Morality of the Leopard-Bear-LionSuicide bombings are the Palestinians' weapon ofchoice, and they've staged well over 100 of them sincethe Intifada began in September 2000 (over 1300 nowand worldwide over 11,000). The scene is almost alwaysthe same after some pathetic Palestinian kid is cajoledinto blowing himself up in the biggest crowd of Israelishe can find. "The first thing that hits you is the strong smell. It'sthe smell of burning hair," said Achy Sheffer, 42, avolunteer medic with the First responder corps, a unitof Magen David Adom, Israel's answer to the Red Cross."There's always lots of blood everywhere," he said."Hands, legs, and arms, and sometimes heads, arescattered on the ground. I try not to see what I don'thave to see."

"And there are always nails," Achy said. "One woman Itreated had over 40 nails in her legs and arms—youdon't see them, they just go inside." "If the attack was a bad one, it's eerily quiet. Like atthe Passover Seder massacre in Netanya [where 29people were killed and 140 were injured]," he said. "Itwas very bad and it was very quiet. No one wasscreaming." Often the silence is broken by the ringing ofthe victims' mobile phones scattered on the ground.Desperate parents trying to find their kids, or kidstrying to find their parents. "The worst for me was the Dolphinarium," said Achy,who responds to an average of 43 emergencies eachmonth. "I arrived on the scene early. The first thing Isaw was a pile of dead, pretty teenage girls — 10 to 12bodies, literally packed one on top of the other." The massacre at the discotheque in the seasideDolphinarium happened just a year ago. Twenty-oneyoung people, mostly teenage girls, were killed and

another 83 injured. There's a little memorial on the site;it is always covered with fresh flowers. "One girl Icannot forget lost an eye. She had fractured legs and onearm was crushed," said Achy. "I don't know if they savedher arm, because it was very bad. The explosion threwher about 60 feet." "I didn't sleep for two weeks after the Dolphin-arium," he said. "I just sat at home writing poems andcrying." Shiran Cohen is only 11 years old but she alreadyknows how to spot a suicide bomber. Shiran was at ashopping mall in Petach Tikvah, seven miles east of TelAviv, when the latest suicide bomber detonated a devicethat spewed nails and bolts across a veranda filled withtoddlers in their strollers. It was carnage."I saw him drive his motorbike between the tables,"Shiran said from her hospital bed." I just knew what hewas and I told Mama to look. She didn't understand andstarted scolding him for driving on the pedestrian mall.

Then he exploded. It happened so fast." Shiran is amongthe 50 injured. In a room nearby, a two-year-old withserious head wounds is fighting for her life. The baby's mother coos at her to move her fingersand the tiny little hands tremble. So far, there are two dead, including 18-month-oldSinai Kenaan, who was sitting in her stroller at theterrorist's well-chosen target—an ice cream parlor. Icecream parlor? How low can you go? Supermarkets,cafes, pool halls, and hotel dining rooms give suicidebombers a wide array of ages to maim and kill. But anice cream parlor on a warm evening is sure to be packedwith little kids. Personally, I hate terrorists, particularly the oneswho target toddlers. But then, I'm a New Yorker and I'vealways prided myself on being politically incorrect. Shiran's father, Samir, is doing a lot of hospitalhopping. His wife, Dalia, is in a different hospital withwounds to her face and total hearing loss. "She can't

close her mouth and just cries and cries," said Samir, ataxi driver. "She keeps talking about seeing a baby'sskull come off and her brains pouring out." Shiran's older sister Berta is in yet another hospital.The blast sent her flying and she smashed to the groundon her stomach. "She is eight months pregnant," saidSamir. "The doctors aren't sure about the baby—theycan't find a heartbeat." "And people talk about an overuse of force by Israel,"scoffed Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Rafowicz, aspokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. "When youattach 15 kilos of explosives to a man with a brain itbecomes an extraordinarily lethal weapon, much morelethal that anything we use. That man can wait aroundfor 20 to 30 minutes just to choose the right moment tokill as many people as possible." Sylvana Foa - The Village Voice, June 2002 as cited bychristianactionforisrael.org

London’s Moslems march in a “Religion for Peace”rally.

“Any so-called god whose holy book influences people to perpetrate unspeakable acts of cruelty isn’t our God, or any god worthy of worship.”Ellis Skolfield on the web, 2003