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Gaza pain makes Hamas fighter giddy

One of Israel's most reliable talking points in describing the dilemma it faces in dealing with terrorist attacks -- whether from Gaza, Lebanon or the West Bank -- is this: Terrorists have no regard for civilian life, neither Israeli nor of their own people, and the proof is their cynical strategic calculus. If Israeli civilians die from their attacks, great. And if Israel responds with force and Palestinian civilians die, also great. Either way, terrorists score a victory -- tactical in the first case, politically in the second.

I have well-intentioned friends who doubt this could possibly be true. No one is that evil, they say. They ought to read this short dispatch from a hosptal in Gaza that appeared in today's New York Times. 

A girl who looked about 18 screamed as a surgeon removed shrapnel from her leg. An elderly man was soaked in blood. A baby a few weeks old and slightly wounded looked around helplessly. A man lay with parts of his brain coming out. His family wailed at his side.

“Don’t you see that these people are hurting?” the militant was asked.

“But I am from the people, too,” he said, his smile incandescent. “They lost their loved ones as martyrs. They should be happy. I want to be a martyr, too.”

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01/09/09 07:01 PM

I think what the martyr was trying to say is that being a martyr means having total control before dying. Is about control. Palestinians are being controlled and humiliated constantly, day after day. Their families too. Their mothers, brothers, nephews..... The control is usually in Israeli hands.  Being a martyr is having the control at least for brief minutes.  It borders with plain old revenge. 
Things will improve when Israel gives the respect that Palestinians, as humans, deserve. Once they are treated as people and their lands return to them, peace for everybody will be achieve immediately.

01/09/09 08:25 PM

Fernando -There can never be peace - Palestinans will feel humiliated until every Jew leaves Israel. Their Prophet taught them that they must fight to the death - no peace treaties shall be honored…
Islam must triumph totally....anything less is intolerable to them…

Well, Jews wont be leaving Israel....
Islam will not triumph…
And Palestinians are going to feel humiliated, eternally…

So Mo is just gonna have to suck it up....

01/10/09 02:44 AM

All who read this article should read “this short dispatch.” It tells the mind set of the terrorists that Israel is facing and the wotld periodically faces.  hose who don’t read the dispatch will miss the admission of this martyr wannabe that they flee into houses when Israel strikes back too quickly.  Why are there so many civilian casualties?  Read the dispatch.  It is only through the efforts of the IDF and their leaders that there are not far more.

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