Palestinians become Suicide bombers because they are Depressed and Desperate and Have No Way Out

Whenever a massacre occurs in Israel, Palestinian spokesmen rush out to say: "Yes, this is terrible, but this is what happens when you have a people with no hope for an end to the occupation."  Apologists in the West invariably echo this exculpation/explanation.

Of all the mendacity that pollutes Middle Eastern discourse, this is the worst.  It assumes that the listener is not only stupid but also amnestic.  Two years ago at the Camp David summit, in the presence of the president of the United States, the Palestinians were offered an end to the occupation -- a total end, a final end -- by the prime minister of Israel.  They said no.  They said no because in return, they were asked to make peace.

   The following paragraph from Israel National News (Wed June 19, 2002) addresses the desperate and depressed Palestinian theory.

 Are suicide terrorists "depressed?" British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today, "We can all feel a degree of compassion for those youngsters" who kill themselves and others, but added, "they must be so misguided and depressed to do" what he called "despicable" attacks. His remarks came a day after Cherie Blair, wife of the British Prime Minister, implied that the terrorists' despair and "lack of hope" was what drove them to commit murder. Interestingly, Mohammed al-Ghoul, a 22-year-old in the first semester of a master's degree program in Islamic studies at A-Najah University, did not quite fit the above characterization when he flipped the switch yesterday that killed himself and 19 others in the bus from Gilo. "I am happy that my body will be the response for the attacks conducted by the Israelis and that my body will turn into an explosive shred mill against the Israelis," his father quoted al-Ghoul's suicide note as saying. "How beautiful it is to make my bomb shrapnel kill the enemy. How beautiful it is to kill and to be killed... for the lives of the coming generation." Similarly, the mother of Muhammad Farhat, who murdered five Israeli boys in the Atzmonah pre-military academy in March of this year, did not speak of sadness or despair in an interview with a London Arabic-language newspaper. She did say, "Because I love my son, I encouraged him to die a martyr's death for the sake of Allah... Muhammad was seven when the martyr 'Imad 'Aql lived with us at home, [and] despite his young age, he was [an] assistant to 'Imad 'Aql... 'Imad lived with us for 14 months, and he had a room in our house from which he would plan the operations. The mujahideen would come to him and plan and sketch everything out, and little Muhammad would be with them, thinking and planning. This was the source of Muhammad's love of martyrdom. This is the atmosphere in which the love of martyrdom developed in Muhammad's soul. I, as a mother, naturally encouraged the love of Jihad in the soul of Muhammad and in the souls of all my sons, all of whom belong to the Al-Qassam Brigades. My eldest son, Nidal (31), is wanted now by the Israelis. My second son set out on a martyrdom operation, but was discovered, arrested, and sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment. I have another son who is the escort of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The atmosphere to which Muhammad was exposed was full of faith and love of martyrdom... He would brandish his weapon and tell me: 'Mom, this is my bride.' He loved his gun so much." Extensive excerpts from the above interview, translated by MEMRI, can be seen at www.memri.org.

Although the poor living conditions of the Palestinian Arabs may contribute to their motivation to commit bombings, those conditions are the result of Arafat siphoning off donated money to himself his cronies and to purchase weapons.  These conditions are also due to curfews that the Israelis are forced to impose in order to stop Arabs from committing attacks on Israeli civilians.  Many attacks occur after the Israelis out of concern for the situation of the Arabs, end the curfew.  The New York Post reported for example (7/19/02)

The two Palestinian homicide bombers who killed themselves and three innocent people on a crowded street Wednesday were from Nablus, a West Bank town where the Israel-imposed curfew had been lifted two days earlier, an intelligence source said.

"They would never have been out had we not lifted the curfew," he said.

   The suffering of the Palestinian Arabs stems from their violence which in term stems from incitement and indoctrination by by the Palestinian Authority to kill the Jew and the fundamentalist Islamic indoctrination that those who kill the Jews will go to heaven.