Hamas leaders are cowards after all

If you believe the mainstream media you might think that it�s �common knowledge� that Israel�s policy of assassinating terrorist masterminds creates more violence. New Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal would like you to believe that:

Your leaders, chaired by Sharon, will only bring you destruction. Blood begets blood. The Palestinian people can endure a long struggle and if you think that the confrontation will exhaust it then you are deluded. You will lose.

Rantisi said similar things just last year, after he himself survived an Israeli targeted strike: "By G-d we will not leave one Jew alive in Palestine."
... "Sheikh Ahmad Yassin rest in peace. They will never enjoy rest. We will send death to every house, every city, every street in Israel!"

What form of "death" did he send to Israel?

A 16 [edit:14]-year-old Palestinian with a suicide bomb vest strapped to his body was caught at a crowded West Bank checkpoint Wednesday, setting off a tense encounter with Israeli soldiers whom the army said he was sent to kill.
The family of the teenager, identified as Hussam Abdo, said he was gullible and easily manipulated.
"He doesn't know anything, and he has the intelligence of a 12 year old," said his brother, Hosni.
"He told us he didn't want to die. He didn't want to blow up," Milrad said.
The military said Abdo's mission was to kill soldiers at the crowded checkpoint.
"In addition to the fact that he would have harmed my soldiers, he would have also harmed the Palestinians waiting at the checkpoint, and there were 200 to 300 innocent Palestinians there," said the commander of the checkpoint, who identified himself only as Lt. Col. Guy.
Several teenagers have carried out suicide bombings over the past 3 1/2 years, and there has been recent concern that militant groups were turning to younger attackers to elude Israeli security checks.
Abdo, though 16, looked far younger, and the Israeli military initially said it believed he was 10 years old.

But what about all this talk about �cycles of violence?�

The number of suicide bombings and the number of victims has dropped, with 142 Israelis killed in 22 bombings in 2003, compared to 214 killed in 53 bombings in 2002. Analysts attributed the drop to Israel's partially built West Bank barrier, beefed-up intelligence and Hamas leaders' fear of assassination.

I suspect that the terrorist leadership is not nearly as death-happy as they fervently claim � they prefer to send scared little boys to carry out their threats of martyrdom.

Written by David at March 24, 2004 10:28 PM | TrackBack