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Last update - 18:04 07/07/2008 Palestinian terrorism as a natural act By Bradley Burston Tags: bulldozer, terror, Jerusalem  JERUSALEM - What, exactly, is a decent person supposed to think? On a quiet and clear morning in Jerusalem, a woman is driving toward the heart of the city, her infant with her in the car. There is nothing to fear. It is not a military area, it is not a sector of occupation, it is not a settlement - Jews have lived and worked here for more than a century. Jewish doctors and nurses were treating Arab infants, women, the elderly and the infirm here as early as 1902, when Shaare Tzedek Hospital opened across the street. There is nothing to fear. Except for the man behind the wheel of a bulldozer, who has taken it upon himself to kill Jews. Not Israeli security force personnel, not occupation troops, not the Shin Bet. Jews. Women and children and the elderly and the infirm. Jews who may be in favor of an independent Palestinian state. Jews who have nothing against Arabs. Jews who may work to end the occupation. Jews. When the killing starts, the woman behind the wheel does what Jews have learned to do since the Holocaust, and for 2,000 years before that: Save your child. Whatever it takes. She manages to throw her infant out the side window and clear of the car before the Hero of Palestine steers the massive earth mover toward her car for a second time and crushes it flat. It doesn't take long, after the he has finished overturning buses full of Jews - and Arabs as well - and driving over other cars, even backing up to crush one twice, before the public relations and marketing department of Hamas had formulated its praise for the attack. "We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people in the West Bank and all over the occupied lands," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the press. Natural. Only natural. The Islamic Jihad's armed wing could not have agreed more."The Jerusalem Brigades bless the heroic operation in Jerusalem as the natural reaction to the crimes of the occupation," it announced. The attack came after the latest in a series of attempts by groups in the states, some of them atheist/anarchist, some of them Muslim, some of them Jewish, to lobby Prostestant churches and respected universities to divest from Caterpillar, because the IDF uses its bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes. I would like to hear them now. Just once. I would like them to divest from terrorism. Not understand it as the natural outgrowth of the crimes of occupation. For once, I would like my sisters and brothers on the left to be every bit as hard on their comrades the Palestinians for taking a bulldozer and crushing Jews, as they are on Israel for bulldozing homes. Write a letter to Ismail Haniyeh, to Mahmoud Zahar, to Sami Anu Zuhri. Protest in your own communities, for once, calling terrorism what it is. Intentional, brutal, premeditated, immoral. Murder. What's a decent person supposed to think? That it's all right to launch rockets against residential areas during a cease-fire, because the occupation is still going on? That it's all right to crush Jewish civilians, because the occupation has not been halted and settlers continue to build homes? What's a decent person to think when Palestinian groups fall over one another trying to claim the bulldozer attack? And when one of the groups is the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade? What's a decent person to think when the man who drove the bulldozer was himself the father of two, a construction worker from East Jerusalem, whose desire to kill Jews - and, in so doing, further soil and damage the cause and name of Palestine - was greater than his feeling for the mother who had to throw her baby from a car to save it? I, for one, would like to ask for proof of what it is that Palestinians really want. I no longer believe that it's as simple as wanting statehood. This is what I don't yet want to admit: that for all these years, in 2008 no less than in 1902, what a critical mass of Palestinians want most, perhaps even more than statehood, may be as simple as the vile thrill of vengeance, as straightforward as nothing more than seeing Jews dead and gone. _______________ Previous blogs: How would Jesus vote on Mideast peace?Perhaps we killed Christ after all Experiment: Peace dead? Send us your own plan! Israel's own version of Holocaust denial Our Defense Forces, our war crimes, our terrorism Fox News will elect Obama president Bookmark to del.icio.us   Internal fighting Human rights groups say torture is widespread in Palestinian lockups. Danger looms Pentagon chief Robert Gates warns: War with Iran would be 'disastrous.'   1.   I disagree with your description of his target 18:06  |  D 02/07/08   2.   Headline deleted by moderator 18:11  |  Israel Zwick 02/07/08   3.   #1 you are the one being deceptive 18:46  |  McQueen 02/07/08   4.   Natural act for a monster. This is what terrorists teach 18:51  |  David 02/07/08   5.   1- 18:53  |  Yedidya 02/07/08   6.   "I no longer believe that it`s as simple as wanting statehood." 18:53  |  common sense 02/07/08   7.   natural act 18:57  |  alfred 02/07/08   8.   D - you`re making irrelevant excuses 18:58  |  Brett 02/07/08   9.   Agreed - Treat Israeli Bulldozer Terrorists the Same 19:02  |  Patrick 02/07/08   10.   Thoughts of a decent person 19:09  |  Naftali Lavie 02/07/08   11.   terrorism 19:11  |  Alan Kruger 02/07/08   12.   What a glib comparison 19:14  |  Ramzi, a Palestinian 02/07/08   13.   Thank you! 19:19  |  Ilya 02/07/08   14.   Payback for Israels collective punishment? 19:19  |  Bossa 02/07/08   15.   Alleluyah! 19:19  |  Yossu 02/07/08   16.   uncontructive 19:20  |  miloimnick frm north 02/07/08   17.   Spare me Bradley! 19:20  |  Palestinian in UK 02/07/08   18.   The fake innocence of Bradley Burston 19:23  |  Ismail 02/07/08   19.   what about the terrorism of land grab and settlement expansion 19:23  |  Question Man 02/07/08   20.   natural right!!! 19:24  |  Jacob 02/07/08   21.   So you finally understand 19:27  |  Softwalker 02/07/08   22.   Firte all the Arabs who owrk in Israel for a week, 19:29  |  r 02/07/08   23.   Bradley doing one of his famous flips, shortly followed by a flop 19:30  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 02/07/08   24.   Perfect Article - Bravo. Send it to media oulets globally!! 19:30  |  Daniel 02/07/08   25.   More polls needed on Israeli +Pal thinking 19:35  |  Sam 02/07/08   26.   Anderson 19:48  |  And........ 02/07/08   27.   Bradley, you disappoint me 19:48  |  Pssd Off American 02/07/08   28.   Israel gets back what it dishes out. 19:50  |  Dutch 02/07/08   29.   "Why Do They Hate Us?" 19:51  |  Victor 02/07/08   30.   Peacefull Arabs: show up! Bulldozing a house isn`t MURDER! 19:52  |  Arthur 02/07/08   31.   Ismail #12 19:53  |  Brett 02/07/08   32.   To Mr. Burston!! 19:56  |  Bernd 02/07/08   33.   REMEMBER RACHEL CORRIE, AMERICAN KILLED BY IDF BULLDOZER 20:06  |  Arik Silverman 02/07/08   34.   DUUUUUUUUUH 20:08  |  Denise Thompson 02/07/08   35.   Do you support the right of Pals to attack the IDF, Bradley? 20:11  |  Michael 02/07/08   36.   Islam. 20:11  |  Jean Van Daem 02/07/08   37.   Those in the buses and street are liable to be Arabs 20:12  |  x-ray 02/07/08   38.   Arab terrorists have always targetted Israeli civilians... 20:13  |  Nannette 02/07/08   39.   #1 You`re either Palestinian or Israeli? You can`t be both! 20:15  |  Nannette 02/07/08   40.   to Palestian in UK 20:17  |  AK 02/07/08   41.   BRITISH APOLOGISTS 20:17  |  Ian 02/07/08   42.   Bradley has finally arrived… or has he ? 20:18  |  Darth Zaider (Ed) 02/07/08   43.   Peace is the answer 20:19  |  humanbeing 02/07/08   44.   Question Man 20:20  |  Lobo 02/07/08   45.   What. Part. Of. This. Is. Not. Clear. To. You? ^_^ 20:21  |  Denise Thompson 02/07/08   46.   Terrorism is a `natural` thing for palestinians 20:23  |  Jeremy 02/07/08   47.   to Ismail 20:25  |  alex 02/07/08   48.   Splendid isolation 20:26  |  Urgle 02/07/08   49.   For BRADLEY and DUTCH 20:28  |  Miriam Ashkelon 02/07/08   50.   Its tragic and vile 20:40  |  Dave Duncan 02/07/08   51.   Natural Act 20:40  |  Susan 02/07/08   52.   Racism is a `natural` thing for Jeremy of NY 20:41  |  Ramzi, a Palestinian 02/07/08   53.   to Peace is the Answer 20:41  |  alex 02/07/08   54.   Misinformed author and deciptive garbage 20:43  |  Ibrahim 02/07/08   55.   D: Please Inform us, be helpfull! 20:46  |  Arthur 02/07/08   56.   Bradley thinks it`s so much worse when Jews are the victims 20:48  |  Natallie Durson 02/07/08   57.   A pause for mourning the dead 20:51  |  Victor 02/07/08   58.   #8 what a ridiculous comparison 20:51  |  Melquiades 02/07/08   59.   Don`t worry Bradley. You will return to normal soon 20:52  |  Ilan 02/07/08   60.   Israel has created bulldozers for exactly that purpose! 20:52  |  M 02/07/08   61.   To the self-hating fool that wrote this article 20:53  |  Denise Thompson 02/07/08   62.   I never before hoped someone died in an act of terror, you prick! 20:55  |  klaus 02/07/08   63.   Bradley Burston is a terrorists suppoter 20:57  |  RW 02/07/08   64.   Pssd off American 21:00  |  Axel 02/07/08   65.   However heinous the arabs` actions are 21:03  |  Denise Thompson 02/07/08   66.   What was the point of this asinine article? 21:07  |  Czarkazem13 02/07/08   67.   Bradley He Invoked His Religion 21:08  |  Yosemite 02/07/08   68.   inhabitant of OCCUPIED east jerusalem. why don`t you get it? 21:10  |  Xavier 02/07/08   69.   acts like this 21:11  |  rm 02/07/08   70.