| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
In FrontPage I discuss a few of the implications of the celebrations with which some Palestinians greeted news of the stroke suffered by Ariel Sharon. News links in the original.
In Gaza some Palestinians greeted news of Ariel Sharon’s stroke with the “V” for victory sign, gunfire into the air, and pastries.Schadenfreude is a recurring motif of Palestinian life. Some cheered the 9/11 attacks, passing out candy on that occasion as well. Many Palestinians have celebrated suicide bombings, including even mothers rejoicing in the deaths of their own children. All too many Palestinians seem happy only when an Israeli Jew is dying, even if one of their own children had to die also to make it happen.
Much of this, of course, stems from a culture that celebrates death. As Mufti Sheikh Ikrimeh Sabri, a Palestinian Authority cleric, stated: “We tell them, in as much as you love life, the Muslim loves death and martyrdom. There is a great difference between he who loves the hereafter and he who loves this world. The Muslim loves death and martyrdom.” That is the rationale behind the glorification of suicide bombers as heroes.
Even that glorification and celebration of death, moreover, is rooted in a culture of hatred: suicide bombers are heroes not because they kill themselves but because they kill infidels as well. 9/11 and Sharon’s illness are worth celebrating because they represent more of the same: the defeat and destruction of the enemy.
The culture of death and hatred is not limited to the Palestinians: in Egypt, Sheikh Atiyyah Saqr of Al-Azhar explained in 2004 that “cowardice and love for this worldly life are undisputable traits [of the Jews].” In Lebanon, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah concurred: “We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.” Afghan jihadist Maulana Inyadullah declared: “The Americans lead lavish lives and they are afraid of death. We are not afraid of death. The Americans love Pepsi Cola, we love death.”In most places on the planet and at most times throughout history one who loves death has been considered at very least unbalanced. And rather than rejoicing in the misfortunes even of their enemies, Americans rebuilt Germany and Japan after World War II. Israelis did not hand our candies when Yasir Arafat died; nor do they cheer the deaths of innocent Palestinians. Personal graciousness between public opponents has for ages been a hallmark of civilization; indeed, even aides to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wished Sharon good health.
The gesture of Abbas’ office notwithstanding, the Palestinian culture of death and hatred casts a shadow over the future of the entire region. The prospects for a negotiated settlement and lasting peace are slim to none when so many on one side so openly and unapologetically hates the other and rejoices in its distress. Yet the international community has generally turned a blind eye. Although deeply concerned about the trumped-up, politically manipulative concept of “Islamophobia,” the United Nations has paid scant attention to the phenomenon of suicide terror — indeed, criticism of suicide bombers has been silenced at the UN in Geneva by Islamic delegates.
This kind of inconsistency demonstrates that world opinion demands a higher moral accountability from the West than it does from the Islamic world. Were Americans or Israelis to hand out pastries and fire guns in the air at the illness or death of a Muslim leader, international opprobrium would be swift and sure — particularly from the Leftist spokesmen who view all conflicts between the Islamic world and the West as having been caused by Western outrages.
There is an unacknowledged layer of ethnocentrism in this. The international media and governing bodies seem to assume that Palestinians and other Muslims are simply not capable of hewing to the moral and civilizational standards to which Westerners are held.
Less is expected of them. American military personnel who commit crimes at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere are excoriated by world opinion and prosecuted; immensely greater crimes by Muslim terror groups are simply a reaction to Western provocations — witness the post-9/11 remark by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud when he gave ten million dollars to New York City. He asked the U.S. to “reexamine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause….Our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek.”
Rudolph Giuliani, in returning the Prince’s check, deplored the notion that anything could justify the 9/11 attacks. But the prince’s views are unfortunately widespread in the West (and no one at Georgetown or Harvard seemed to mind when he just gave $20 million to each). No one seems particularly concerned about the fact that by tolerating joy at Sharon’s illness among Palestinians and the culture of death in general, international authorities are postponing, perhaps forever, any chance for so many Palestinians and Muslims to shed their blinders and adopt the moral and ethical standards held by the rest of the world. By continuing to expect less from them, the West ensures that it will receive less from them. As a result, the global conflict, fueled as it is by the hatred that is spread so energetically among Muslims today, will doubtless not only continue to grow, but to escalate.
Posted by Robert at December 19, 2005 4:54 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
Good morning all... OT, but somehow I feel it relates a bit to this story: The proposed Wall along the southern border of the US, is already being referred to along the same lines as the Berlin Wall.
Nice comparison, eh?
Posted by: Gary![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 19, 2005 5:08 AM
As Golda Meir sayd decennies ago: "Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us." and this was before they let their children die as islamikazes to kill Jews.
Posted by: nadineken at December 19, 2005 5:34 AM
Nadineken...I just love that term "islamikazes".
Unfortunately I can only swear and count to 4 in japanese so what does it mean? ?Divine sh*t or perhaps? Foul wind?
Did any Israelis (other than the lunatic fringe orthodox bunch) celebrate Arafat's death openly?
Posted by: Zathras at December 19, 2005 5:42 AM
I am not the 1st to us that term:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=fr&q=islamikazes&btnG=Recherche+Google&meta=
Don't think that many celebrated Arafat's aids death, neither Yassin's elimination. Its a typical islam "tradition".
Posted by: nadineken at December 19, 2005 6:08 AM
"Its a typical islam "tradition".
How typical of them to glorify in someone else's death or suspected death.
Many soldiers in war who kill in combat feel guilty afterwards towards their lost friends and even their enemies . Most get over it and appreciate being alive especially if it was known to be a just cause. Very few were jubilant afterwards and later even in WW2 vs the Japanese which was an especially nasty war with loads of hatred. Most were simply thankful that the job w sdone and that they were alive.
This is just another example of sickening barbarism from a dictatorship posing behind the facade of a religion which is both the stick and the carrot maintaining the ambitions of a long dead paedophilic, delusional paranoid.
at December 19, 2005 6:26 AM
An essential difference between the proposed fence along our borders and the Berlin Wall, is that the Berlin Wall was built to keep East German citizens from leaving East Berlin. Our fences will be built to prevent illegal immigration, and to keep other nations' criminals from sneaking in.
Posted by: Merry Whitney at December 19, 2005 6:26 AM
Even if they did Zarthras, the Israelis wouldn't have behaved like complete savages like the Palestinians. I don't think it's terrible to be glad that your mortal enemy is dead, and Arafat was Israel's mortal enemy, but to take it to the lengths the Palestinians do on a daily basis is something quite different. The problem is that we can't call the Palestinians barbarians eventhough their acts are indeed barbaric, so the mass media and pundits desperately look for equivalencies. For example, on CNN today after they mentioned the Palestinian reaction to Sharon's stroke, they mentioned the fringe Israeli reaction to it as well for "balance", as if the Israelis had the same frenzied looks on their faces and the same hatred in their hearts as the Palestinians. The media is not afraid to call David Duke an anti-Semite for going to Syria and saying those awful things, yet they are reticient to call Ahmadinehitler an anti-Semite for saying much worse things. You see, we can condemn Duke because he should know better, but we have to "understand" Amadinehitler because Third Worlders can't be held accountable for their actions. The Palestinians are beyond redemption, they are sick in the head and we can never rehabilitate them. It's best to contain them and let them kill each other with their own hatred. Unfortunately, as long as the Arabs have the oil and as long as our "intellectuals" remain enamoured with the Third World and cultural relativism, then we will continue to call their primitivism civilization.
Posted by: igor at December 19, 2005 6:27 AM
Merry~ Exactly! Just like in Israel.
Posted by: Gary at December 19, 2005 6:31 AM
A nation is allowed to protect its frontiers.
Personally I think that Israel has shown extreme tolerance over the years vs the palestinians but vs such barbarians it will never be reciprocated, appreciated or even acknowledged.
Such is the necessity for Islam to hide the awful truth of its own moral inferiority.
at December 19, 2005 7:17 AM
"decennies" = decades.
Posted by: Hugh at December 19, 2005 7:37 AM
They laugh and dance and sing and hand out candy regarding death. They dress their babies, for photo sessions, not in NY Yankee uniforms or Man U jerseys, or cowboy hats, but suicide vests and toy guns. Rather than grieve over the death of a son who died killing unarmed women and children, they brag and wish they had another to kill. They think killing a baby in a stroller makes you a brave, manly hero but targeting an armed combatant makes you a cowardly murderer.
Like Neanderthals and Aust. Robustus, this is a branch of the human tree that will, due to it's inability to evolve, lead to a dead end. The human tree is full of experiments that only lasted for a while. Specialized adaptations that were successful in regards to a particular set of environmental variables, but proved to be inflexible and ultimately dooming in a constantly changing world where generalists had the upper hand over specialists.
If we could go back to the period when Cro Magnon and Neanderthal overlapped, and could visit the campfires of the CroMagnons, would we hear:
"Hey Ugg, you believe dem friggin mutts?
Why we feed them? They no help, they no hunt, just scream and smash camp"
at December 19, 2005 7:43 AM
"Less is expected of them."
-- posted by Robert
And the bar will continue to lowered, down down down to the level of a household pet as the Moslems march onward toward Global Sharia.
I can only thank goodness that most Moslems are house trained.
Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 19, 2005 11:06 AM
The Defensive fence is not sufficient, as it can be and is tunneled under. I would hope that both Israel and the U.S. install censors that can detect tunneling activity, as well as create a no man's land, with concertina wire inside the wall.
I've seen a photo of Palestinians building human pyramids to climb over the wall...they can also use scaling ladders to sneak in terrorists.
What I fail to understand is why Israel doesn't employ public communications and counter Arab propaganda about the wall and the totally justified attacks on the leadership of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad in response to suicide and mortar attacks.
If you hear or read the rants of the "antiZionists" and Muslims the Jews control the press, and through AIPAC and the ADL the U.S.Government. Total nonsense of course, but is Israel so helpless as to let the Saudis and Arabs control the public debate.
Absolutely needed is an Israeli counter offensive in public relations, without mention of the Holocaust.. Don't get angry, but the Holocaust as justification for defense is overworked, it is like living next to a waterfall, too much of something and the mind's ear becomes numb, and you don't hear it anymore.
Israel and it's supporters should play up the horrors of Jihad, the Islamic intransigency,it's celebration of death and the one single goal that stands in the way of peace in the mid east.. the Arab/Muslim sense of "humiliation" (always self inflicted) that can only be redeemed by redemption of their "honor" by annihilating their enemy, those who caused them to loose honor by successfully defending themselves from Arab annhilation.
It's way past time for this Saudi allied and dependent administration, to start telling the truth about Islam.
Too bad Israel doesn't have any oil, if it did it might get more suppport from the U.S. and Europe.
Second part of the rant. I'm appalled that Front Page and Bush supporters haven't made an issue of or demanded that the administration clear out the Muslims from the CIA and FBI's translation departments, and replace them with Sephardic Jews and Christians who can speak Arabic, Farsi and Urdu.
Read Paul Sperry's: "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Infiltrated Washington".
Front Page prints interviews with Paul Sperry, but nary a word that the Muslims control the FBI's translation department.. and don't forget the Director of the FBI and the CIA are and were appointed by the President, thus Bush is in control of both departments, just as he is in control of the State and Defense Department.
Posted by: Nariz at December 19, 2005 12:01 PM
Good morning all... OT, but somehow I feel it relates a bit to this story: The proposed Wall along the southern border of the US, is already being referred to along the same lines as the Berlin Wall.
Nice comparison, eh?
Posted by: Gary
-------------------------------------------------
Gary,
As a volunteer who made it to the Arizona/Mexican
border I applaud this and the rest of the provisions passed today to combat this.
Back on topic, this just shows the Islamic attitude towards plain decency, shaheed (martyrdom) them all.
at December 19, 2005 6:03 PM
It remains to be seen if Netanyahu will be pressured into following in Sharon's footsteps in continuing support for withdrawal from Gaza. Even Yeltsin pulled out of Chechnya, but Putin later brought troops back in.
I think Netanyahu will be more like a Putin, than like an aging gerontocratic Yeltsin. The Israeli Army will go back into Gaza, just like the Battle of Grozny.
Meantime, Hamas looks like it's already going to win a sizeable mandate from the Palestinian elections anyway, no matter how much withdrawal the Israelis have already done.
Posted by: sanman at December 20, 2005 1:27 AM
IRIS is all over this story (Sharon's Medical Team Disputes Clean Bill of Health). For example: "The prime minister did not know what day it was, what time is was or where he was. For 45 minutes he could not count or perform basic movements."
IRIS thinks Sharon's medical condition is "the key to the current election." We'll see...
Posted by: Fred at December 21, 2005 11:23 AM
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)