Allow my male piginess to come out here. What man in his right mind would let this woman blow herself up. Once the tent was removed I saw a somewhat well shaped, attractive female. Where I come from, we would call that a waste of good horse flesh. A Palestinian life must really suck to mean so little, and by all outside impressions certainly does. The Israelis and Palestinians have only one hope and that is to live together in peace and mutual prosperity. Until the palestinian masses understand that, they are doomed to poverty and desperation which will lead to more of this waste of precious life.

There was a piece of the video I didn't understand, which was, why in 2011, Fatah was doing this. I'm pretty ignorant, but I thought Fatah's stance these days was to act like the responsible and lawful and non-terrorist organization. The wiki on Fatah currently says: "Fatah is generally considered to have had a strong involvement in revolutionary struggle in the past and has maintained a number of militant/terrorist groups, though unlike its rival Islamist faction Hamas, Fatah is not currently regarded as a terrorist organization by any government."

Googling the woman's name I came up with this report of the original act, which explains the video:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3101498,00.html

Anyway, the explanation is this attempt took place in 2005, and the report does say she said she was sent by Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyr's brigade.

I'm not trying to lessen anything or defend the woman or Fatah in any way. I was just trying to resolve my puzzlement over why the video would link this to Fatah since that seems so out of the ordinary for Fatah given their current position in 2011.

The important thing to remember about Hamas and Fatah is that everything they say in English is tailor-made for their international audience. In other words, it's all lies.

If you want to know what they really think, you need to find translated versions of their Arabic speeches.

Maybe the Israelis should stop helping people trying to kill them. Doesn't seem to be doing them any favors.

Amy,

This seems strangely at odds with your staunch stance against U.S. airport scanners and "groping".

I understand that Israel faces a much more present and day to day threat than we do, but there are parallels to airport security here at home.

You don't want to get scanned or searched. I understand and appreciate that. Here is a woman with children that is being put in a cage and made to undress.

Paraphrasing the narrator on the video, "If I lived in any other country, I would hate this."

So is it a matter of threat level? At what particular threat level is this okay? Is it only when the bomb safely explodes and all works out well that it is okay?

How many Palestinian women that are completely innocent are put through humiliation like that each day?

I'm just a bit puzzled about your strictly ideological stance on liberty in favor of safety here at home while seemingly cheering on what many would consider human rights abuses in favor of safety abroad.

Like you, I fall firmly on the liberty side of that equation. It's just that there are gray areas to everything.

Apples and oranges whistleDick.

On the one hand you have government employees with no offical law enforcemnt powers and no training in psycology or weapons confiscating tweeseres and bannaca, sexually assulting(remeber that case a couple of weeks ago where two boys were branded sex offenders even though they got no gratification from the act?) american citizens traveling within the borders of their own country

On the other hand you have trained Isreali solders on an international boarder shared with a country whos offically, legally elected governmnet is on the record stateing the intent to kill every last jew on the planet. Soilders who have been trained and gained experince thru direct combat with various weapons and bomb use stratagies employed by people who choose to be mortal enemies.

To pretend a war zone boarder with people trying to kill you for the crime of having the gall to exist & a MickyDees reject digging thru grandmas diaper becuase she wanted to see her kids (living in the SAME FUCKING COUNTRY) one last time before she died is intellectual dishonesty at its finest

Maybe they shouldn't.

I'm not pretending it's the same thing, luj. I'm saying that on a scale with liberty on one end and safety on the other, an extreme example like this makes for an interesting conversation.

I agree that the professionalism of the security people is certainly a factor.

whistle:

the professionalism of the security people is certainly a factor.

More to the point is the likelihood that the person being inconvenienced is, in fact, a threat.

AKA "profiling".

What galls many about the TSA is the "random" application of heavy, invasive policing to people with no previous record or probable cause to be suspect.

The Israelis profile based on extensive intelligence gathering about possible terror cells and people's clan/political affiliations, in addition to on-the-spot psychological observation.

What makes for an "interesting conversation" is that profiling based on Western values would have given this ungrateful barbarian a pass...

Israelis have already met with Arab businessmen who were blackmailed into carrying bombs, and females who were "recruited" by being raped, then sent on suicide missions "to save their honor."

Hamas has brought Pali society to that circle of hell at which profiling is moot.

Ben:

I respectfully disagree with your assessment of profiling. We know that al qaeda tries its level best to recruit people who don't look the part. You'll be able to quite easily point to examples of ridiculousness on TSA's part, but that goes back to professionalism and hiring practices.

Hamas began using women as suicide bombers precisely because they wouldn't be as suspicious. At one point, an apparently pregnant woman with two children in tow didn't fit the profile.

Profiling is dangerous both from a civil rights and from a security standpoint.

I completely agree that the disputed territories have certainly spiraled into a circle of hell where, sadly, individual freedoms are a bit higher up on the hierarchy of needs.