perfidy

When I heard that the Israelis had killed Hamas founder and "Spiritual Leader" Ahmed Yassin, several thoughts immediately ran through my head.

The very first thought was, "Good!"

Second, it occurred to me that the Israelis just applied the Bush doctrine. This is no different from our earnest desire to capture; or preferably convert Usama bin Laden into strawberry jam on a Afghani hillside.

As I listened to the Palestinian reactions, I was bemused.

"Words cannot describe the emotion of anger and hate inside our hearts," said Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin.

How is this different from the anger and hate you have expressed for the last several decades, in the form of suicide bombs in buses, restaurants and hotels? And planned by Yassin?

Hamas said Israel had "opened the gates of hell"

Really?

The Palestinian Authority said in a statement that "Israel has exceeded all red lines with this cheap and dirty crime,"

How is this cheaper or dirtier than say, using young women with explosive belts to sneak into Israeli towns to kill the innocent? Or putting bombs in ambulances? At least the Israelis target people who are actually responsible for murder.

[Palestinian] Cabinet ministers stood as Arafat recited a Muslim prayer for the dead. The Palestinian leader, referring to Yassin, then added: "May you join the martyrs and the prophets. To heaven, you martyr."

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinians have lost "a great leader," and called the attack on Sheikh Yassin a "dangerous, cowardly act".

If the Palestinians believe that this person was a great leader, a martyr, and destined for heaven, as they evidently do:

...then they are completely outside the pale of civilization.

It also occurred to me that the Palestinians have a peculiar understanding of the nature of war. They have, through their actions and words, declared war on the state of Israel. They bomb Israel's citizens, they call for the destruction of the Jews who inhabit it. Yet when their enemies fight back, they whine in surprise at the perfidy of the Jew. How dare those evil Jews kill a man, an elderly man in a wheelchair! Nevermind that he is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis. Are they really that naive? Of course not, but they do know that that sort of whining will find a sympathetic ear amongst certain sorts of people in the west.

One snippet from the BBC had a no doubt unintentional grain of truth. PA mouthpiece Saeb Erekat said the only way to stop violence was to "end the occupation of Palestinian territories." When you remember that the Palestinians also claim the land that Israel currently sits on, this reveals what they are all about.

[wik] This NRO article by Joel Rosenberg offers some useful thoughts.