The Illuminated Donkey

Against her religion? Wearing tight clothes: Yes. Killing babies, women and sick people: maybe. Thauriya Hamamreh, who volunteered for a suicide bombing mission in Israel in part because she was dumped by her boyfriend, had a "change of heart" when she was told to "disguise herself as a modern Israeli woman so she would not raise suspicion."

"They wanted me to have my hair loose, wear sunglasses and make-up and tight clothes. I said no because it's against my religion," the newspaper Ma'ariv quoted her as telling reporters.

A day before the planned attack, Ms Hamamreh began pondering the "righteousness" of the task and whether she would be accepted as a martyr in paradise because she had volunteered mostly for personal reasons, including feelings of social isolation after being rejected by a man she had hoped to marry. "I started thinking that I would be killing babies, women and sick people and imagined what it would be like if my family were sitting in a restaurant and someone bombed them," she said.

Damian Perry takes the big-picture view of this.

Nader Said, a Palestinian "sociologist", gave Reuters the usual line about how suicide bombers are just trying to liberate their land from the evil Jews occupiers — but he also made this startling observation:

Said said some of the suicide bombers, men and women, were socially isolated — such as one bomber who suffered from epilepsy — and were trying to gain social acceptance.

"Many of them feel powerless in all other aspects of their life but now...they can change reality, they can prove to their mothers and fathers and schoolteachers that they are worth something," he told Reuters.
Isn't it becoming obvious that the Palestinian leadership, these brave "freedom fighters" standing up for truth, justice and Jew-killin', are taking advantage of the mentally ill and cynicially using them as weapons? Doesn't anyone else out there think this is the sickest f*cking thing in the world?