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In the Name of Allah

[Ha'aretz] Riad Ali - When the Palestinians adopted suicide bombing as their strategy, I concluded that their indiscriminate war on Jews had begun. The Palestinian people have lost their inner compass. A whole generation of children was born and reared in their midst, and all their hopes and aspirations are to die a holy death. A Palestinian moral-ethical debate on the status of the suicide bomber never took place. He was a "martyr," with all the positive attributes that the word carries in Islamic terminology. Palestinians who still opposed the bombings did so on tactical grounds; that is to say, if it had furthered their cause, they would have seen no wrong in it. A similar process happened with Hizballah. If before 2000 it could claim it is fighting Israeli occupation of Lebanon, today it is clear that its war is against Jews wherever they may be. It is clear to all that a Hamas-led Palestinian government and a Hizballah-controlled Lebanon will not bring democratic societies with a flourishing political and social pluralism. Arab citizens of Israel who truly believe in the principle of two states for two peoples and those who believe in a democratic liberal society must ask themselves if the Islamic ideology that is leading the war today against Israel and the West is representative of their ambitions. The writer is a reporter for Israel Television Channel 1.
2006-08-11 01:00:00
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