On this episode of Arabian Idol: Heroic Warriors of Palestine Send 68 Year Old Woman to Die for Them
Previous high points of the Palestinian 'resistance' included sending a mentally retarded 14 year old boy with a remote controlled detonated pack that he didn't know was going to explode, a teenage burn victim sent to blow up the Israeli hospital she was being treated at and now a 68 year old woman sent to blow herself up.
The media is already trumpeting this as proof of the desperate measures the Palestinians have been 'forced to resort to' by the Israeli non-occupation of Gaza. Of course things haven't gotten so desperate that Hamas terrorist leaders or even their own terrorists are actually blowing themselves up. No they're too busy carrying suitcases full of money across the border. Instead they sent their mothers or rather someone's mother to blow herself up.
The media's lead on this is to focus on her as a 'grandmother' with headlines like, "Palestinian Grandmother Blows Herself Up in Attack Against Israeli Troops." Oddly for most news stories, murderers aren't described as fathers or mothers or grandmothers. I have trouble remembering headlines reading, "Brooklyn Father Stabs 3 at Gas Station' or 'Milwaukee Grandfather Under Arrest for Bar Shooting,' but of course the lead story on terrorist murders has to be the humanizing of the murderer. And Hamas is happy enough to give the media what it wants.
Somewhere around a table Hamas leaders go over profiles of who to send next much as Reality TV show producers examine the photos and bios of reality show contestants.
"Hey Hamid, what about a 13 year old next time?"
"No Abdul, Fatah used a 13 year old last month."
"What if ours is a girl?"
"It's been done already, Islamic Jihad used a 14 year old girl last year. Newsweek ran a cover story about it, interviews with her family, the whole works. It's been milked to death already."
"But what if ours is in a wheelchair?"
"Hmmm," Abdul says stroking his chin, "disabled suicide bomber, interesting angle but I still like the grandmother for this one. We've gotta deliver something new and shocking or the public gets bored. No one's seen a 68 year old woman blow herself up yet, that'll get coverage."
"The only question," Hamid says, "is how we'll top this one?"
"Got any 100 year olds?"
Next time on Arabian Idol: more homicide and suicide on the Islamic version of Reality TV. Unlike tame American and European Reality TV which only show you contestants humiliating themselves for money, Arabian TV will show you people actually killing themselves and others. Call it competing in the entertainment marketplace. Call it death.