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rael. 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 beiiefs 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. 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.
This article appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail of October 11.
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lamic Conference in Malaysia in mid October. The outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister lamented that "today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them....We are up against a people who think. They survived 2000 years of pogroms not by hitting back but by thinking. They invented Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power."All this was too much, lo and behold, even for the State Department and the New York Times, both of which decried the remarks.
To us, the least noted -- but noteworthy -- aspects of this performance were the following:
l. Mahathir felt he was complimenting as much as attacking Jews -- Muslims, it was his theme, should emulate the Jews in "thinking," and not just engage in irrational attacks based on emotions, thereby the better to defeat the Jews.
2. Mahathir listed together, as Jewish inventions, "Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy." For much of his audience, the latter two were far more sinister than the first two (whose ideologies many of the countries represented had at one time claimed to follow). So while, to a Western audience, accusing a people of inventing human rights and democracy might not seem a terrible indictment, to the Muslim ummah that's the truly foul deed.
3. The speech produced a standing ovation from participants at the 57 country conference. Here's what our supposedly staunch democratic ally Hamid Karzai had to say: "It is great to hear Prime Minister Mahathir speak so eloquently on the problems of the ummah and ways to remedy them. His speech was an eye-opener to a lot of us and that is what the Islamic world should do."
From an article by Ariel Sharon in the Jerusalem Post International Edition, Week ending August 17, 1991: "In Western Eretz Yisrael or part of it, a second Palestinian state shall not arise, not even a corridor to such a state in one or another form of self government."
After fifteen years, Arutz Sheva, the nationalist radio service that one listener has called "a little island of sanity and truth" has gone off the air as a result of outrageous decisions by the courts and Likud government alike.
Arutz Sheva operated in a Catch 22 situation. It was deemed "illegal" because it was not licensed, but the government would not license it (it refuses to sell broadcast licenses to private-sector groups). Responding to the constant harassment of the radio station (which broadcast from a ship off shore because of its inability to obtain a license) by left-wing Attorney Generals, the Knesset, on February 23, 1999, by a 40-30 vote, passed a law formally licensing Arutz-7. But far left members of the Knesset (the most vocal about freedom of left-wing speech) submitted petitions to the court to have the law
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November 2003 - 11 - Outpost