“I am sure this is the only way, and this is the way we love”.
So said Um Anaz, an 18 year old extremist Islamist in Gaza, when she was justifying becoming a suicide-bomber to a BBC Radio 4 Reporter on the Today Programme this morning. In what was a chilling interview, Ms Anaz observed that suicide-bombing should not distinguish between soldiers and civilians, was an inspiration from God and that she was waiting for martyrdom. What was even more disturbing was that this interview was conducted as the background to reports that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are using the current ceasefire with Israel to not only re-arm (in the same way that Hezbollah have done in Lebanon), but also to train a new wave of suicide-bombers, with the intention of causing carnage in Israel if the opportunity allows. The tragedy therefore is two-fold - not just that young Palestinian women are now being used and brainwashed to become suicide-bombers, but that Israeli towns near Gaza (like Sderot, which has suffered an almost daily missile bombardment since the Israeli pullout), are likely to once again live in daily fear from both the threat of missiles and terrorism.
As Hamas and Islamic Jihad have extinguished moderate Palestinians in Gaza, it is now clear that Gaza is now becoming a mini-Islamist statelet with a suicide bombing factory attached. So when those siren voices call for Israel to do more for peace (despite unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza and asking for nothing in return), it is worth remembering that Israel is dealing not with moderate Palestinians, but Islamists, who believe that suicide bombing is a way of life and a necessary tool to achieve the destruction of Israel. For peace to occur, whatever painful concession will have to be made, negotiations have to be conducted with rational individuals who have some regard for the sanctity of human life. As Radio 4 showed all to clearly today, the tragedy for Israel and the Palestinians, is that the Palestinian cause has been hijacked by Islamist Terrorists who have neither regard for humanity nor care for a real peace.
