Where are the Palestinian Mothers?

[King_David]

In March 2004 a Palestinian teenager named Hussam Abdo was spotted by Israeli soldiers behaving suspiciously as he approached the Hawara checkpoint in the West Bank. Ordered at gunpoint to raise his sweater, the startled boy exposed a suicide vest loaded with nearly 20 pounds of explosives and metal scraps, constructed to maximize carnage. A video taken by a journalist at the checkpoint captured the scene as Abdo was given scissors to cut himself free of the vest, which had been strapped tight to his body in the expectation that it wouldn't have to come off. He's been in an Israeli prison ever since.

Abdo provided a portrait of a suicide bomber as a young man. He had an intellectual disability. He was bullied by classmates who called him "the ugly dwarf." He came from a comparatively well-off family. He had been lured into the bombing only the night before, with the promise of sex in the afterlife. His family was outraged that he had been recruited for martyrdom.

"I blame those who gave him the explosive belt," his mother, Tamam, told the Jerusalem Post, of which I was then the editor. "He's a small child who can't even look after himself."

Yet asked how she would have felt if her son had been a bit older, she added this: "If he was over 18, that would have been possible, and I might have even encouraged him to do it." In the West, most mothers would be relieved if their children merely refrained from getting a bad tattoo before turning 18.

***

I've often thought about Mrs. Abdo, and I'm thinking about her today on the news that the bodies of three Jewish teenagers, kidnapped on June 12, have been found near the city of Hebron "under a pile of rocks in an open field," as an Israeli military spokesman put it. Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16, had their whole lives ahead of them. The lives of their families will forever be wounded, or crippled, by heartbreak.


http://online.wsj.com/articles/bret-stephens-where-are-the-palestinian-mothers-1404171087

[Jefferson23]

1. In 2009,

the Atlantic Monthly named Mr. Stephens to its list of the most influential pundits in the United States. The magazine noted that “Stephens can make the conservative case for a hawkish foreign policy and American unilateralism so convincingly that he has persuaded more than a few liberals to join his side. In prose that is sophisticated but disarmingly casual, he favors objective moral calculus over the pure self-interest espoused by most on the foreign-policy right.”

http://torahinmotionusa.org/users/bret-stephens

[King_David]

2. Used to be Editor of the Zionist Jerusalem post nt

[Jefferson23]

3. Uh huh. I wanted people unfamiliar with his pov to have a chance to get aquainted with him. n/t

[cali]

4. I really dislike this kind of disgusting broad brush- whether it's against

Palestinians or Israelis. You dislike it when it's wielded against Israelis and yet you often use it against Palestinians.

Do you see the problem with that?

[King_David]

5. Posting for discussion,

It is his opinion.
Broad-Brush is never good .

[azurnoir]

7. why post an article hidden behind a paywall for discussion?

WSJ does not even provide for the type of 6 free articles that Haaretz does

[King_David]

10. Strange I can see it all and I didn't join anything nt

[azurnoir]

16. subtitle:A culture that celebrates kidnapping is not fit for statehood. which is the point huh?

that said the rest of article is indeed behind a pay wall that requires $24.00 for a subscription and keep in mind that anyone who does not have a wsj subscription is going to hit that same paywall

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. Thank you for showing DU how you vilify the Palestinians and

showing your true colors and all...

[shira]

8. You post from Mondoweiss & you're complaining? LOL. n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

11. Every article that is critical of Israeli policy

is condemed by you. No surprise there.

The OP IS doing a great job vilifying Palestinians, but you know that.

[shira]

9. I don't think Israel's critics here wish to discuss...

...the fact that Palestinian mothers celebrating the murder of these 3 teens, or celebrating their own children's terrorist acts - is mainstream.

Not to say that all Palestinian mothers fit the description - because they don't; only that this is mainstream within Palestinian society.

...a culture that too often openly celebrates martyrdom and murder is not fit for statehood, and that making excuses for that culture only makes it more unfit.

Merely mentioning the subject to those who consider themselves "pro-Palestinian" is considered "rightwing". I'd say that those who wish to defend, justify, deny or censor this horrific phenomenon within Palestinian society are accessories to what can only be described as pure unadulterated evil.

[Jefferson23]

12. Mainstream, according to you and what you're trying to sell here.

Cede not one inch of land to the Palestinians..they're too dangerous...that's the point
of all this smearing.

[King_David]

13. The headline is broadbrush

But the article has anecdotal interviews with the mother of one of the murderers and 2 mothers of suicide bombers.
These mothers interviews and views are chilling but can't be extrapolated broadly.

[Jefferson23]

14. Broad-brush was the intention.

Abdo was a kid who was mentally challenged and had great difficulty fitting in.

Fatah found a tool through their despicable but obvious ability to pick a vulnerable
and gullible person to murder for them.

The quotes from his mother are not offered in a sequence, the author should have
linked all of it.

The rest is behind pay wall.

[azurnoir]

17. it was the subtitle that was/is being sold here

"A culture that celebrates kidnapping is not fit for statehood."

[Jefferson23]

18. Yes, it is clear..they're too dangerous. Long live the occupation. n/t

[azurnoir]

19. so you say Palestinian mothers celebrating their childrens deaths is mainstream

shira
9. I don't think Israel's critics here wish to discuss...


...the fact that Palestinian mothers celebrating the murder of these 3 teens, or celebrating their own children's terrorist acts - is mainstream.

Not to say that all Palestinian mothers fit the description - because they don't; only that this is mainstream within Palestinian society.

...a culture that too often openly celebrates martyrdom and murder is not fit for statehood, and that making excuses for that culture only makes it more unfit.


Merely mentioning the subject to those who consider themselves "pro-Palestinian" is considered "rightwing". I'd say that those who wish to defend, justify, deny or censor this horrific phenomenon within Palestinian society are accessories to what can only be described as pure unadulterated evil.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113465895#post9

[LeftishBrit]

15. This reminds me of the sort of article that treats every bad action committed by an Israeli as proof

that 'Israel/ Zionism is evil'.

It's wrong there, and it's wrong here.

The murder of these teenagers is a horrible, shocking, tragic crime and whoever actually did it deserves severe punishment; but all Palestinians should not be punished or blamed for it. Bringing in the 'Palestinian mothers' is particularly nasty and twisted.

And statehood is not a privilege to be earned by good behaviour; or there would not be many independent states in this world.

[shira]

20. Sounds like a way to avoid the big Elephant in the room

The Palestinian mothers the OP is describing are mainstream within Palestinian society. There's more than enough evidence of this:
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=846

Why can't something this important be discussed rationally, rather than being censored for ridiculous PC reasons? How can there be genuine peace if this is ignored or denied? To cast this aside as just typical rightwing bigotry is to condone it - and that's not in any way progressive, liberal, or enlightened. Ignoring, denying, justifying, or explaining away this phenomenon is to be an accessory to it.

How am I wrong?