This week, Israelis caught a 14-year-old palestinian boy who was going to blow himself up in a crowd of Israelis. This story has, for the most part, been ignored by the major media outlets–even though the AP sent this article far and wide:
In another raid, the army arrested a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who told his interrogators that militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – which has ties to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement – pressured him to carry out a suicide bombing after he quarreled with his father.
Salah’s parents, who confirmed their son is 14, said that after they quarreled with him about a month ago, five armed Al-Aqsa militants came to their house to tell them to leave the boy alone. Last week, they came again, this time to take him away for a suicide bombing, said his father, Moussa al Jitan.
[…] The father said Salah did not want to go, adding that he would not let them take him. The teenager did not leave the house until Israeli forces arrested him Monday, a move his parents welcomed.
“Good, he will be in jail. That’s better than dying,” said Sariel al Jitan, his mother.
This is the kind of quote that should be widely disseminated, and yet, there is almost no notice of it. This mother is happy her son is in jail, because the alternative would have been death.
The teenager said the militants threatened to kill him and tell everyone he was a collaborator with Israel if he didn’t carry out the attack, the army said.
Jamal Tirawi, an Al-Aqsa commander the army accused of recruiting the boy, said the account was “a lie.”
Tirawi said Salah was 17 and approached the group to volunteer to carry out an attack. Al-Aqsa refused because he is the only son in his family, Tirawi said. “The boy is lying, and the Israelis are lying,” he said.
Yes, and the palestinian spokesliar is telling the truth. He knows the age of the boy better than the parents. Notice, though, who gets the last word in that. The liar. Just to make sure you think his word has more validity than the parents.
Of course, the AP has to get more licks in:
Militant groups have increasingly turned to youths to carry out attacks in recent years, hoping the army would be less suspicious of them. The boy, identified by militants and his parents as Salah al Jitan, would have been one of the youngest Palestinian suicide bombers.
Notice how lovingly they mention that this boy would have been the youngest! suicide bomber! ever! if he had been successful.
This story was buried in the midst of the news that a long-wanted Hamas fugitive was captured. No major media outlet picked up more than a blurb, or the full AP story.
Why? Because it makes the palestinians look like the monsters that they are, and indicates that the murderers are not fully in control of popular opinion, after all. Evidently, some palestinian mothers do love their children more than they hate Israel.