Mesha and the Pal. Suicide Bombers

Here's my letter to the New York Times in response to a report in today's paper:-

In the Bible, 2 Kings 3, the story is told of a Moabite King, Mesha, who revolted against the kingdom of Israel upon the death of Ahab. He was attacked by an alliance of the three kings, of Israel, Judah and Edom and in an attempt to stay the onslaught, as verse 27 relates, "he took his eldest son...and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall."

This story came to mind upon reading Greg Myre's report on Palestinian Arab youngsters recruiting their peers to become suicidal terrorist bombers ("Israel Says Children Enlist Children as Suicide Bombers", June 13). The hatred cultivated by Palestinian society is unfathomable. I have not found one recorded incident, during the Holocaust, of a Nazi blowing himself up in order to kill Jews and yet Israel has suffered many dozens of Arabs killing themselves if only to kill and maim Jews, a throwback to Mesha of Moab.

This phenomenom is a horrific comment on the inhumanity of the Arabs of Palestine and, as Myre's story highlights, is even more tragic than we can imagine.