"my wife and I were just looking for a good place to park our carbomb.."
Posted on 7/2/2002, 2:05:34 PM by Pokey78
THE Palestinians are not famous for their sense of humour.
You see very few Palestinian stand-ups. There is no such thing as a "Palestinian joke". There is no Palestinian equivalent of Woody Allen.
You might say - well, these poor, persecuted people haven't had much to laugh about over the last hundred years.
To which I would reply - the Jews haven't had much to laugh about over the last thousand years. And nobody could deny that the Jews have a sense of humour.
The theory has always been that centuries of persecution were precisely why the Jews invented their own brand of knowing, sarcastic, bittersweet comedy.
"The only way Jews could retain their sanity was to view a dreadful world with sardonic eyes," said one Jewish scholar.
It hasn't worked out like that with the Palestinians. They have responded to their own persecution, their own horrors, not with humour but with the suicide bomb.
Until now.
The shocking, sickening picture of a toddler done up as a suicide bomber was not, we are told, a sign of how low the terrorists can go.
It was a joke.
A Palestinian joke.
Those fun-loving Palestinians in Hebron were having a party six months ago. The baby was with an elder brother.
He was voted, "cutest baby" - and rewarded with a now notorious photo shoot that had him dressed up like a Hamas suicide bomber.
The Israelis say the picture reveals the extent of fanatical indoctrination among young Palestinians.
The Palestinians say it was only a bit of a laugh. Haven't you got a sense of humour?
But that picture turns the stomach of any normal man or woman. It hardly matters if the Israelis are circulating the picture for propaganda purposes. Dressing up a round-faced toddler as a suicide bomber is the act of a society that has been totally brutalised, totally dehumanised, stripped of every emotion except hatred.
What is certain is that the Palestinians are their own worst enemy - which is some going, when you consider that the Israelis are also their enemy.
The baby suicide bomber is just the latest in a long line of Palestinian gaffes, own goals and cock-ups.
Again and again, the Palestinians shoot themselves in the foot. When they are not blowing themselves up, of course. There is enormous sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians in the West. When I was growing up in the 60s, the sympathy was all with the Israelis - victims of the holocaust building a new nation in the desert, surrounded on all sides by hostile fanatics, and yet invariably winning every military conflict.
Plucky little Israel was loved in the 60s. Many non-Jewish British lads dreamed of running off to a kibbutz and having a wild affair with a dark-eyed Israeli girl soldier. Israeli girl soldiers were sex symbols then. Not now.
The Israelis have been too brutal, too often. In their treatment of the Palestinians, they have been too much like their own oppressors. Israel gives every impression that it believes Palestinians to be sub-human. Neutrals in the West feel sorry for Palestinians.
And what do the Palestinians do?
They dance in the street on September 11, meaning they rejoiced in the slaughter of thousands, who could quite easily have included your loved ones or mine.
When Palestinians lynched two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah in October 2000, a member of the mob raised his bloodstained hands in triumph, his face twisted with demonic joy.
The Palestinians go out of their way to show that they rejoice and glory in the most murderous butchery.
In their schools, their children stage grotesque plays where they dress up as terrorists.
And then there's the suicide-bombing baby - just a laugh, we are told. Although already teenage girls are being used as suicide bombers.
Would it surprise anyone if a bomb was strapped to a Palestinian baby and detonated in an Israeli shopping mall?
Israel is winning the propaganda war.
The Palestinians are bent on a course of self-destruction.
There is an old Jewish proverb, and every time the Palestinians rejoice in slaughter, they make it ring loud and true.
"Nations that persecute the Jews never last long."
Jul 1 2002
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AFTER a month in America, I feel I have started to understand the world's only superpower in a way that I didn't before.
For example, when a British columnist is writing about America, he or she is invariably compelled to use the expressions "cowboy" and "Big Mac" at least once every paragraph or so. As though "cowboys" and "Big Macs" are the key to understanding America and its attitude to the rest of the world.
But America's worldview is not formed by an obsession with cowboys and burgers (I think most Yanks prefer muffins to Big Macs, because they contain more sugar).
America's great obsession is with God. Get beyond the TV USA, the urban America of Tony Soprano and Sex And The City and God is everywhere. And it's not just the Bible Belt of the South and Mid-West, but the larger cities too.
"What do you do on Sundays around here?" I asked a woman in Chicago.
She looked shocked. "We go to church," she said.
America is a religious country in a way that the UK is really not.
The British will never understand George Bush until we realise that he is a more genuinely religious man than Osama bin Laden.
Bush doesn't pursue terrorism because he thinks he is John Wayne or because he wants to establish a McDonald's in every mosque. He does it because he believes God is on his side.
I had such a hard time with security at the American airports I visited that, after I had been stopped for special screening 10 times, I bought myself the biggest GOD BLESS AMERICA sticker I could find and stuck it on my suitcase.
I knew it was ridiculous.
I knew my name was in the computer because I was a foreigner, or taking a lot of one-way flights.
I knew that a big GOD BLESS AMERICA sticker couldn't save my suspicious-looking limey ass.
But the funny thing is it did.
The strange thing is that once I had GOD BLESS AMERICA emblazoned all over my suitcase, I was never stopped again.
Spooky, eh?</
Hmmmmm.....
Mr. Parsons is such a genius that apparently he can read our minds.
I must say, that's quite a feat....
Nice to see that our professional government sponsored airport screeners are doing such a terrific job (/sarcasm)
did I miss something? when did this change???? well...other than the sympathy with Israel part(or, was there ever?)
This guy walks into a Sbarro's Pizza Parlor....
Frightfully clever boy.
If only they would.......
Israel gives every impression that it believes Palestinians to be sub-human.....
Yep, no ones fault but Israel's for that impression. Well except for the "fair" European media and the actions of Palestinians themselves.
Neutrals in the West feel sorry for Palestinians.
NEUTRALS? Speaks for itself.
And what do the Palestinians do?
>They dance in the street on September 11...
>they rejoiced in the slaughter of thousands...
>Palestinians lynched two Israeli soldiers...
>a member of the mob raised his bloodstained hands in triumph, his face twisted with demonic joy...
>Palestinians go out of their way to show that they rejoice and glory in the most murderous butchery.
>In...schools...children stage grotesque plays where they dress up as terrorists.
>And then there's the suicide-bombing baby - just a laugh
>already teenage girls are being used as suicide bombers
>Would it surprise anyone if a bomb was strapped to a Palestinian baby and detonated in an Israeli shopping mall?
Wow! That Israel sure can be brutal to those Palestinians for no good reason.
Israel is winning the propaganda war.
Way to go Israel. Your "plan" to propagandize the war is working beautifully. Who thought it would be so easy to "spin" all those normal Palestinian activities.
The Palestinians are bent on a course of self-destruction
So, I dont get it. Is Israel supposed to stop them or not? Or should Israel be more helpful to the poor Palestinians?
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