I
EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
Exploiting Kids To Kill
E
ussam Abdu is 16 but thinks like a 10-year-old,
Hussam's father, Bilal, operates a large grocery store. In blam-
said the uncle of this Palestinian boy caught on
ing Israel for the climate wherein Palestinian boys yearn to die
March 24 at a checkpoint with an explosive vest
as martyrs, Bilal ignored the anti-Zionist TV shows, textbooks
strapped to his body. His plan was to kill Israeli
and newspapers that Palestinian kids are exposed to.
soldiers to earn a place in Paradise. Televised footage captured
Affirming her indoctrination, Hussam's mother, Tamam, dis-
the boy obeying the orders of soldiers to try to take off the
approved only because her son is not yet 18. Were he, she says
nail-studded vest at Huwara Checkpoint, south of Nablus.
she may have encouraged him to be a martyr.
At the same West Bank checkpoint nine days earlier, an
Hussam has four sisters and one brother. The family lives in
Israeli policewoman found a cell phone connected to a bomb
relative comfort. But Hussam told the soldiers who intervened
belt in the backpack of 11-year-old Abdullah Kuran. He was
that he had to martyr himself by taking out Jews because "peo-
paid five shekels ($1.10) to deliver the backpack to "some peo-
ple do not like me."
ple" on the Israeli side. I suspect his handlers
He said other kids call him "Brains" and "The Ugly Dwarf."
planned to blow him up along with Israeli
"It hurt so much," he said, "I wanted to kill myself."
soldiers — or maybe later amid civilian
That doesn't explain why he agreed to target Jews.
Israelis.
But the Koran-inspired pleasure that he believed waited in
The Palestinian Authority (PA.) newspaper,
heaven does. His teacher, he said, "told us to fast, to pray and
Al Hayat Al Jadida, claimed Israel concocted
to do good deeds to reach Paradise. He told about the life of
these "lies" to entice more Palestinian
pleasure, which is waiting for us
kids to indulge in terror and devious-
there: a river of honey, a river of
ly bring more sympathy to the Israeli
wine and 72 beautiful girls."
ROBERT A. situation, reported the Jerusalem-
He added, "The people who gave
SKLAR
based Palestinian Media Watch.
me the suicide belt told me this was
Editor
The incidents spotlight yet another
my only chance to have sex."
dilemma facing Israel: growing
Hussam's logic denotes martyr-
Palestinian use of kids as young as 10 to carry out or
dom as the ticket to Paradise and
aid suicide bombings. Israeli findings show that terror-
killing Zionist occupiers of their
ist groups have sent at least 29 suicide bombers
land as the ticket to martyrdom.
younger than 18.
This Jerusalem Post account sent a
I asked Gary Faber, superintendent of the culturally
chill up my spine.
diverse West Bloomfield Schools, what he thought.
Here was a teenager saying he
"I walk among 10-year-old children daily," he said.
had never heaved stones at soldiers,
"They cause me to smile at their innocence and
that his family wasn't desperate,
enthusiasm. To picture children in situations of vio-
that he liked to play soccer and that
lence sickens me. I do not believe any just cause or
he wanted to work in radio and TV
religion in history would purposely place innocent
repair — yet he opted to carry out
children in such situations."
a suicide attack anyway.
Neither do I.
He admitted that he liked to play
Clearly, terrorists control the P.A. They've neutral-
"Terrorist and the Policeman" on
ized President Yasser Arafat, a terror-monger himself,
his home computer and attend ral-
as well as Palestinians who back moderation toward
lies against the occupation.
Israel.
Hussam Abdu after surrendering.
He intended to carry out the sui-
The Arab world complains about Israel-mandated
cide attack, but balked only when sol-
checkpoints, dosures and curfews. It complains when Israeli
diers noticed a bulge under his sweater as he reached the front
soldiers accidentally shoot Palestinian kids caught in crossfire.
of the checkpoint line. "I didn't want to die any more," he said.
But it can't stop terrorists from putting more kids in harm's
"I took the battery out of the bomb harness."
way — and not just as stone throwers. Kids also are involved
He apologized and is awaiting punishment.
in stabbings, fire bombings and weapons making.
Many human rights groups balanced denouncing Palestinian
Terrorists fuel an infrastructure of hate and terror so success-
use of kids for terror by condemning Israel for parading in the
fully that soldiers no longer can distinguish between innocent
news media the kids who they captured.
kids and those recruited to become martyrs for Allah.
Let's be frank: Letting child bombers go faceless masks the
This is the kind of society that wants to be recognized as a
gravity of their crimes and the related social anarchy. It won't
sovereign state?
trigger outrage in the civilized world — like it must.
Abu Muhammad, uncle of Hussam Abdu, last week's
I asked Rabbi Avrohom Cohen of the Southfield-based
would-be bomber, was so mad, he vowed to fire two bullets
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah how he viewed the failing timbers of
into the head of whoever duped his mentally slow nephew.
Palestinian schools, which teach that combat, Zionist hatred
"I don't even mind spending the rest of my life in prison," he
and Death for Allah are to be desired. "What kind of pervert-
told the Jerusalem Post. "Those who did this are criminals."
ed, distorted, insane life will the children lead as adults — if
He got that right.
they make it to adulthood?" the rabbi responded.
The deception involved the promise of 100 shekels ($22) for
His rhetorical question shook me up.
Hussam's family and 72 black-eyed virgins for him in Paradise
Rabbi Cohen added, "These people are doomed, and have
if he detonated a bomb amid Israeli soldiers.
no hope, if their education continues to be a diet of hate and
Muhammad said his nephew was "a short, naive boy who
killing."
had been struck in the head when he was a child - and has been
Clearly, the psyche of the Palestinian people must change.
suffering from an illness since then" — "a boy who doesn't
Kids must be taught to value life and do what is good — not
know good from bad."
to crave martyrdom and do what is evil. ❑
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