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How martyrs are made [*Great read]
The Globe and Mail ^ | Saturday, October 11, 2003 | MARGARET WENTE

Posted on 10/13/2003 8:29:37 PM PDT by yonif

Early last Saturday morning, 27-year-old Hanadi Jaradat waved goodbye to her parents and hurried off down the street. She had business to do -- something about a land transaction. An apprentice lawyer, she was only a few days away from finishing her internship and opening her own office. "She was happy," her father later said.

But Ms. Jaradat's true business lay elsewhere. She changed from her traditional Arab robe and scarf into blue jeans, and put her hair up into a ponytail. She slipped across a lightly guarded part of the security fence that now separates large parts of the West Bank from Israel, and made her way to a busy Arab-Israeli restaurant in Haifa called Maxim. It was full of families on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Somehow, she dodged the security check that all restaurants in Israel have these days. Inside, she detonated her body-belt full of explosives. She blew up 19 people, including herself and three generations of two different Israeli families, and injured dozens more. Five of the dead were Israeli-Arab Christians, and three were Jewish children.

The Maxim was co-owned by an Arab family and a Jewish family, and was almost 40 years old. It served both Arab and Jewish customers, and was a symbol of peaceful co-existence. No one knows if that irony occurred to Hanadi Jaradat, who is now the newest role model for Palestinian girls -- the most-successful female suicide bomber ever.

"Everyone was happy and proud of her," said a neighbour in Jenin, the explosive refugee camp where she lived. "We are receiving congratulations from people," said her 15-year-old brother, Thaher. "Why should we cry? It is like her wedding today, the happiest day for her."

The usual explanation for what motivates people like Ms. Jaradat is despair and revenge. There was plenty of that. A few months ago, Israeli soldiers killed her older brother and a male cousin. The family says they have no idea why, but the Israelis say they were Islamic Jihad terrorists. It was Islamic Jihad that claimed credit for Ms. Jaradat's murder mission.

I've heard this story before. I heard it from another family last January, who told me how their bright and beautiful 17-year-old daughter left home one day to detonate herself in a Jewish supermarket. I also learned then that young Palestinians are urged by a relentless stream of propaganda to choose violent death. This poison is manufactured not by Islamic Jihad or Hamas, but by the Palestinian Authority itself. It includes TV news shows and newspaper articles that glorify murderers (interviews with proud mothers of the dead are a standard feature), and sermons from extremist imams. It also includes a unique invention of Palestinian culture -- music videos celebrating suicide, starring attractive boys and girls in Western fashions and set to catchy music. These music videos have two themes. One is the wickedness and depravity of the Israelis. The other is the beauty of Shahada -- dying for Allah -- which is depicted as the supreme act of patriotism.

In these videos, Israelis are depicted as monsters -- cruel, sadistic people who murder mothers, children, and helpless old men in cold blood. One that ran on TV all summer (after the PA had agreed to engage in the "peace process") shows a mother who is targeted and murdered by soldiers. Her daughter mourns her death and sings sadly over her grave. In another, shot in a similarly gauzy, impressionistic style, soldiers shoot down Palestinian schoolchildren at a checkpoint in successive waves, until they're all dead. The last scene shows a graveyard, where the ghostly children rise again, presumably to ascend to the sweet afterlife. In another, a handsome young man sees his sweetheart shot dead. She ascends to Heaven, where she appears robed in white among the other maidens of Paradise. Then he becomes a martyr, too, and is reunited with her in Paradise, where they once again embrace.

Other music videos show children riding off on their bicycles to throw stones at enemy soldiers and falling happily to their death. "Don't cry for me," they write in notes left for their parents. In one, a mother mourns her fallen son and then hands a gun to the younger one (who looks to be about 12). You can see this infinitely depressing material for yourself at the Web site of Palestinian Media Watch (http://www.pmw.org), an independent Israeli organization which has done the world a service by documenting it.

These messages, which have been broadcast for years, are part of mainstream culture. And although most Palestinians are desperately poor, almost every family has a TV. The messages run on official Palestinian Authority TV. (Since the summer, the amount of airtime has been substantially reduced, but they're still shown every day.) They are produced with money supplied by the European Union and other nations that subsidize the PA.

What political goal are they designed to achieve? There isn't one. In fact, the only goal seems to be to get rid of the Jews. The message is that all of Israel, not just the territories, belongs to the Palestinians. Palestinian textbooks don't even show the state of Israel. The entire region is depicted as greater Palestine.

One music video that aired a couple of weeks ago did show a map of Israel. There was a heart over it, dripping blood. Then, arms with stones sprouted from the ground, and in the final shot, the Palestinian flag covered the whole map.

Many outsiders believe that these extreme beliefs are confined to a small minority of people. This is not true. Yasser Arafat periodically repeats his enthusiasm for child martyrs (but only in Arabic). Soccer teams and UN-sponsored summer camps are named after suicide bombers. Last May, the director of the Palestinian children's aid association gave a television interview in which she explained that part of education policy is to teach children to aspire to death for Allah. "The concept of Shahada for him [the child] means belonging to the homeland, from a religious point of view. Sacrifice for his homeland. Achieving Shahada in order to reach Paradise and to meet his God. This is the best."

It has worked. One of the most-chilling television moments I have ever seen features two 11-year-old girls being interviewed on a news set around a year ago. They are talking about wanting to die, in the same way that girls here talk about wanting to be teachers, or doctors, or brides. "Do you think it is beautiful?" asks the adult male host. "Shahada is very, very beautiful," answers one of the girls. "Everyone yearns for Shahada. What could be better than going to Paradise?"

"Every Palestinian child aged, say 12, says 'O Lord, I would like to become a Shahid,' " says the other girl.

The story of the Yom Kippur massacre was quickly overtaken by fresh news this week. Israel bombed an empty terrorist training camp in Syria in retaliation. Governments and newspapers around the world condemned Israel for it. People criticized George W. Bush for not being tough enough on Sharon. The latest Arafat government fell apart. Wise people opined once again that Israeli will never be able to achieve a political solution through military action.

This is true. It's also true that peace will never come until Palestinians renounce their death cult. So far, there's no sign of it.

mwente@globeandmail.ca


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: femalebombers; haifa; hanadijaradat; israel; ploterrorregime; suicidebomber; waronterrorism
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1 posted on 10/13/2003 8:29:38 PM PDT by yonif
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To: SJackson; Yehuda; Nachum; Paved Paradise; Mr. Mojo; Thinkin' Gal; Bobby777; adam_az; Alouette; ...
About the terrorist:

"Everyone was happy and proud of her," said a neighbour in Jenin, the explosive refugee camp where she lived. "We are receiving congratulations from people," said her 15-year-old brother, Thaher. "Why should we cry? It is like her wedding today, the happiest day for her."

2 posted on 10/13/2003 8:30:31 PM PDT by yonif ("If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem, Let My Right Hand Wither" - Psalms 137:5)
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To: All
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3 posted on 10/13/2003 8:34:11 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: yonif
Wasn't it Golda Meir that said, "There will be no peace until the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews".

Often repeated, but they can bear repeating once again. They are very wise words.
4 posted on 10/13/2003 8:39:16 PM PDT by I still care
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To: yonif
When you believe lies it brings death.
The truth will set you free.
Israel needs our support and prayers.
5 posted on 10/13/2003 8:42:17 PM PDT by TLOne (A prayer for Democrats; That their eyes be opened to understanding..)
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To: I still care
Those words are very wise indeed. Brainwashing children to grow up and kill themselves for a cause is child abuse,pure and simple.

6 posted on 10/13/2003 8:45:13 PM PDT by Mears
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To: yonif
From Dio's thread a few days ago....


The Perp of Haifa - Islamic Lawyer Hanadi Tayssir Jaradat's head
after she murdered the guard and all those people
Should the Israelis have used a pike and pig fat?
Meanwhile, in Jenin, the proud mother of the terroist-lawyer
praises her daughter saying this was better than a marriage.


In Jenin, the demolished house of terrorist-lawyer Jaradat, reportedly long-empty.



7 posted on 10/13/2003 8:45:29 PM PDT by Salem (FREE REPUBLIC - Fighting to win within the Arena of the War of Ideas! So get in the fight!)
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To: yonif
Evil, truly evil. I grieve for these people who are being poisoned by thier own leaders. They will never know peace no matter what the outcome of the Isreali/Palistinian conflict. Thier hatred will burn a hole in thier souls that will carry them though hell
8 posted on 10/13/2003 8:46:06 PM PDT by blastdad51 (Proud father of an Enduring Freedom vet, and friend of a soldier lost in Afghanistan)
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To: yonif
"It's also true that peace will never come until Palestinians renounce their death cult. So far, there's no sign of it."

Wow, and in the Globe & Mail, no right-wing publication is that, if I am not mistaken.

The mental illness indoctrinated in the palis is just like what Hitler did with the Nazis and Pol Pot with the Cambodians. I'm not even sure Mao made the Chinese this insane, and I know Stalin didn't brain-wash the Russians to this extent. Sure, Mao & Stalin terrorized people, but I'm not convinced they drove them mad as the Palis are now, indisputably, mad.

So what is to be done with them? I for one oppose giving lunatics nations to call their own. Of course, no one in the Arab world wants them either. I have no serious, non- violent, non-sarcastic, suggestions to make. I'd feel sorry for them, I'd blame Arafat, but I've seen Hannah whatever her name is on TV, I've seen Pali people, they are not all ignorant, uneducated, stupid people. I think they should come up with a better idea.

I think, for their own good, and the good of all others, they should do this sooner, rather than later.
9 posted on 10/13/2003 8:48:06 PM PDT by jocon307 (GO RUSH GO)
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To: yonif
"Why should we cry? It is like her wedding today, the happiest day for her."

Seriously, what hope is there, short of deporting every single suspect to the Palestinian state of Jordan.

10 posted on 10/13/2003 8:54:21 PM PDT by Taiwan Bocks
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To: jocon307
I've got a partial solution.

Shut down PLA-sponsored television and jam transmissions from neighboring Arab countries.

Arafat's little MTV death cult propaganda station needs to be destroyed.

11 posted on 10/13/2003 8:56:09 PM PDT by Reactionary
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To: jocon307
I'd feel sorry for them, I'd blame Arafat, but I've seen Hannah whatever her name is on TV, I've seen Pali people, they are not all ignorant, uneducated, stupid people. I think they should come up with a better idea.

Unfortunately ever since Arafat (= 30+ years) anyone Anyone ANYONE who has "a better idea" is murdered as a collaborator.

The ones in power are simply stooges for Islamist imperatives of murdering every single jew and taking over Israeli soil.

12 posted on 10/13/2003 9:00:55 PM PDT by Taiwan Bocks
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To: blastdad51
"Evil, truly evil. I grieve for these people who are being poisoned by thier own leaders."

It's a poisen that is ingested willingly. Nobody can make you hate; they can try but it still takes a hardened and willing heart to hate enough to murder.

13 posted on 10/13/2003 9:47:04 PM PDT by TheCrusader
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To: yonif
their hatred for the Jews is the same as that of Adolph Hitler ... it is demonically-inspired and it is relentless ... one need only look at all the states developing offensive weapons to attack Israel ...
14 posted on 10/13/2003 10:04:28 PM PDT by Bobby777
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To: Salem
Somehow, the mother doesnt LOOK happy.

you see, love in palistine dares not speak its name. yassar has long practiced buggery, this stuff is just another form of child abuse for him.
15 posted on 10/13/2003 10:15:54 PM PDT by donmeaker (Bigamy is one wife too many. So is monogamy.)
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To: I still care
"An apprentice lawyer, she was only a few days away from finishing her internship and opening her own office."

The only bright side is that a budding lawyer's career was nipped in the bud. Alas, far too many innocent were killed to achieve a minimal cleaning of the gene pool.

What kind of a mother can think her daughter's suicide was preferable to her marriage? Or was she saying that to claim the money which the Syrians are paying to families of the murder bombers? The picture of the mother's face certainly doesn't look like a celebratory expression to me.
16 posted on 10/13/2003 10:16:07 PM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon liberty, it is essential to examine principles - -)
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To: TheCrusader
In these videos, Israelis are depicted as monsters -- cruel, sadistic people who murder mothers, children, and helpless old men in cold blood.

The correct clinical, psychological term for this is : projection.
17 posted on 10/13/2003 10:30:33 PM PDT by Kozak (Anti Shahada: " There is no God named Allah, and Muhammed is his False Prophet")
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To: yonif
Error in article: she didn't dodge the security check, she shot the guard!
18 posted on 10/13/2003 10:58:24 PM PDT by thoughtomator ("A republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
19 posted on 10/14/2003 5:39:24 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: yonif
She blew up 19 people, including herself and three generations of two different Israeli families, and injured dozens more.

She wanted 72 virgins too!

They should have shoved a porkchop in her mouth.

Lousy muslim witch.

20 posted on 10/14/2003 6:01:06 AM PDT by JesseHousman (Execute Mumia Abu-Jamal)
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