of Western interference in the Middle East has led, predictably, to the intractable mess we have now.

[Randall Isaacs]

Antonia: The issue is that the current Palestinian leadership belives that it is carrying the torch of Islam in the same way the leader of Iran believes that he is carrying the torch of Islam. There is no compromise available. The leader of Hamas (who is based in Syria?????) was just in Iran confirming no recognition, no dealing with Israel -- just blow up the rotting tree. The death of the girl in Gaza was widely reported in the media. You are asking Israel to do the impossible because the position of the Palestinian government elected by the Palestinian people is that Jews do not have any right to rule in the Islamic Waqf -- end of story.

By the way, here is a report on the freedom of religion available in Israel which would never be allowed in any Muslim country in the Middle East:
http://jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=2224

Kfar Kassem is in Israel and the rally was held at a soccer stadium with 30,000 attendees.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Antonia,

'This must be asked in our media too. But it won't be.' You've got that right!

Julie,

Darn, I bet you are just beside yourself that you can't state 100% of the Palestinians are for attacks? Only 56.2% 'strongly or somewhat' (of course no definition of what 'somewhat' defines') support 'suicide bombings'.

Gee, maybe they need a sugar daddy like Israel has to get some more advanced weapons like artillery and F-16's.

Yes sirree, just a little over half, about like the neo-cons in the U.S., sure is sufficient to condemn all the population to suffering for the acts of a few.

I think you have been spouting your semi-disguised hatred so long you are clueless to other thoughts. About like Hamas and the Likud party fanatics.

Why don't you haul your arse to Israel and live there. I am sure there is a nice little kibbutz they can put you to work in?

[John W]

The left must stop its wishy washy condoning of suicide bombers with lukewarm but clearly understood sympathy and support for the Palestinians and other Islamic militants.

Suicide bombing is pure evil and never justified.

Let's start there.

[A. Nonimous]

"You know it's been a good day for Palestinian terrorism when Antonia hits us with her standard loony left moral equivalence post."

As opposed to your standard loony right moral superiority rhetoric?

(Yeah, this is a retaliatory ad hominem attack. Maybe the pointless nature of this response might enlighten some as to why tit-for-tat doesn't resolve any conflicts.)

[Elvid]

The West Bank settlement policy has been a catastrophe for everyone involved, Israeli and Palestinean. And Jerusalem should have been an "international city", as was proposed under the auspices of the UN in 1948.

[Antonia Z.]

Just to be clear:

All I was talking about was the media coverage. It is tragic that coverage of the killing of civilians -- not matter who does it, and no matter what you want to call it -- is not balanced. Why are some deaths deemed worthier of notice than others?

[Julie Kruger]

Demosthenes,

You ask a good question: What next?

Best answers I know of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%27s_unilateral_disengagement_plan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-state_solution

[sooey]

but that's just it, isn't it - some deaths are deemed worthier of notice than others. and we're not just tribal about that illogical inhumane response, we're positively ideological about it. rachel corrie - political activist killed in the line of duty - or lefty brat just asking for it...

[Mark Federman]

Antonia, you don't have to travel to the Middle East to observe the apparent hypocrisy of the massmedia, that is, some deaths are more newsworthy than others. A rich, white woman brutally attacked and/or kidnapped and/or sexually assaulted? Newsworthy. A poor woman of colour facing the same horrendous circumstances? Not. A young white woman gunned down on Yonge Street while shopping? Not only newsworthy, but worthy of press conferences and unanimous hand-wringing. A young woman of colour who cannot even afford to be homeless on that stretch of Yonge Street? Forget it.

Massmedia news is political. Full stop.

More to the point at hand: It seems that what political-Islamicists want is the same as political-Christians want, which is the same as what political-Jews want, namely, the imposition of fundamentalist totalitarianism over a region of the world that they perceive as their rightful (as in "God-given") domain. In the face of opposition of the (small-d, no trademark) democracy-favouring persuasion, this objective can only be accomplished by force and violence. Eliminating the violence means giving up the raison d'etre of the political movement, which in turn means giving up the privilege, power, and purse that control of the political movement conveys.

Fundamentalist movements, by definition, are selfish; any one taking their advantage will reignite the desires of the others, even if they had been contemplating moderating their objectives.

In Israel, the Kadimah party might (have) be(en) the hope for moderation. In Palestine, post-Arafat Fatah, the same (although fundamentalist Iran seems to be increasing its dominant influence among Islamicists in the area). In the U.S... well, we'll just have to wait and see if, once again, gay marriages and abortions win the public policy debate over illegality, corruption, deficit, and deaths of men, women, and older-than-zero children.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Mark Federman,

Excellently stated!

[arthurdecco]

"Why are some deaths deemed worthier of notice than others?" Posted by: Antonia Z.

This surely must be a rhetorical question, Antonia. We all know the answer: Because powerful and influential Zionist-supporting Jews control our access to the news through their ownership and/or direction of the media companies that provide it. It's simple really. But like the story of the Emperor's New Clothes - it never gets mentioned because to mention it sets you up to be accused as an “anti-Semite” (has there ever been a more scurrilously abused term in the history of political discourse?)

"Suicide bombing is pure evil and never justified. Let's start there." Posted by: John W

Let’s not, John. Let's be smarter than that.

Someone please explain to me what defines a single person armed as a suicide bomber, “pure evil” and worse than the daily use of Apache helicopter gunship attacks or cannon bombardments on Palestinian civilians? How can one be “pure evil” and the others not? Either they all are or none is.

Most of you, including you, Antonia, endlessly repeat the mantra, "Suicide Bombers Bad". Last time I checked, this was a war zone with one side armed to the tits with American and Israeli weapons of mass destruction and the other with rifles and hand-made explosives. EVERYTHING happening is “BAD”! It seems to me that the Palestinians are only using the weapons they have to fight back against a monstrous enemy who thinks nothing of using the most odious weapons of war against them at every turn in their ongoing quest to destroy them. (And if you think that statement a trifle strong – either you haven’t been paying attention or you’re lying to yourself.)

The suicide bombers are at least displaying personal courage in their attacks on those who permit their government to indiscriminately murder the innocent and steal their land - they have prepared themselves for death. I don't think the same can be said for the despicable vermin who murder women and children with Apache gun ships, fighter planes armed with missles and cannons, can you? Cowards, every one.

No, the evil here isn’t the Palestinian suicide bombers – it’s those who sanction or accept/approve of the actions of the Israeli government in its on-going rape and pillaging of Palestine and its citizens. Now that’s a definition of “pure evil” if I ever saw one.

These attacks would stop in a heartbeat if the Israeli government ever offered the Palestinians a fair and equitable peace rather than the herding-into-outdoor-prisons that continues unabated as we speak. Hell, the suicide attacks stopped for a year just on the HOPE that things would get better! But of course, they didn't, did they? The Israelis kept killing them and stealing from them anyway.

Its too bad those of us here in Canada aren’t in a position to know how many are being murdered as this theft of Palestine continues unchecked, now encouraged and supported by leading members of the Conservative party of Canada and our media conglomerates’ controllers (!) – certainly not by the majority of our Canadian citizens – not by a long shot.

Gotta go wash my hands – even typing this has left me feeling dirty and ashamed for the support my "government" is giving these Israeli war criminals and their "pure evil" supporters.

Now let the projectile vomiting by the Zionists begin...I’m ready - I've got my rubberized suit zipped up tight.

[Antonia Z.]

You may have your rubber suit Arthur, but I don't.
I thought your comment was right on the line.
Not the mark. The line.
The notion that "Jews own and control the media'' is pure hogwash.

[Jay Currie]

Gee Arthur, I can't imagine how anyone could so misconstrue a sentence like "Because powerful and influential Zionist-supporting Jews control our access to the news through their ownership and/or direction of the media companies that provide it." as anti-semitic. How would that be possible?

But, the sort of people who might, would likely be so deluded that they would be unable to see the courage of a sixteen year old strapping on explosives and going off and killing mainly tourists. And they would be so brainwashed by those pesky Jewish media owners that they might not quite see the nobility of the Palestinians firing rockets into civilian areas.

These poor people, unable to quite see black as white, might even, once in a very long while note that the Palestinian Authority has never once made any attempt, as it promised, to disarm the people firing the rockets or inciting the suicides.

Of course there are those other people who not only read Jew controlled media but also non-Jewish controlled media who can't help but think that the Palestinians have been rather badly served by their leadership. After all, to take but one example, the current financial troubles of the Hamas government would be rather reduced had not the sainted Yasser stolen literally billions of dollars.

Or are the stories of Yassers' thefts more constructions of that Jew media thing?

I'll tighten up my tinfoil hat and see what I can find out.