Military

DATE=12/09/01

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT (RE-ISSUE)

NUMBER=5-50648

TITLE=SUICIDE BOMBERS, PART 2

BYLINE=ROSS DUNN

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

/// EDS: Part two of two-part series ///

INTRO: The campaign of suicide bombings by Islamic groups poses difficult challenges for Israel, which prides itself on being "the only democracy in the Middle East." In the second of a two-part series, Ross Dunn talks with Israelis and Palestinian scholars about the bombings and how they believe they can be stopped.

TEXT: When the Israeli army recently killed a master bomb-maker from Hamas, which carries out suicide bombings against Israel, it justified the attack according to Jewish law.

Israel's deputy foreign minister, Michael Melchior, a highly learned rabbi, backs this position.

/// MELCHIOR ACT ///

It's true. The Jewish law says, if you know someone concretely is preparing to kill you, you have the right to defend yourself by killing them first. If it is to target somebody who is preparing to kill them, then I think it is legitimate.

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// Lior Yavne, spokesman for the Israeli human rights group B'tselem, says Israelis do have the right to kill those Palestinians they are absolutely sure are going to launch a suicide bombing. The problem, he says, is that the Israeli army is using this policy to assassinate Palestinian political leaders, as well as those directly involved in acts of terrorism.

/// YAVNE ACT // OPT ACT ///

That's simple self-defense, and there is no problem with that. The problem is that is usually being used as an excuse for illegal executions.

/// END ACT // END OPT ///

Saleh Abdel Jawad, a Palestinian, is a political science professor at Beir Zeit University in the West Bank. For him, the way to stop suicide bombings is to eliminate the reasons for the bombings.

He says Israel should examine what he calls its brutal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an occupation he says has caused deep despair among Palestinians.

Mr. Jawad says it is this despair that drives Palestinians to volunteer for suicide missions, believing it is the only way they can confront Israel's military might.

The professor says, if the Israelis grant Palestinians independence, the attacks will come to a swift halt.

/// JAWAD ACT ///

Tell me why a young boy, 20 or 23 years old, instead of going to a disco, or going to dance or to drink, why he is going to kill himself. It is because of the situation. Change the situation; give him a small amount of oxygen; and this guy; he will not go to commit suicide. So the answer is very, very easy, it is political.

/// END ACT ///

Yigal Carmon is a former adviser on security to the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Mr. Carmon says the bombers are acting on behalf of a small sect of Islam that is promoting a notion of holy war not seen since the Middle Ages.

/// CARMON ACT ///

A small segment in Islam who engages in religious holy war like the world knew in the seventh century, and even in the eleventh century. This is a phenomenon that must be stopped. And the way to stop it is through stopping the education for Jihad (holy war) in Arab and Islamic schools.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Carmon says bombers and their beliefs must be challenged through a program of comprehensive education around the world. But he acknowledges the process of changing people's beliefs will be long and difficult.

In the meantime, he says, Israeli officials must continue to tell the Palestinian Authority to halt the glorification of suicide bombers through official television and radio broadcasts that portray suicide bombers as martyrs. Palestinian textbooks, Mr. Carmon says, are also feeding the hatred that leads to terrorist attacks. (Signed)

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