26-Nov-15: Peering into the darkness, seeing pre-teen children groomed to be ready to die so they can kill

One of the two cousins (11, 14) being
led away after their stabbing 
attack is thwarted [Source]

As the toll of innocent Israelis who are rammed, shot or stabbed grows, so too the anger here at unwanted, often deeply offensive, advice from people sitting safe and far from the scene and the mortal danger who find it necessary to vent their spleen at the things Israeli society does to defend itself and its children. On reflection, the term "profoundly ignorant" belongs in that description too.

Take for instance, Jacob T. Burns, self-described as

"Research and Campaign Assistant at@Amnestyonline, focus on#Israel/#Palestine. Tweets own etc."

Campaign assistants, it's known, can be uniquely well-placed to formulate ethical assessments about life-and-death matters. So here's what this passionate young man wants us to know:

Are the stabbings targeting civilians reprehensible? Yes, absolutely. But it doesn't give you permission to do whatever in response

— Jacob Burns (@JacobTBurns) November 23, 2015

And this

Proportionate force may be used to stop imminent threat to life. Lethal force absolute last resort. Trying to stab shld not = death sentence

— Jacob Burns (@JacobTBurns) November 23, 2015

Some observations now from a couple of parents of a child murdered by products of the same sickening religion-driven fanaticism about which global authorities like this Amnesty fellow know so much.

Yesterday, the Israel Security Agency, better known as the Shin Bet, published the transcript of its interrogation of two Palestinian Arab boys, cousins aged 11 and 14 from East Jerusalem. They were in the news and in our blog not so long ago ["10-Nov-15: Arab teens and their knives: today's latest Jerusalem stabbing attack"] because of their central roles in a stabbing rampage. A man working as a security guard on the Jerusalem Light Rail came close to losing his life thanks to what they did. So did the boys themselves.

The younger cousin, aged 11 and in sixth grade, will not be facing any charges under Israeli law because of his tender age. The older one, 14, is likely to be charged as a juvenile with attempted murder. There are no plans to indict Mahmoud Abbas, Saeb Erekat or the PA Minister of Education at this stage.

What the two children told their interrogators [according to a report in Times of Israel, November 26, 2015] ought to get close attention but will not. It's appropriate that we pause here for a moment and once again think about the moral bankruptcy of UNICEF, Defence for Children International, UNESCO, Child Rights International Network, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Washington-based Jerusalem Fund, the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Save the Children Sweden, Arab Council for Childhood Development, plus of course the leader of the pack, UNRWA, along with the other players in the lavishly-well-funded child-focused NGO industry. All studiously looking the other way, all staring vacantly into the distance, all being utterly silent about the massive, institutionalized child-abuse in which every part of Palestinian Arab society is deeply engaged.

The boys intended their murderous attack "as an act of revenge". Why? Because - in the spirit of the cycle of violence that has crushed everything worthwhile in the world they occupy - a relative, Muhammad Ali, from the Shuafat neighborhood of Jerusalem, was himself shot in front of security cameras trying to murder a Border Guard officer near the Damascus Gate of the Old City early last month (and that was intended as revenge too). The title of our post about that attack and its outcome ["11-Oct-15: Weaponizing children"] expresses some of our deeply bitter feelings about a society that manufactures a lethal juveniles with homicide on their minds.

“I met my cousin at the entrance to school,” said the 11-year-old, who was not named... “The headmistress refused to let us in because our parents had not paid tuition. My cousin told me that on the way to school he wanted to carry out a stabbing attack but did not succeed because all the travelers were senior citizens,” ...The two first boarded a bus and looked for the opportune moment and target. “We travelled from Shuafat to Damascus Gate in order to stab a soldier but did not do it because the soldiers were in groups and we didn’t find one standing alone,” recalled the 11-year-old. “Then he told me ‘let’s do an attack together to revenge the death of Muhammad Ali.’ He opened his bag and showed me the knife. At Damascus Gate I bought a pair of scissors and then we boarded the light rail and looked for Jews to stab.” Two light rail security guards boarded the train, but the boys decided “not to stab them because there were two of them. Later on one of them got off and we immediately attacked the one that remained... I stabbed him in his head, my cousin stabbed him in his chest and stomach until the guard pushed me and fired three bullets in my stomach,” said the 11-year-old. The two cousins had decided they were ready to die as shahids, or martyrs, he said. The younger one said in the interrogation that none of their family members knew about their intentions. “I wanted to die as a shahid but now I understand I made a mistake and I am sorry,” he was quoted saying. At the end of his interrogation, according to the Shin Bet, he repeated: “I made a mistake. I want to be in school like any normal person. I don’t want to resist the occupation any longer.” The older cousin confessed early on in his interrogation, but said he did not mean to kill anyone... “The Israelis are occupying us and I am angry at what is happening in Gaza. I wanted to avenge the Jews who are torturing us.” Asked why they did not try to stab one of the passengers on the light rail, he said: “The Jews on the train were only old people and women, and it’s shameful to stab them.”

Jacob T. Burns of Amnesty International understands that what these boys, and a long line of boys and girls before them, did was (ahem) "reprehensible". He seems not to comprehend that this is about murder, something most sane, civilized people believe goes a way beyond the language used to describe spitting in the school corridor.

Not for the first time we see that something about the Arab conflict with Israel makes "activists" like the people from Amnesty stupid. Their silence in the face of the ongoing catastrophe we described here ["23-Nov-15: A third knife-wielding Arab boy is dead in terror attack"] speaks louder and more eloquently then their tweets do.

That leaves us (again) with the matter of how Palestinian Arab society keeps generating children who hate to the point where they stop caring - at least momentarily - about their own well-being. An entire society driven - without any audible or visible dissent - by lethal, blood-and-gore hatred, and willing to allow their own children to be buried in the name of that hatred.

Here's what we wrote some weeks ago about the attempted murder carried out by the older cousin of the two boys:

The sixteen year old boy is dead. Whatever potential it had for constructive achievements, his future no longer exists. In its place, a society in the grip of lethal depravity calls him hero and martyr and continues weaponizing other young men and women to follow him to oblivion. It's an appalling process of grooming and exploitation with many facilitators, contributors and (especially) enablers, certain of whom call themselves human rights organizations... ["11-Oct-15: Weaponizing children"]

Now that's something the Jacob T. Burnses of the world might want to tackle,

Meanwhile, we're grateful to have well-prepared, fast-acting, but also restrained, men and women on our side who shoot when our lives are endangered by the rising tide of self-destructive madness emanating from the dark side of the fence.