Israel Matzav

What kind of society produces such mothers?

In an earlier post, I showed a video of the mother of Amr Abu Aysha, one of the two terrorists behind the kidnapping and murder of Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar. Aysha's mother, who is not the 'lady' in the picture above (she is the since deceased Umm Nidal, known as the 'mother from hell' during her lifetime), denied that her son was involved, but said that she'd be proud of him if she was. Bret Stephens asks what kind of society produces such mothers?

Here's my question: What kind of society produces such mothers? Whence the women who cheer on their boys to blow themselves up or murder the children of their neighbors?

Well-intentioned Western liberals may prefer not to ask, because at least some of the conceivable answers may upset the comforting cliché that all human beings can relate on some level, whatever the cultural differences. Or they may accuse me of picking a few stray anecdotes and treating them as dispositive, as if I'm the only Western journalist to encounter the unsettling reality of a society sunk into a culture of hate. Or they can claim that I am ignoring the suffering of Palestinian women whose innocent children have died at Israeli hands.

But I'm not ignoring that suffering. To kill innocent people deliberately is odious, to kill them accidentally or "collaterally" is, at a minimum, tragic. I just have yet to meet the Israeli mother who wants to raise her boys to become kidnappers and murderers—and who isn't afraid of saying as much to visiting journalists.

You've also yet to meet the first Israeli mother who is happy when her son dies in battle, even when there is reason to be proud of the circumstances of his death. For example, while there was a lot of pride in what Roi Klein did during the Second Lebanon War, I don't recall hearing from anyone in Israel - family member or otherwise - who was happy about it. Read the whole thing.

Labels: kidnapping, martyrs, murder, Palestinian mothers, Palestinian terrorism, Roi Klein, Second Lebanon War, terrorist martyrs

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:09 PM