Palestinian Children “At Play” And The Funeral of Mariam Farhat

Tweet

UPDATES 5:30 pm Israel time Monday:

**The new Israeli government has just been installed in the Knesset.

**Attacks on Israelis continue unabated with the most recent being several hours ago with the attempted murder of a 71-year-old Israeli man near Kedumim–who was shot in a drive-by assault by Palestinians from Jit. 

**As regular readers of this blog know, your humble servant is no great fan of polls, subject as they are to the prejudice of those asking the questions.  Polls results are often self-fulfilling prophecies; conservative pollsters skew responses to produce conservative-favorable results while liberal pollsters do the opposite.

Taking all of this in mind, the poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post was interesting:

In response to the first question, “With whom do your sympathies lie?”, those questioned responded:

55%: Israel

9%: The Palestinian Authority

14%: Neither

18%: No opinion

This poll finding is similar to a Gallup Poll finding last week that found that 64% of Americans “sympathize” with Israel while only 12% “sympathize with the Palestinians. 

In response to the second question, “What should the U.S. do in regard to peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians?”, those questioned responded:

69%: Leave it to the Israelis and Palestinians

26%: Lead the peace talks

5%: No opinion 

Do you want to know why President Obama does not seem to be interested in presenting a new peace proposal during his upcoming trip to Israel? Just read the numbers.

TODAY’S BLOG:

If you ever wanted to encapsulate the yearning for death that permeates Palestinian culture, you could not find a better picture than the one posted in Gaza yesterday of Gazan children “at play”:

This picture, obviously taken by adults, appeared on a website in Gaza yesterday.

Any society that would encourage this “expression” of play is nauseatingly sick to the core.

Another “event” in Gaza yesterday underscored this perverse Palestinian fixation on death. Mariam Farhat, aka the “Mother of Martyrs”, died on Sunday and received a military funeral.

Farhat's body awaiting its "triumphal" parade through the streets of Gaza.

What was the source of her popularity? Three of her 10 children–most notably her 19 year old son Mohammed–died while carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.

Farhat carried through streets by a Hamas "honor guard"--to the adoration of the "citizens" of Gaza.

Her 2002 video which she recorded with Mohammed, the night before he entered a yeshiva at Atzmona and killed five yeshiva students, has become a Palestinian cultural icon. In that video, she held her son’s hands and blessed him for becoming a “martyr”.

Her declaration on that video has become the mantra of a new generation of Palestinian “mothers”: 

“I wish I had 100 boys like Mohammad. I’d sacrifice them for the sake of God. When I see all the Jews in Palestine killed, that will be enough for me. I wish he will kill as many as he can . . .”

Do you want to know why there will never be peace between the Israel and the Palestinians? You have to look no farther than Gazan children at play and the funeral of Mariam Farhat.

Yearning for death and fighting for life, the contrast between Palestinian culture and Israeli culture has never been starker.

*****************************************************