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| "But I failed to explode," said Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi. (AP) |
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Jack Engelhard is the author of the novel "Indecent Proposal" and the award-winning memoir of his experiences as a Jewish refugee from Europe, "Escape From Mount Moriah." His novel "The Days of the Bitter End" is being prepared for movie production. He receives e-mail at:
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By Jack Engelhard
November 16, 2005
It keeps getting better. Here's the New York Times, for example: FRENCH CIVIL UNREST SUBSIDES. After that headline, we read, "The police said the number of cars set ablaze Saturday night fell to 374, from 502 a night earlier." Got that? ONLY 374 cars set ablaze Saturday night -- the loneliest night of the week for Islamic terrorists as well.
Altogether, over a period of about a month, some 5,000 cars have been torched throughout France by "minority youths."
In other news, many more celebrants at that wedding in Amman would have gotten killed if that fourth bomber had detonated herself.
"But I failed to explode," said Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, part of a husband and wife team that exchanged vows to love, honor and commit bloodshed.
A family that slays together stays together. Well, at least half of them, in this case.
"But I failed to explode." Fascinating that such words no longer give us the willies. Welcome to the 21st century.
There must have been a time when murder and mayhem were unacceptable. Today we shrug. Could have been worse. Acceptable losses. Yes, that figure in Jordan could have been 60. But it was "only" 57. After any atrocity in Israel, we hear "only" 20 Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Could have been much worse except for the heroism of the guard posted at the door.
So we chalk it up as another good day in Israel, as another good day in Jordan, and another good day in France.
Happy days are here again in a global culture dumbed down to diminished expectations.
What do we expect from a world exploding (literally) from Islamic extremism? Nothing. Just keep the numbers down and we'll be happy.
"Arafat, for all his flaws, stood for a just peace." So writes former PLO representative Karma Nabulsi in UK's "The Guardian." That's about right for this age of diminished expectations. Mass murder is considered a flaw. As for the thousands he murdered, among them Americans and fellow Arabs deemed "collaborators," well, heck: nobody's perfect.
Meanwhile, the Arab world is shocked that Islam has come back to haunt Islam. Well, take it from "The Godfather" or real life mobsters; first they wipe out the competition, and then they turn on themselves. Happens all the time. The Arab world gloried when those suicide bombers murdered and maimed Israelis, never thinking: hey, this can backfire.
Israel, after all, was springtime for Arafat, or rather, spring training for jihad. Worldwide murder was founded and incorporated in the territories Israel handed over to the PLO. What did the world expect after the PLO conditioned a generation to study war evermore? Can it be that murder, when it is taught in schools, mosques and madrasses, gets to be so much of a habit that it doesn't have to be the Jews anymore? Any victim will do.
The Arab world did not count on this turn of events, as meanwhile the rest of us thank goodness that fewer cars were burned today than yesterday.
Yes, we say, in this world of diminished expectations, another good day, and it keeps getting better. We are ever so grateful when we fall just short of the worst case scenario. Condi Rice, for instance, demands that Israel offer up yet another painful concession by opening the gates to Gaza for a free flow of terrorists.
We all know what's going to happen. First, Israel will comply. (Which it already has.) Second, Israelis will die. Experts will predict the losses at 100, as acceptable.
Krauthammer, along with others, is already casually prepared for "an up-tick in terrorism." Slain Jews, in the phrasing of a former Israeli prime minister, are SACRIFICES FOR PEACE. Israel's generosity in giving up the lives of its people for the sake of peace, or for the sake of anything, is always appreciated around the world.
So, 100 is a good guess as to the number of Israelis slated to die for Abbas, Sharon and Rice. But, instead of 100, the number of Jewish fatalities will be "only" 50.
The New York Times will run this happy headline: UNREST SUBSIDES IN GAZA. The rest of us will agree, yes, another good day, and it keeps getting better.
Note: Jack Engelhard's full-length novel, "The Bathsheba Deadline," is now running as a serial on Amazon.com for digital download. Hailed by bestselling author Robert Spencer as "courageous, a rousing thriller," this Engelhard novel places its hero, newspaper editor Jay Garfield, at war in favor of the United States and Israel, against a newsroom and a world that has taken the opposite side. "The Bathsheba Deadline" will appear in monthly installments exclusively on Amazon.com until completion. Part 1 is up now, with Part 2 due shortly. Download it for 49 cents.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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