May
29, 2002, 8:45 a.m. The
Man in the Mirror
Arafat doesn’t
have to look far to see who’s killing Israeli kids.
By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
he
fact that children one day have to bury their parents is part of the cycle
of life. Painful, but natural. When parents have to bury their children,
it is a doubly painful event and perceived as a disfiguration of the natural
order. What can we say, then, of Lior and Chen Keinan, who have to bury
both their one year old infant, Sinai, and her grandmother, Ruti, at the
same time? That is, if they can make it to the cemetery. Lior and Chen
are still hospitalized with injuries sustained in the suicide bombing
that took the lives of their daughter and her grandmother yesterday.
Also
injured in yesterday's terrorist attack on the Petach Tikva shopping center
was a two-and-a-half-year-old girl. Although her body is pierced through
by nails and other shrapnel, packed around the bomb in order to do as
much damage as possible, her condition is listed as stable, but serious.
Another two toddlers are hospitalized with lesser injuries. In all, as
of this writing, 24 people, many of them children, are hospitalized with
injuries sustained in the bombing.
An
eyewitness to the bombing, a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy, was
quoted in the Israeli press as saying, "We were standing near the
ice cream shop… the nearby cafe was packed with people, with a lot
of children…" A local taxi driver, also an eyewitness, confirmed,
"The terrorist exploded and injured children and babies who sat with
their parents at the cafe…" Why so many children? Because the
shopping center was a gathering point for young families enjoying an evening
with the kids, as well as for teenage youth in search of a place to "hang
out." The terrorist selected the target specifically for that reason.
Just as one of his predecessors targeted a Bat Mitzvah party, packed with
12-and 13-year olds, another shot a kindergartner at point-blank range
in her bed, and yet another attacked a group of children playing outside
a synagogue. Since the start of implementation of the Oslo Accords, approximately
45 Israeli minors have been killed by Arab civilians — compared to
five in a similar period of time preceding 1993.
It
is axiomatic that terrorists do not have mercy on children or anyone else.
In fact, as their objective is to terrorize, targeting children is a very
effective means of doing so. Timothy McVeigh was not deterred by the presence
of an onsite daycare center at the federal offices that he bombed in Oklahoma
City; just as the Moslem terrorists who torched four railroad cars in
India in February were not overly concerned about the women and children
among the 58 people they burned alive; and just as the grenade —
hurling Pakistani terrorists who assaulted a church in Islamabad were
willing to kill anyone there, no matter how young.
As
has happened on and off for the past eight years, the Palestinian Authority
announced, after the Petach Tikva attack, that it condemns aggression
against Israeli civilians, "because such attacks undermine the interests
of the Palestinians." Yasser Arafat has also reportedly committed
PA forces to "find those responsible." The only problem with
that condemnation, as limited and amoral as it was, is that the terrorist
group claiming responsibility for the suicide bombing was the al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, part of Fatah, which is headed by none other than PA
leader Yasser Arafat himself.
In
order to "find those responsible," Arafat need only look in
a mirror.
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he
fact that children one day have to bury their parents is part of the cycle
of life. Painful, but natural. When parents have to bury their children,
it is a doubly painful event and perceived as a disfiguration of the natural
order. What can we say, then, of Lior and Chen Keinan, who have to bury
both their one year old infant, Sinai, and her grandmother, Ruti, at the
same time? That is, if they can make it to the cemetery. Lior and Chen
are still hospitalized with injuries sustained in the suicide bombing
that took the lives of their daughter and her grandmother yesterday.
