ANALYSIS: THE ONLY CURE FOR SUICIDE BOMBINGS
by WebToday Editor Lawrence J. Joyce Pharmacist/Attorney-at-Law author of LESSONS FROM DUGWAY: What I Learned About Surviving Germ Warfare At The U.S. Army Proving Grounds (www.germwarfarebook.com)
(WebToday, April 10, 2002)-- How to punish a suicide bomber? That is the question. Peace in the Middle East, and perhaps the very prevention of World War III, may depend on the answer. For without an end to the suicide bombings, Israel can never be at rest. And without that, the whole region could erupt into conflict. But once the bomber is dead, there is not much you can do to him.
You therefore must deal with him beforehand. You can only deter him; you cannot punish him. Yet what could alter the mind of a suicide bomber to keep him from carrying out his task?
The only things which could deflect his thoughts from his grim task would be either some form of guarantee that he could not possibly achieve what he hopes to achieve by his actions (which would reduce his murderous suicide to an exercise in futility), or a sure and certain form of retaliation against those whom he left behind, whose very benefit he hoped to enhance by his action.
As to a guarantee against his achieving his goal (in the present case, the creation of a Palestinian state and the eventual eradication of the state of Israel), only a pledge by Yasser Arafat that he will stop seeking the creation of a Palestinian state until the suicide bombings come to an end could constitute such a guarantee. Fat chance on that one, Charlie.
As to retaliation against those left behind, the Israelis have more latitude. But it won't be pretty. A look at what God commanded the ancient Israelites to do to free themselves from the oppression of their neighbors gives guidance.
When God delivered the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and brought them into the Promised Land, it was inhabited by the Canaanites, the worshipers of Molech. By Canaanite law, the first-born of every woman had to sacrificed to Molech. Some Canaanite cities would use a hollow bronze statue of Molech, with jewels set in his eyes. He was depicted with a body of a man and the head of a bull. He would be shown seated with his arms stretched forward, his hands palms up.
At the time of the sacrifice, the priests would light a fire under the statue until it glowed. The jewels set in the eyes would fiercely blaze. The servants of the priests would bang their drums into a deafening crescendo, whereupon one of the priests would take the newborn and place it into the blazing hot palms of the idol.
The child, of course, was burned alive. The only solace lay in the fact that the roar of the drums would drown out its screams.
God did not want his people to ever adopt such a practice for themselves. And the only way those who abhorred such a practice could ensure that their own descendants generations after them would never be so afflicted was to deal with it in the absolute harshest of terms from the beginning.
"But of the cities of these people [the worshipers of Molech], which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheh: But thou shalt utterly destroy them;" (Deut. 20: 16-17a).
God does not speak in jest. When the Israelites sacked one of these cities, Jericho, they were commanded not to despoil the city, but rather to destroy absolutely everything and take nothing with them. When Joshua discovered that one of the Israelites did in fact take some of the booty, he had him killed. And his sons and daughters. And all his livestock. (Josh. 7: 24-26). Other examples of retribution against family members, such as killing all the males of a household for evil done by the father, are likewise to be found in the Old Testament. (I Kings 14: 10, 16: 11, 21: 21; II Kings 9:8).
In this context it is worth noting that the Palestinians insist that they are the descendants of one of the original tribes of the region: the Philistines. But do they realize how well they prove their point when they send their own children to sacrifice themselves in confrontations with Israeli troops and in suicide bombings? Child sacrifice, it would seem, has not yet completely died out from among them.
The Old Testament gives precedent for dealing with all of this, of course, but I do not propose such harsh measures here. I propose instead that the Israeli government deal with the issue of suicide bombings by castrating all the males of the family of the suicide bomber: the father of the bomber, the brothers of the bomber and his sons (if any).
Would that work? Heck, I think even a ten-year-old can understand this. And if not, daddy will certainly straighten him out ahead of time.
Let those stricken by such retribution, and their entire families
as well, count themselves blessed that what happened to them was
nothing more than that. And let all those who pray for peace in
the Middle East breathe a sigh of relief.
You may email Lawrence Joyce at: germwarfarebook@aol.com
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