The Conundrum, Part 35

Palestinian nihilism has reached a new low though it shouldn't come as a surprise. What are Palestinian terrorist groups to do when the Israelis get too good at identifying potential threats? They start recruiting senior citizens. In this case, it's a 68 year-old grandmother of 41. She blew herself up at an Israeli checkpoint, and luckily, all she did was blow herself up and inflict minor injuries on 3 Israeli soldiers.

Meet Fatima, the gun-toting 64-year-old grandma of 41 who blew herself up in a suicide attack against Israeli soldiers yesterday.

Before Fatima Omar Mahmud al-Najar, a mother of nine, set off on her evil mission, she made the traditional propaganda film.

Dressed to kill in a black suicide belt and white headscarf and holding an M-16, she told the camera, "I offer myself as a sacrifice to God and to the homeland."

Reading from a sheet of paper, she dedicated her attack to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and its military commander, Mohammed Deif.

"I hope God accepts it," she said.

Fortunately, the world's oldest Palestinian suicide bomber took no one with her - only slightly injuring three Israeli soldiers.

Al-Najar had seven sons and two daughters.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the shocking attack, with a spokesman saying, "We told the Zionist enemy we will meet it with many surprises . . . and this is one of the surprises."

This is what Palestinian society has come to. This isn't a surprise. It's a death rattle. Hamas and Fatah offer Palestinians nothing except blowing themselves or family members up in a hope to destroy Israel's will to exist. Of course, the family members are proud that their grandmother had to be scooped up in tiny bits because she blew herself up.

Meryl Yourish notes that Hamas has a solution for the ongoing and persistent rocket attacks against Sderot. Hamas wants Israel to abandon Sderot - to withdraw and evacuate from the city. Israelis have a better idea. Going after the terrorist scum who keep firing on Israelis. Snoopy the Goon at Yourish also points out that diplomats touring Sderot had no comment about a rocket attack that occurred while visiting.

This comes as the Palestinians offer yet another empty ceasefire option. There is no reason to trust the Palestinians on their ceasefires, as they simply "create" new terrorist groups who operate outside the ceasefire, and Israelis continue to suffer from attacks, all while the Palestinians can claim that they abide by the agreement. It's a farce. But the reporting is just as inane:

On Thursday night in Gaza, Mr. Abbas said that since the summer, Palestinians are “victims of a barbaric Israeli offensive that has left more than 400 dead and 1,500 wounded while thousands of homes have been destroyed.” But he added: “All that on the pretext of homemade rocket fire, and unfortunately we are giving them such a pretext.”

In fact, Israel reentered Gaza in late June in response to the capture of a soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants including Hamas members. Hamas said that they were responding to Israeli shelling that killed civilians; the shelling was in response to rocket fire. Since Israel pulled its settlers and troops out of Gaza in September 2005, at least 1,100 rockets have been fired from Gaza, five of them today, and four Israelis have died — two of them in the last 10 days.

Abbas knows damn well that Israel would not have engaged in military action had it not come under rocket attack, had its citizens killed, been invaded by Hamas terrorists who took Shalit and killed two other soldiers, and continues to hold him somewhere in Gaza. The homemade rockets are still quite deadly, and Hamas and Fatah both continue to try and acquire more advanced rockets. The rockets are fired daily towards Sderot, Ashkelon, and into the Negev.

The Palestinians keep paying lip service to trying and forming a unity government, but there's no sign that they're any closer now than they were months ago. Hamas continues to refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist. That's a deal breaker in any potential deal with Israel.

Speaking of Gilad Shalit, Hamas is raising the stakes. They now want Israel to release 1,400 prisoners. Figures. They could care less about the harm they're inflicting on Palestinians let alone the Israelis. Hamas is wholly unserious about resolving this situation.

According to Hamdan, Hamas's latest initiative for ending the Shalit affair calls for the release of some 1,400 Palestinian prisoners, including all females and minors held in Israeli prisons.

The prisoners, he said, would be released in two phases: first, the females and minors and, at a later stage, other prisoners according to certain criteria that would be determined by Hamas, such as political affiliation and the time spent in prison.

Hamas has also made it clear that all its officials and legislators who were arrested after the Shalit kidnapping should be released separately and not in the context of the prisoner exchange. Shalit would be released only when Israel begins implementing the second phase of the agreement.

"We will continue to hold on to the soldier because this is the only way to guarantee that Israel will fulfill the agreement," Hamdan said. "In any case, Hamas is not in a rush to release Shalit because we know that Israel will eventually accept all our demands."

Never mind that many of those in Israeli jails are there because they've attacked Israelis or pose security threats to Israel. Never mind that Hamas will often use minors to attack Israelis, figuring that they're worth more in media exposure than an older person.

Meanwhile, Russia sends Iran advanced rocket and air defense weapons systems. Where and how will those weapons be used? Will they end up in Hizbullah's hands? That's a possiblity, though Iran will probably use them to improve air defenses around its nuclear testing facilities.

The Iranians continue to support international terrorism, and unless the world starts tackling the regimes that support, equip, and harbor these groups, there's no way to deal with the violence and carnage caused piecemeal.

UPDATE:
Hamas mourns the loss of one of its ministers of propaganda. One of its cameraman was killed while taping Hamas terrorists fighting with Israeli forces. The guy was part of the 'militant wing' of Hamas and was killed in the operation. Now, what's really interesting is how Hamas admits that they'll sell the footage to various international media organizations, including AP, and the outlet and/or Hamas is reluctant to release the name of the dead photographer. We've seen various stringers in Lebanon who were affiliated with Hizbullah, but this would be a new twist - official Hamas propagandists providing photos to the world media.

The Palestinians love to quote that 400 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting since this summer, but gloss over the fact that more than half are terrorists, and that the terrorists themselves purposefully hide among civilian populations with the express purpose of maximizing the chances that civilians are killed.

Technorati: terrorism, nasrallah, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Regev, Goldwasser, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.