The Arabic Satellite TV station Al-Jazeera shows footage of two Islamic Jihad leaders sitting at a table, speaking about the recent Israeli operation in Gaza against the terrorist infrastructure there, with the head of an Israeli soldier sitting in front of them on the table.
Later, a video appears on an Al-Qaeda-linked website showing the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, Nick Berg, who was a Jew. In a grisly gesture, the executioners hold up the man's head for the camera. The decapitation recalled the kidnapping and videotaped beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl - another Jew - in 2002 in Pakistan. Then, Al-Jazeera rebroadcast this beheading scene, like the earlier scene of an Israeli soldier's head sitting on a table, throughout the Arab world.
What's going on here?
The executioner in Iraq claimed his killing of a random American civilian, was revenge for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison. But one can wonder if Nick Berg was picked out because he was Jewish. The photos and reports of abuse and degrading behavior toward the Iraqi prisoners need to be investigated, and properly punished. But was "revenge" against an innocent American civilian justified?
As the American President, George Bush stated, "There will be a full accounting for the cruel and disgraceful abuse of the Iraqi detainees. The conduct that has come to light is an insult to the Iraqi people and an affront to the most basic standards of morality and decency. One basic difference between democracies and dictatorships is that free countries confront such abuses openly and directly... Today, several formal investigations, led by senior military officials, are underway... Some soldiers have already been charged, and those involved will answer for their conduct in an orderly and transparent process."
What we all know is that the behavior of a few American soldiers in Iraq does not represent the values of America, or the West in general.
Every once in a great while, an Israeli soldier is disciplined for abuses toward the enemy also. But that's the point; it's not very often and they're being disciplined, in Israel and in America. These stressed-out behaviors by men and women put by their governments into very difficult situations aren't tolerated, and they are held accountable for their behavior.
Contrast this with the outrages perpetrated at the end of March in Fallujah, Iraq. The bodies of four murdered American security contractors are mutilated, then burned and displayed in public. Crowds gathered around to joyously view the dead Americans.
In Gaza, they also celebrated the mutilation of the Americans...
And now this: the Israeli Army entered Zeitoun in Gaza recently, to destroy "Palestinian" weapons factories. In the operation, the soldiers blew up some 20 workshops that were used by terror groups to make weapons. The operation encountered resistance from hundreds of "Palestinian" fighters, but the Israeli troops suffered no casualties. After dawn, as the operation was being wrapped up, the soldiers began to withdraw from Zeitoun, when a bomb containing approximately 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives was detonated against an Israeli armored personnel carrier carrying six members of the Givati Brigade's engineering corps. The vehicle was carrying explosives for use in demolishing the weapons manufactories, which intensified the effects of the blast. Pieces of the APC and of the soldiers' bodies were scattered for hundreds of meters roundabout, even landing on the rooftops of neighboring buildings.
Soon after the blast, Hamas terrorists excitedly displayed and played with the body parts in front of cameras. Gazan Arabs were seen dancing in the streets with pieces of the destroyed Israeli APC and pieces of dead Israeli soldiers. In another scene, shown on Israel's Channel Two TV, a Hamas gunman on a motorcycle held a bloodied burlap bag with body parts. An armed Hamas barbarian bragged how he had human remains from the APC blast; he proceeded to pull a finger out of the bag and shouted, "This is for Sheikh Yassin, and for the rest you'll pay in liberated prisoners." Fatah - Arafat's group - Hamas, and Islamic Jihad all competed to claim responsibility for the attack. It seemed like everyone in the neighborhood had a piece of metal they claimed came from the APC, or a piece of human remains that they said belonged to the Israeli soldiers.
And then, this macabre scene on Al-Jazeera TV: hooded Islamic Jihad spokesmen, sitting and talking on camera, with a human head from a dead Israeli soldier sitting in front of them on the table, as if nothing strange was happening. It was like a scene right out of a Hollywood horror flick, with the demented evil ones right before our eyes, except this was real...
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, participating in a Knesset ceremony commemorating the 59th anniversary since the end of World War II, responded to the APC blast by describing Israel's enemy as "cruel and inhumane."
Sharon told the Knesset, "We are fighting a ruthless enemy, without human feelings," and that Israel would strike back hard. "We will not stop fighting [the enemy] and hitting him, wherever he operates and hides," Sharon said. He added that Israel must continue striking out until the enemy is defeated.
In a quickly convened security cabinet meeting, it was reported that Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the families of the slain soldiers should be asked for permission to distribute abroad the grisly footage of the "Palestinians" desecrating the bodies, so that the world will have a clear picture of the "monsters we are dealing with."
Even funerals and memorial services apparently are no longer sacred...
Recently, a pregnant Israeli mother and her four young daughters were shot to death in their car on a Gazan road. First, the terrorist barbarians shot at the car, then, as it veered off the road and came to a stop, they ran over to the car and, at point-blank range, shot each of the occupants to death: Tali, the eight-month pregnant mother, Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, and two-year-old Meirav. The murderers then continued to fire dozens of more bullets into their bodies.
When mourners came to the site of the murder for a memorial service a week later, the terrorist barbarians, one of them apparently dressed as a woman, opened fire at the hundreds of Jews who came to participate. "Bullets whistled past our ears, and between our legs, and miraculously, no one was hurt," said the Gazan Jewish Community spokesman Eran Sternberg. IDF soldiers managed to kill two of the attackers.
"It was a humiliating experience for Jews who come to remember a slaughtered family to have to crouch and lie down while terrorists shoot wildly around," said David Hatuel - husband and father of those murdered - after the attack.
But these are the "New Barbarians"...
Even the Palestinian Authority understood that it wouldn't look good for them. They called on the terror groups and residents of the Gaza Strip who hold remains of the IDF soldiers to return the parts. In the statement, released after a meeting of PA officials in Ramallah, the Palestinian leadership called on the groups to treat the bodies "according to Islamic law, and not to harm Islamic values." The PA condemned the "criminal" IDF operation, but called on the groups not to "tarnish the image and values of the Palestinians."
My question is, since mutilation of the enemy, and the degrading display of body parts is so widespread in the Arab world, is it really "against Islamic values" to do? What about the fact that Arafat's own group, Fatah, vied for claiming responsibility? And what about suicidal-genocidal bombing of innocent civilians, which certainly seems to have the go ahead of Islamic clerics?
(c) 2004/5764 Pasko
Later, a video appears on an Al-Qaeda-linked website showing the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, Nick Berg, who was a Jew. In a grisly gesture, the executioners hold up the man's head for the camera. The decapitation recalled the kidnapping and videotaped beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl - another Jew - in 2002 in Pakistan. Then, Al-Jazeera rebroadcast this beheading scene, like the earlier scene of an Israeli soldier's head sitting on a table, throughout the Arab world.
What's going on here?
The executioner in Iraq claimed his killing of a random American civilian, was revenge for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison. But one can wonder if Nick Berg was picked out because he was Jewish. The photos and reports of abuse and degrading behavior toward the Iraqi prisoners need to be investigated, and properly punished. But was "revenge" against an innocent American civilian justified?
As the American President, George Bush stated, "There will be a full accounting for the cruel and disgraceful abuse of the Iraqi detainees. The conduct that has come to light is an insult to the Iraqi people and an affront to the most basic standards of morality and decency. One basic difference between democracies and dictatorships is that free countries confront such abuses openly and directly... Today, several formal investigations, led by senior military officials, are underway... Some soldiers have already been charged, and those involved will answer for their conduct in an orderly and transparent process."
What we all know is that the behavior of a few American soldiers in Iraq does not represent the values of America, or the West in general.
Every once in a great while, an Israeli soldier is disciplined for abuses toward the enemy also. But that's the point; it's not very often and they're being disciplined, in Israel and in America. These stressed-out behaviors by men and women put by their governments into very difficult situations aren't tolerated, and they are held accountable for their behavior.
Contrast this with the outrages perpetrated at the end of March in Fallujah, Iraq. The bodies of four murdered American security contractors are mutilated, then burned and displayed in public. Crowds gathered around to joyously view the dead Americans.
In Gaza, they also celebrated the mutilation of the Americans...
And now this: the Israeli Army entered Zeitoun in Gaza recently, to destroy "Palestinian" weapons factories. In the operation, the soldiers blew up some 20 workshops that were used by terror groups to make weapons. The operation encountered resistance from hundreds of "Palestinian" fighters, but the Israeli troops suffered no casualties. After dawn, as the operation was being wrapped up, the soldiers began to withdraw from Zeitoun, when a bomb containing approximately 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives was detonated against an Israeli armored personnel carrier carrying six members of the Givati Brigade's engineering corps. The vehicle was carrying explosives for use in demolishing the weapons manufactories, which intensified the effects of the blast. Pieces of the APC and of the soldiers' bodies were scattered for hundreds of meters roundabout, even landing on the rooftops of neighboring buildings.
Soon after the blast, Hamas terrorists excitedly displayed and played with the body parts in front of cameras. Gazan Arabs were seen dancing in the streets with pieces of the destroyed Israeli APC and pieces of dead Israeli soldiers. In another scene, shown on Israel's Channel Two TV, a Hamas gunman on a motorcycle held a bloodied burlap bag with body parts. An armed Hamas barbarian bragged how he had human remains from the APC blast; he proceeded to pull a finger out of the bag and shouted, "This is for Sheikh Yassin, and for the rest you'll pay in liberated prisoners." Fatah - Arafat's group - Hamas, and Islamic Jihad all competed to claim responsibility for the attack. It seemed like everyone in the neighborhood had a piece of metal they claimed came from the APC, or a piece of human remains that they said belonged to the Israeli soldiers.
And then, this macabre scene on Al-Jazeera TV: hooded Islamic Jihad spokesmen, sitting and talking on camera, with a human head from a dead Israeli soldier sitting in front of them on the table, as if nothing strange was happening. It was like a scene right out of a Hollywood horror flick, with the demented evil ones right before our eyes, except this was real...
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, participating in a Knesset ceremony commemorating the 59th anniversary since the end of World War II, responded to the APC blast by describing Israel's enemy as "cruel and inhumane."
Sharon told the Knesset, "We are fighting a ruthless enemy, without human feelings," and that Israel would strike back hard. "We will not stop fighting [the enemy] and hitting him, wherever he operates and hides," Sharon said. He added that Israel must continue striking out until the enemy is defeated.
In a quickly convened security cabinet meeting, it was reported that Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the families of the slain soldiers should be asked for permission to distribute abroad the grisly footage of the "Palestinians" desecrating the bodies, so that the world will have a clear picture of the "monsters we are dealing with."
Even funerals and memorial services apparently are no longer sacred...
Recently, a pregnant Israeli mother and her four young daughters were shot to death in their car on a Gazan road. First, the terrorist barbarians shot at the car, then, as it veered off the road and came to a stop, they ran over to the car and, at point-blank range, shot each of the occupants to death: Tali, the eight-month pregnant mother, Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, and two-year-old Meirav. The murderers then continued to fire dozens of more bullets into their bodies.
When mourners came to the site of the murder for a memorial service a week later, the terrorist barbarians, one of them apparently dressed as a woman, opened fire at the hundreds of Jews who came to participate. "Bullets whistled past our ears, and between our legs, and miraculously, no one was hurt," said the Gazan Jewish Community spokesman Eran Sternberg. IDF soldiers managed to kill two of the attackers.
"It was a humiliating experience for Jews who come to remember a slaughtered family to have to crouch and lie down while terrorists shoot wildly around," said David Hatuel - husband and father of those murdered - after the attack.
But these are the "New Barbarians"...
Even the Palestinian Authority understood that it wouldn't look good for them. They called on the terror groups and residents of the Gaza Strip who hold remains of the IDF soldiers to return the parts. In the statement, released after a meeting of PA officials in Ramallah, the Palestinian leadership called on the groups to treat the bodies "according to Islamic law, and not to harm Islamic values." The PA condemned the "criminal" IDF operation, but called on the groups not to "tarnish the image and values of the Palestinians."
My question is, since mutilation of the enemy, and the degrading display of body parts is so widespread in the Arab world, is it really "against Islamic values" to do? What about the fact that Arafat's own group, Fatah, vied for claiming responsibility? And what about suicidal-genocidal bombing of innocent civilians, which certainly seems to have the go ahead of Islamic clerics?
(c) 2004/5764 Pasko