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| Middle East |
| Hamas Warns of 'War on Buses' |
| 2002-06-20 |
| A Palestinian militant group's declaration of war on buses — long a symbol of Israeli grit — struck fear in the hearts of many Israelis. The familiar sight of a shattered city bus lying on its side, the top and roof peeled away and body bags lined up nearby, underscores the vulnerability of a well-established transit system. Hamas, the group that carried out a bus bombing that claimed 19 victims this week, announced in a leaflet Wednesday that dozens more suicide bombers are waiting to attack civilians in a "war on the buses." Buses carry civilians: women, children on their way to school, and old folks. Where are the orifices who were bitching and moaning about the Geneva Convention and its provisions against targeting civilians a few months back? I know they're a lot holier than I and thou, but even my stunted moral sense can see something wrong with an intentional, publicly announced program of targeting civil transportation systems. Tuesday's attack in Jerusalem was the 70th bombing since the latest round of violence broke out in September 2000. Of those, nine targeted buses, killing 70 passengers. When the dead guy's wearing a uniform, the sight might not make you happy, but it's understandable, insofar as Armed Struggle® as a way of life is understandable. That's because one accepts the fact that the soldiers or police are going to shoot back if given the opportunity. There's a symmetry to that idea, even though it drips blood. But there's no justification I can think of for bombing somebody's grandmother. It invites an indiscriminate retaliation — the execution of one's own grandmaw, and what the hell did she ever do to anybody? — and it invites the Israelis to descend into the same lower levels of the same gutter inhabited by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. If they did that, they could wipe out the Paleos, but the moral costs might be too heavy for them to bear. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |