Facing the eternal terror of suicide bombers…

It had been so long, relatively speaking, since a Palestinian suicide bomber struck in the heart of Israel that many people were genuinely shocked by Monday’s attack, which killed 9 and wounded 60. And, that it happened in the very same Tel Aviv sandwich shop where the most recent attack occurred on 19 January only compounded their consternation.

Although, their shock (and dismay) were probably due in part to the false sense of security that is provided by the Jericho-like wall the Israelis built to prevent these walking bombs from crossing their borders. But, as I commented here and here - after suicide bombers stuck in the heart of London last July, no wall, labyrinth of security cameras or beefed-up force of RoboCops can ever prevent these Islamic Jihadists from executing their misguided holy mission.

Indeed, far from being shocked that they struck, the wonder is that they do not do so more often. And with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now threatening to deploy his army of 40,000 suicide bombers to England and the United States if he’s not allowed to build his nuclear bomb (to “wipe Israel off the map”), it's more likely that this terror will become a fact of life for the rest of us (as it is now for the Iraqis) long before it ceases to be so for the people of Israel.

In the meantime, however, we could probably do a little to discourage these sacrificial warriors - who seem more motivated by their lust for the apocryphal 72 virgins than by any desire to please Allah - if we simply stopped broadcasting their idle-minded farewell tapes. After all, this is precisely the kind of attention these invariably poor, uneducated, marginalized and hopeless Muslim boys crave, even if posthumously, and it only inspires those left behind to seek this pyrrhic glory.

NOTE: Any hope Israelis had that Hamas would condemn Monday’s attack - now that they are the duly recognized government of the Palestinian territories - were shattered when they justified it instead as:

…a natural result of the continued Israeli crimes against our people….The Israeli occupation bears responsibility for the continuation of its aggression. Our people are in a state of self-defense and they have every right to use all means to defend themselves.

Clearly, this macabre trend is fated by the gods to continue…

Palestinian suicide bomber, Israel and Hamas