Heroes Vs. Anti-Heroes

By Michelle Moshelian

As an Israeli, I have developed what is apparently a national syndrome. A bomb explodes somewhere and the response is more like ``where and how many [dead]?'' rather than one of shock and horror such an attack warrants.

I say a national syndrome since a couple of years ago a terror attack occurred in the middle of a football match and a local television channel split the screen between the football and covering the attack before coming to their senses. Given the number of attacks that Israel has suffered, such attitudes are not surprising ― there is a limit to how much horror people can handle.

As a mother, however, there are certain terror attacks that I find hard to dismiss so easily. The latest is one of them. To the outside world, three Israelis were killed when a Palestinian drove a bulldozer into a civilian bus. Given the number of casualties in this conflict, three dead civilians and one dead terrorist is but a drop in the ocean. But there is always far more to terror attacks than simply the number of dead. In this latest case, for me personally, it is the horror of the fact that one of those killed had just managed to get her baby daughter out of their car before being crushed to death.

There are other sickening attacks that I would recall if I had the space here: the massacre of over 20 teens at a disco; the Palestinian female suicide bomber who ate her lunch in a restaurant in full view of the families with young children she was about to decimate; or perhaps the two young kids shot dead at point blank range in their beds while their mother read them a bedtime story. Too many choices than I care to recollect.

But there is one attack that deserves mentioning here. It happened three decades ago, but has taken on new meaning as Israel has freed the Lebanese terrorist from jail in exchange for two kidnapped Israeli soldiers who came home in body bags.

Samir Kuntar bludgeoned a four-year-old girl to death with his gun and crushed her head with rocks, having just murdered her father in front of her. He also killed two policemen, and was responsible for the death of the little girl's younger sister, whose mother accidentally suffocated as she tried to keep her quiet.

Kuntar returned home a hero and says he will continue to terrorize. What a hero. It has been said that he was the cause of the 2006 Lebanese war ― in that it was the aim of Lebanese Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah to get him set free. Never mind the fact that over a thousand people died in that war.

While other societies glorify their best athletes, actors, business people or great minds, the Arabs worshipped the murderer of a four-year-old girl. What pride is there in that? Are there no better heroes in the Arab world? My newest hero is the mother who got her baby out of the car in time to stop her being crushed by the bulldozer. And the man who killed the bulldozer driver of course; Coincidentally, he knew the man who killed the terrorist in the next most recent attack in Jerusalem when eight were killed at a seminary school. Another hero. There is no lack of heroes in Israel. Heroes because they save lives; not because they take lives.

I simply cannot comprehend the terrorist mentality. If your cause is just, then there are better ways to express yourself than massacring innocent victims. Palestinian terrorism is not about helping the Palestinian cause or serving their best interests. It is not a fight for freedom. The purpose is simply to kill and maim as many Israelis as possible, inflicting as much mental damage on the nation as they can. They should by the way take note that their terrorism has taken on a note of ``overkill," for want of a better term, referring to the 'national syndrome' of being so used to terror that Israelis have largely become desensitized.

Palestinian terrorism does not stem from a conflict over land, it stems from hatred. A hatred so strong that it causes people to strap bombs to their bodies simply in order to kill others. A hatred so intense that it is logical to drive a bulldozer at a bus full of civilians. A hatred compounded by a society whose only heroes are those who commit atrocities. Are there no saviors that the Palestinians can look up to?

If the nations of the world spent half as much energy tackling this innate hatred as they do tackling the land problem, then perhaps they would solve the underlying issue. The conflict was around before occupation began in 1967. It was around before Israel even existed. It is irresponsible to dismiss the conflict as a land issue and disregard the underlying hatred. Perhaps the western world needs to find its own heroes who are brave enough to recognize this fact?

The author is a freelance writer in Israel. She can be reached at mishmosh@012.net.il.