The wages of mitzvah

Today we received a phone call that was like a stab in the heart, from an Israeli in California referring to a story he read in Haaretz this morning. Here’s the story our caller referred to:

IDF troops arrest would-be female suicide bomber
Several hours after the deadly West Bank shooting attack [referred to earlier in the Haaretz story], IDF soldiers caught a female would-be suicide bomber at the entrance to the Erez border crossing on the edge of the Gaza Strip.
The woman, who was carrying 10 kilograms of explosives in her pants, had a permit to enter Israel to receive medical treatment. Following the incident, the IDF closed the crossing for traffic, reopening it a few hours later.
The would-be bomber, 21-year-old Wafa Samir Ibrahim, resident of the Jabalya refugee camp was dispatched by the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades, a military offshoot of the Fatah movement, to carry out a suicide attack.
Ibrahim had been in the past to the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva to receive medical treatment for severe burns she sustained from a gas balloon that exploded next to her six months ago. She needed to reach the hospital for medical tests.
The woman said she did not plan on carrying out the attack at the Soroka hospital but in another hospital, not specifying its name.
Security personnel became suspicious of her at the entrance to the border crossing, and found the explosives in her pants during a body search. When Ibrahim realized she had been caught, she tried to detonate the explosives she was carrying, but was unsuccessful.
Brigadier General Avi Levy, commander of the Gaza northern brigade told Israel Radio “terror organizations took advantage of her bad health and manipulated the woman into carrying out the attack.”
Lecy said that she carried the explosives on her person believing that the respectful manner in which soldiers treat women during security checks would enable her to smuggle the belt successfully.
“Palestinians are trying to slip through every possible crack in the security belt, including humanitarian … in order to smuggle explosives into Israel,” Levy said.

This story represents the phenomenon that Charles Johnson refers to as “Cease fire, Palestinian style.” I’m not sure that even Charles’s realism quite captures the depth of the depravity with which Israel is contending, but it’s getting there.

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