Name Calling and Death of Children

It's been a bad week for Arab women and children.

Sunday started out with a horrific report on the grisly discovery of a missing four year old boy. He was found dead in a garbage dumpster in the Beduin city of Rahat.

The father of the young boy reported that one of his wives (he has three of them) had stabbed to death the child of another wife, because she was jealous and unable to conceive.

Police believe that at first the child's body was stored in the washing machine, but was later dumped in the garbage.

On Monday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up near Israeli soldiers in Beit Hanoun. Lucky for us, she goes to paradise a bit unaccomplished after having only lightly wounded one our soldiers.

That same day it was reported that an all-women's cell of Islamic Jihad terrorists was discovered and apprehended. The women were handlers of several terror cells in the areas of Jerusalem and Judea. Among other activities, they were involved in the transferring of funds from Syria to be used for the families of suicide terrorists, and for the funding of terror attacks. One of the arrested women also oversaw the building of an explosives laboratory. The less capable women have been relegated to the position of acting as human shields for terrorists -- but hey, it's a job.

And just when you thought that equal opportunity employment for women had been embraced by the Palestinian patriarchal society (at least in the terror sector), a scathing report on the status of Palestinian women came to the fore on Tuesday.

The Palestinian Authority's Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 23 percent of Arab women living in PA-controlled areas have experienced domestic violence, and sixty-six percent said they were subject to psychological abuse at home.

The report also cited that the situation is exacerbating due to the fact that the abusers are granted virtual immunity under Islamic law.

Which brings us to Wednesday's accidental artillery shelling, by the IDF, of an alleged civilian area in Beit Hanoun. As of this writing, the jury is still out on who, how, how many, when, and what occurred. And then there's always the very enigmatic Arab reaction. Based on the Islamic worldview, I'm not sure if the event constitutes wholly bad news. On one hand there's always a glut of wailing women images and morbid, heartrending photo ops provided to the press - followed by cries for revenge. But, on the other hand, the mothers of the alleged victims seem rather pleased -- at least in the interviews.

One mother who purportedly lost four children was quoted by reporters as saying:
"I am proud to be the mother of the shahids, it is a great honor and we pray to Allah to compensate us."

After a week like this, you¹ll forgive me if I thought it was funny - in macabre sort of way - when Palestinian Government Spokesman Dr. Ghazi Hamad said that "Israel is not a country of humans, but of animals". For the record, he also mentioned that Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth, but that's not news -- we've been hearing it a lot lately.

But Dr. Hamad, if we Israeli animals are wiped off the map, then who care for and treat your wounded that we received at Israeli hospitals?

I'm not sure why our fuzzy little friends in the animal kingdom get such a bad rap by us human types. Animals are instinctive, not conniving creatures. I suppose the accurate term to describe more-than-barbaric behavior would be "subhuman". But somehow, when we hear of the carrying out of some ghastly cruelty, we naturally and instinctively gasp and exclaim under our breath, "those animals!"

Throughout the last several years of world-wide carnage, I've had a lot of those catch my-breath-at-barbarism opportunities. But the quintessential animal moment for me came on October 12, 2000. Two of our reserve soldiers accidentally took the wrong turn and ended up being more-than-brutally lynched in the Palestinian Police compound of Ramallah (remember the picture with the bloody hands?) When the wife of one of the reservists called her husband's celphone, it was picked up by the butchers who informed the woman, "We are killing your husband."

Since then we've watched everything from Arabs playing football with body parts, to beheadings in realtime, to the deliberate and calculated mass immolation of civilians in the name of Allah.

In fact anyone who still has the capacity and sensitivity to gasp, and turn away from the glut of savagery brought upon us by global Jihad, must be a highly evolved individual.

Then there are those, in the international community, who are so good at feigning outrage - it comes with the job. International leaders were leaping to conclusions, before an accurate account of the incident had been reported, or an investigation had been completed. They rely instead on ghastly eyewitness accounts accompanied by images of corpses, funeral pyres, morgue refrigerators, and the operating theater. Normally that would be pretty good evidence to base a report on, but in Pallywood these things require verification by investigation.

In the past, on more than one occasion, these images have been fabricated or arranged for dramatic effect - We saw this theater of lies with Al Dura, Jenin, Rafah, Gaza Beach, and Qana. One can almost assume that the mishap at Beit Hanoun, whether authentic or not, could likely have a good dose of Pallywood mixed in with the tragic facts.

The Foreign Minister of Italy called the incident a "massacre" . He must be taking lessons from the Palestinians who have a tendency to describe everything in those terms or worse.

Back in the summer of 2004 when Israel destroyed some buildings in Rafah which were used as a cover for sophisticated weapon¹s smuggling tunnels emanating from Egypt, the Mayor of Rafah compared the incident to the bombing of Hiroshima.

And instead of the top wire service acting responsibly, by questioning the mayor's delusional perspective, the Associated Press proceeded to disseminate the report (it's worth noting that the deputy mayor's reference to Israel as a Nazi state which perpetrated a holocaust, also went over the news wire).

The European Union described the recent incident at Beit Hanoun as "a profoundly shocking event." True enough. But it would be a profoundly intelligent move on EU's part if they would take a real penetrating look into what kind of culture their generous funds to the Palestinians have been fostering. A thorough re-assessment of their policies would be in Europe's best interest, as the flames of Jihad that the EU has been fueling appear to be spreading in their direction.

It would be profoundly inspiring if the EU, instead of conveniently pointing the finger at Israel, would challenge and pressure the Arab world to try and raise themselves up from their current monstrous standing, to the level of animals -- even primitive ones. Then maybe we would have somebody to talk to. But we're most likely talking about years of evolution.

It's profoundly idiotic that Israel continues to use the same repeatedly failed formula when approaching libelous accusations with regards to her defensive actions:

a) We instantaneously issue an apology before investigating the occurrence.
I suppose we do this in order to placate the feeding frenzy of the press -- which is so very pressed to be first to deliver the goods to a salivating public.

b) Once the exonerating facts are in, we fall all over ourselves in bumbling attempts to set the record straight.

And how does one gracefully retract an apology?

This kind of foolishness makes re-runs of the Three Stooges look like serious drama.

As Caroline Glick rightfully pointed out, in a Jerusalem Post column covering the Al Dura trials two weeks ago, "When Israel refuses to defend itself from blood libels, it gives silent license to attacks against Israel and world Jewry in the name of those libels."

But it's worth noting that despite an incompetent government response to a public relations crisis, the Israeli Defense Forces have a sense of conscious and accountability, and they try ever-so-hard to maintain the moral high ground in an insanely brutal region.

The same cannot be said of the Palestinian leadership. When faced with the prospect of condemning terror attacks, Yasser Arafat used to go through almost humorous verbal gymnastics and conniptions to avoid the task.

If love is defined as "never having to say you're sorry", then I guess the Palestinian authority, the EU and the UN must love us a lot - because they never have to apologize.

But remember, Dr. Ghazi Hamad, we Israelis -- with all of our faults -- are far more human than the rest of you. Because animals wouldn't treat your wounded, nor sincerely investigate a possible mishap, nor apologize when necessary.

It seems you, the EU, and the rest the world should do their best to keep us on the map. Because I have a hunch that without Israel, you men (joined by your women and children) would have torn each other to shreds long ago.