Quote:

Suicide bomber's home razed

The Israeli army demolished the home of a 16-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber who killed three Israelis when he blew himself up in a Tel Aviv open-air market.

BY ALI DARAGHMEH

Associated Press


NABLUS, West Bank - The Israeli army destroyed the home of a teenage suicide bomber Tuesday despite his mother's public and impassioned criticism of the group that sent her son on the deadly mission.

Israeli military officials acknowledged the woman's grief, but insisted the policy of demolishing bombers' houses is necessary to deter more attacks. The militants who sent the teenager said they would try to rebuild the family's home.

The incident focused new attention on an Israeli policy that has drawn criticism from Palestinians and human rights groups, which say tearing down homes amounts to collective punishment.

After the demolition, the bomber's mother, Samira Abdullah, backed off her criticism of her son's handlers, saying her anger had subsided and praising the teenager as a hero.

The about-face underscored the complexity of Palestinian feelings over suicide missions -- a mixture of support for attacks on Israel, unease with the growing use of teenage bombers, fear of crossing militants and a sense of dread over harsh Israeli reprisals.

On Monday, Abdullah's son, 16-year-old Eli Amer Alfar, blew himself up in an open-air market in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and wounding more than 30 others.

The victims were identified as Shmuel Levy, 65, a retired engineer who immigrated to Israel from Bulgaria in 1989; Leah Levine, a 67-year-old Holocaust survivor and folk dancing teacher; and Tatiana Ackerman, 32, a Russian immigrant who left a husband and 12-year-old daughter.

Israeli troops on Tuesday razed the home of Alfar's family in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank. Alfar's family of 12, including his parents and six siblings, had removed their belongings ahead of the demolition.

The army also destroyed the homes of two senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the radical PLO faction that claimed responsibility for the blast.

Over the past three years, the army has demolished more than 612 homes of Palestinian militants involved in attacks on Israelis, according to the Israeli human rights group B'tselem. It said 3,900 people were left homeless.

Capt. Sharon Feingold, an Israeli army spokeswoman, called the demolitions ``part of our policy to deter families from letting their children carry out attacks. We think this is very effective.''

Monday's attack was the 117th suicide bombing since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000 and the first since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat left for France last week for medical treatment.

In all, 494 Israelis have been killed in the attacks.




I can kind of understand the sick logic: Don't commit terrorism, or we'll terrorize the family you have left. But it doesn't strike me as a justifiable means to fight terror. All they're doing is pissing people off more, and it's not hurting terrorists, only grief-stricken mothers.

I heard a radio commentater use the term "the Jews have learned well from their Nazis" around the time Israel started building that wall. The controversial quote seems to be a little less controversial than I had previously thought.