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By Micah D. Halpern
November 3, 2004
In an age of terror, teenagers are just perfect. Perfect as perpetrators.
What makes teenagers so ideal? Sameness. Sure, they say that they strive for individuality -- but that's individuality against adults. What really differentiates teens from all other species is their desire not to be different, to be like everyone else, as long as everyone else is their age. They dress the same way, wear their hair the same way, walk the same walk and, "like wow," talk the same talk. They may stand out in a group of elders, but amongst their peers, they are alike.
What else makes them so ideal as perpetrators? The teen sense of invulnerability, the desire to always prove oneself, the need to be part of a movement, part of the pack.
And that explains how a child, a sixteen year old named Amar al-Far, a Palestinian from a refugee camp near Nablus, could be convinced to carry an explosive and turn himself into a suicide bomber. It explains how he succeeded in blowing himself up and killing and injuring as many Israeli bystanders as the bomb he was carrying would allow.
This time, it happened in Tel Aviv, but it could just as easily have been Iraq or Indonesia, Turkey or -- sad to say -- Toronto. Teens are the perfect suicide bombers. Terrorist dispatchers and organizer know it. They rely on it.
As a rule, teenagers can slip in under the radar.
What are some of the basic tools used by law enforcers in their fight against terror? Portfolios, profiles and identification cards, databases culled by interrogators following arrests.
To date, although that might have to change, there are no security portfolios on kids. Israel doesn't require Palestian young people to carry ID cards, or even have ID cards. So even if or when a teen is stopped and questioned by police, computers come up empty on their terror potential.
Teen profiles are too vague. How do you tell one bad apple from the good ones? Younger teenagers do not have the proper papers, they are not required to until they are almost past their teen years. They have no paper trail. Their names are not checkable against a database. And there is no way of making certain, even if you have a name, that the name given is correct, even after being stopped.
In the case of the recent Tel Aviv bombing, there was a twist.
Two teenage bombers were sent out on missions by their organizers. Neither one knew of the other. One carried a real bomb while the other transported a fake bomb, a dud.
The fake bomb was discovered in a routine check at a border crossing between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The checkpoint was then shut down. But according to Channel Two, citing security sources, the teen with the real bomb had already passed through.
It used to be that pregnant women were the terrorists of choice. Security personnel were uncomfortable checking them closely. But that has changed. There aren?t all that many pregnant women crossing borders to go to work, so it's easier to recognize them. And the old adage, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, has come into play. Security personnel are no longer shy about checking the women. But teenagers? There are so very many teenagers.
The previous suicide bomber -- an 18 year presenter on a children's television show who blew herself up in Jerusalem during the summer -- came from the same village as Amar al-Far. There is no chance he didn't know her. She was a star on TV, and an even great star as a "martyr." Amar no doubt identified with the local heroine. And, as teens will do, emulated her to the end.
Where is the rage? Where are the parents? Who allows this to happen? The parents of Amar al-Far have said that they think it immoral that a mere boy was sent to be a suicide terrorist. But where is the larger public uproar? How dare anyone allow children to be used as tools of mass murder?
Terror and teens. A lethal mix. Let's hope that they meet as infrequently as possible.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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