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Sexual fantasies
of a suicide bomber By Reuven Koret August 16, 2001 A bizarre scene transpired in the Wall Street Café near Haifa a couple of days ago. A 28-year old Palestinian walked into the restaurant and raised his shirt to reveal his explosives belt to the young waitress. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, as he lit the fuse. The waitress knew. She screamed and tossed a menu at him, the diners fled, the owner threw a chair at the guy. By the time he screamed Allah Akhbar and blew himself to smithereens, there was no one around to take with him. What struck me, only later, was that there was something distinctly sexual in his behavior. He was basically showing off his manhood, saying in effect, with intent to terrify: "See what a big powerful stick of dynamite I have. And you know what, just watch, I'm going to kill you with it." When I considered the classic profile of the suicide bombers -- young men in their late teens and twenties, the sexual dimension of their murderous motivation became striking. Here are these poor, anonymous guys, living desperate dead-end lives. Living in a strict Moslem environment, they have no permitted sexual outlet. How attractive must it be to become world-famous for a day or two! How empowering to know that you can single-handedly take the lives of innocent people, especially those dangerous and forbidden Israeli women! Vindication of that perception comes from the Palestinian Authority's daily Al-Hayat al-Jedidah, which reported in a front-page article several days ago that "the occupation is using naked women to hunt down intifada youth." The article said that last Friday, during a clash near Karni in Gaza, a woman soldier suddenly appeared on top of a tank. "She started to take off her clothes in front of the demonstrators until she was [nearly] naked. Some of the protesters said they were disgusted by it, while others said the Zionist soldier made rude gestures at them," the paper reported. "When they approached to throw stones at her, the female soldier whipped out a pistol from her underwear and shot at their heads," the paper said, adding that two were killed and nine wounded. It gives a whole new meaning to the Gaza Strip. Contrast the fearsome image of the Zionist woman warrior, her Uzi in her undies, with the soothing vision offered by Moslem preachers and provocateurs. They repeat Islam's promise that unlimited sexual congress with seventy-two virgins awaits the martyr. The Koran, the sacred book of Islam, describes the virgins as "beautiful like rubies, with complexions like diamonds and pearls." In another Koranic passage, it is said that the martyrs and virgins shall "delight themselves, lying on green cushions and beautiful carpets." Talk about offers you can't refuse! Just imagine: press the button, light the fuse, enjoy your last moments on earth in an explosive orgasmic orgy of death, then be transported to the heights of sexual bliss. Israeli forensic pathologists were quoted in the press as noting that a suicide bomber's genital areas are often trussed in protective material to prevent (excessive) damage to the precious cargo. One would not want to disappoint the virgins! The same consideration is not extended to the intended victims, where dismemberment is the goal. USA Today's Jack Kelley, in an in-depth article focusing on the suicide bomber who killed 21 in a Tel Aviv disco, interviews a young boy indoctrinated in the destruction and torture of Jewish bodies by his preachers and teachers. At an Islamic school in Gaza City run by Hamas, 11-year-old Palestinian student Ahmed's small frame and boyish smile are deceiving, Kelley writes, masking a determination to kill at any cost. "I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys," Ahmed says. "I will tear their bodies into little pieces and cause them more pain than they will ever know." "Allahu Akbar," his classmates shout in response: "God is great." "May the virgins give you pleasure," his teacher yells, referring to one of the rewards awaiting martyrs in paradise. Even the principal smiles and nods his approval, reports Kelley. Another would-be bomber tells him that the vision of sexual paradise makes it all worthwhile: "I know my life is poor compared to Europe or America, but I have something awaiting me that makes all my suffering worthwhile," says Bassam Khalifi, 16, a Hamas youth leader in Gaza's Bureij refugee camp. "Most boys can't stop thinking about the virgins." Fortunately for Israel, the desires of the young Palestinian men have often exceeded their ability to perform. Again and again, would-be suicide attackers explode themselves at the wrong time, in the wrong place, rarely achieving the hoped-for result. They have "work accidents." Indeed, like the "Wall Street" bomber, the desire to display his equipment to the waitress prevented successful completion of his act. He prematurely ejaculated. Israel seems to have learned to act in a way that addresses subliminally the underlying pathology of the terrorists. When Israeli commandos strike deep into Palestinian territories to decapitate terror organizations by targeting their leaders; when Israel seizes control of the symbols of Palestinian power; when troops in tanks, with only the puniest of resistance, raze to the ground those structures that served to highlight the prowess and prestige of the Palestinian Police -- all these acts are designed to symbolically emasculate the enemy, to ruin his confidence, to induce in him the ultimate castration anxiety. It was a source of grim amusement in Israel to learn today that, after, a modest contingent of tanks and bulldozers circled the town of Jenin and entered the center of town with little or no resistance, destroyed utterly a few select buildings, and then left a couple hours later, strictly according to plan, with no casualties on our side or theirs, the Palestinians officially announced that their brave and popular resistance had driven Israel from their town. They held parades and demonstrations to celebrate their manliness, shooting their guns in the air "to tell the guys" how well they performed the previous night. Israel's policy of active defense -- targeting Palestinian terrorist heads and destroying its symbols of power, without harming innocent men, women and children -- attempts to deal in a mature and civilized way with a perversion that seeks to paralyze and overwhelm us. Unfortunately, it has not proven effective in stopping suicide bombings. On the contrary, there's a ready supply of young men waiting for their turn with the seventy virgins. Sex and death are linked by power in the hands of the suicide bombers. Even if most are incompetent, or impotent, it only takes one successful attack to destroy many lives. We can't be satisfied with ninety percent success. We must do everything necessary, however distasteful, to stop this scourge which is undermining our way of life. Israeli policy in response to Arab assaults may not always be pretty, or popular, but one doesn't deal with suicide bombers and their masters by cajoling and threatening them. One doesn't philosophize about them, or pity them, or empathize with their suffering, or help them become productive members of society. One deals with them by cutting them down to size, by excising them from civilization. The punishment should fit the crime. There is a belief in Islam that contact of a corpse with the skin of a pig prevents entry into paradise and the pleasures that there await the martyr. The British, in their colonial past, put down Moslem rebellions, also featuring suicide bombings, by burying rebels in pigskin. Israeli security officials, citing this precedent, have recommended adoption of the policy. So far their recommendations have been rejected. But perhaps their suggestion wasn't specific enough. One need not wrap all body parts in pigskin. A selected pound of flesh should suffice. Indeed (don't tell anybody) one may not need to do anything at all: what matters is that the would-be bomber is convinced that Israel does, and will. For maximum effect, perhaps it can be suggested that the cutting and wrapping can be performed by the legendary Zionist woman warrior with the pistol in her panties. Bizarre and repulsive as this "modest proposal" may sound to liberal Western ears, the unmentionable idea, conveyed credibly through local channels, would have a powerful deterrent effect on the young men dreaming about terrifying and killing Jewish women, thus impressing all those seventy virgins. Such a campaign would not help the recruitment efforts of the suicide bomber dispatchers. Indeed, all those involved in the terror game should be informed discreetly that they too would be eligible for similar post-mortem gift-wrapping. For a limited time only, Israel should even offer free overnight shipping to paradise. It's the least we can do to make the appropriate sexual fantasies of these impotent and emasculated terrorists -- brave and manly only when they are holding a stick of explosives in their hands -- come true.
Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
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© 2001 Koret Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Terms of Use. |
