Of course, that is not to say that no Palestinian mothers have any regrets about their children carrying out suicide bombing. For example, on June 6, 2004, PA Television broadcast these remarks by the mother of a 15 year-old who died during a suicide attack: “It was sad and joyous what happened to him, meaning, he always liked the Shahada (Martyrdom). All children at his age do. He always cared for me. I would have preferred that one of his other brothers would have attained Shahada instead of him, because he was the joy of my life.”
(All translations courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)
Undoubtedly there are exceptions, but the large number of Palestinian mothers who feel this way says something deeply troubling about Palestinian society. One does not need to be a sociologist or a psychologist to recognize that the normative values of Israeli society and those of Palestinian society are profoundly different.
Israeli mothers do not long for the day that their children will murder other children. They do not hope their children grow up to be suicide bombers. They want their children to live, not to die, to defend their country, but not to be mass murderers or suicide bombers.
The proud mothers of Palestinian terrorists, not the mothers of Israel, are the ones who deserve to be compared to the mother of Sisera.
