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Friday November 18, 2005

Jordan blasts may sour Palestinian taste for terror

by daniel pipes

An Oct. 26 suicide bombing in Hadera, Israel, that killed five people inspired the usual Palestinian joy: Some 3,000 people took to the streets in celebration, chanting “Allahu Akbar,” calling for more suicide attacks against Israelis and congratulating the “martyr’s” family on the success of the attack.

But Palestinians were uncharacteristically morose after three explosions went off Nov. 9 in Amman, Jordan, killing 57 people and injuring hundreds. That’s because for the very first time they found themselves the main victim of those same Islamic “martyrs.”

The massacre at a wedding in the Radisson SAS hotel ballroom took the lives of 17 family members attending the nuptials of what the London Times called a Palestinian “golden couple, beloved of their prominent Palestinian families and friends.”

The bombing also killed four Palestinian Authority officials, notably Bashir Nafeh, head of military intelligence on the West Bank.

After two decades of doling out this horror against Israelis, some of whom were also attending festive events (a Passover dinner, a bar mitzvah), Palestinians, who form a majority of the Jordanian population, unexpectedly found themselves at the receiving end.

And, guess what: They did not like it.

The brother of a woman injured in the attack told a reporter, “My sister, I love her. I love her to death, and if something happened to her, I’d be really … ” Choked, he stopped speaking and cried. Another relative called the terrorists “vicious criminals.” A third cried out, “Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims?”

I extend my deepest sympathy to the family of victims. I also hope that Palestinians, who have established a worldwide reputation not just for relying heavily on suicide murder but doing so enthusiastically, will benefit from this unique learning opportunity.

No other media and school system indoctrinates children to become suicide murderers. No other culture holds joyous wakes for dead suicide bombers; no other parents hope their children will blow themselves up. No other receives lavish endorsement and funding for terrorism from the authorities. Nor has any another people produced a leader so inextricably tied to terrorism as was Yasser Arafat, nor so bountifully devoted in its allegiance to him.

(The memorials of his death Friday, Nov. 11 were marked by effusive statements on how “he will remain alive in our hearts” and reaffirmations to continue his work.)

The Amman bombings, attributed to al Qaida, exposed the hypocrisy of Palestinians and their supporters who condemn terrorism against themselves but not against others, especially not Israelis. Shaker Elsayed, imam of Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Virginia, denounced the Amman wedding attack as a “senseless act.” Very nice.

But Brian Hecht of the Investigative Project notes that Elsayed has a long history of justifying terrorist attacks against Israelis: “The jihad is a must for everyone, a child, a lady and a man,” he has said. “They have to make jihad with every tool that they can.”

Queen Noor of Jordan embodied this hypocrisy when she stated that the Amman terrorists “made a significant tactical error here, because they have attacked innocent civilians, primarily Muslims,” implying her approval had the victims been non-Muslims.

Will the Palestinians’ shameful love affair with suicide killings and “martyrdom” diminish after the atrocity in Amman? Might a taste of their own medicine teach them that what goes around comes around? That barbarism ultimately visits the barbarians too?

Small signs point to a shift in views, at least momentarily and in Jordan. Survey research done in 2004 at Jordan University found two-thirds of Jordanian adults seeing al Qaida in Iraq as “a legitimate resistance organization.” After the bombings, the pollster found that nine of 10 survey participants who had previously endorsed al Qaida had changed their minds.

To change Palestinian behavior requires that civilized people finally get tough on suicide terrorism. That means rejecting Hamas as a political organization and excluding dialogue with it. It means shunning propagandistic movies such as “Paradise Now,” a film that whitewashes Palestinian suicide bombing. And it means convicting Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives Sami Al-Arian and his Florida cohorts.

The message to Palestinians needs to be simple, consistent and universal: Everyone condemns suicide terrorism — unequivocally, without exceptions, whether the arena is electoral, diplomatic or educational, and whether the bombing is in Amman or Hadera.

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and author of “Miniatures: Views of Islamic and Middle Eastern Politics.” He spoke Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

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