Replies: 3 Comments

It is abundantly clear that the so-called Christian Peace Teams are simply against Israel when they come out with a complaint like that. Children with realistic toy guns have been a problem in the U.S. in the past, as children have been shot by policemen who have a split second to react to a perceived gun menace. My belief is that any Christian, regardless of his political beliefs on gun control, would be expected to support the IDF on this issue, unless he is either insane or has some ulterior motive, which now becomes not so ulterior. In either case, these unreasonable claims should not be associated with Evangelical Christians in general.

Thomas Gray, Monday, January 7th

Shalom
I enjoyed your article. A bit of tongue-in-cheek humour is very necessary in trying times. The point that you make - and the soldier made - about Palestinian children being mistaken for carrying real weapons and being injured or killed is very pertinent. There was a case that I recall last year of a Palestinian youth who was shot dead while "brandishing" a toy assault riffle that looked very much like the real thing. As you say, just another Palestinian martyr... When violence and hatred become virtues the valour of death is sure to follow.

This brings me to the point of my email: there is another very good reason why Palestinian children should not play at war games. The valour of self-death is so strongly promoted within Palestinian society that children cannot wait to get themselves killed. Don't worry about the very young having to wait till they are old enough to get the 72 virgins as stated in your article; the Palestinians have developed a whole raft of fantasies to lure the very young into acts of self-death. Take for instance an interview with Barbara Victor, the author of Army of Roses, who said that it is very disturbing to see young children sitting around fantasising about the coconut covered chocolate cake they will receive in a martyrs' heaven. And endless days of flying kites on the beach and endless days at the fairground as depicted on PA TV as the "reward" of the young shahid or shahida (there is currently no gender discrimination amongst the Palestinians when it comes to getting yourself killed).

Self-death can be achieved in any number of ways: "brandishing" toy guns, throwing stones, blowing yourself up - they all belong in the same basket. Simply the turning of the young into body-bags in order to frustrate Israel and for the international, often bigoted and racist, media to lap up; "human missiles" as Arafat used to call them. I cannot imagine for a moment that this "Christian" Palestinian organisation does not know the true meaning of giving a Palestinian child a toy weapon. They scream about Israel's human rights abuses when they are themselves the perpetrators of huge human rights abuses against their own young. Why is the world so blind to this? It isn't as if Itamar Marcus from PMW has not circumnavigated the globe for years giving the message that Palestinian suicide terrorism is aspiration, not desperation.

Vic, Sunday, January 6th

Sorry, but I regard this as a lame attempt at satire. You've done far better recently.

Howard Wolf, Thursday, January 3rd

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