Celebrating an evil old man

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He was an evil old man. He was like Ygor, like Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein, his head cocked to one side. He was confined to a wheelchair for most of his life, the result of a hunting accident when he was 12 years old. He was nearly blind toward the end. He was co-founder of Hamas; he was its spiritual leader. The Israelis believed this man, this Ahmed Yassin, had masterminded many of the terrorist attacks on Israel, that he was a mass murderer. The old man did nothing to dispel this notion. In 1989 he was convicted of ordering the murder of two Palestinians for collaborating with the Israeli Defense Forces and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released in 1997.

Eight years—he could have used the free time to better himself, to learn a new skill, shoe repair or macramé, make himself useful to society, but no, he went back to Hamas, a bitter evil old man. “Reconciliation with the Jews is a crime,” he said. “Israel must disappear from the map.” He praised suicide bomber Reem Riyashi for fulfilling her “obligation” to make jihad.

On March 22, 2004, while he was being convoyed to a mosque for prayer in Gaza City an Israeli helicopter gunship fired three Hellfire missiles into his entourage. Ahmed Yassin died instantly.

A festival was held on April 4 at Gaza Islamic University to celebrate his life and accomplishments. Hatred endures, the more ugly the hatred, the more enduring.

In keeping with the celebration, Hamas TV aired the usual anti-Semitic drama. Maybe drama is the wrong word. It was more like the trash that killed vaudeville in Nazi Germany during World War Two. Two actors dressed as ultra-conservative Orthodox Jews engaged in a conversation. Was it Jackie Mason and Bibi Netanyahu? No. Was it Jerry Seinfeld and David Ben Gurion? No. It was Hamas’ version of the Elders of Zion. The first character says, “In order to please God, Sharon, my son, I’d like to teach you something. You must hate the Muslims.” The second character, the son, replies, “Of course, I hate them.” The father then says, “You must drink the blood of Muslims.” “But mix it with soda water,” says Sharon.

Abbot and Costello did better routines with Costello on his deathbed. To Spanky and Alfalfa the exchange would have been meaningless. It was silly—stupid. The Nazis had more class. But Hamas was playing to its audience, an audience of their twisted version of Spanky and Alfalfa, educated in Madrassas schools and weaned on TV shows like Tomorrow’s Pioneers and Children’s Club where kids ages 4-10 are taught to hate Jews and glorify Jihad, violence and death. The message is as heavy-handed and as clear as the sun glinting off a gun barrel in a Clint Eastwood western. The kids pick up on it right away. No one is too young not to die for Allah.

In Islam’s Sesame Street a young girl sings, “When I wander into Jerusalem, I will become a suicide bomber.” A boy says, “We will settle our claims with stones and bullets.”

Children’s Club has been at it a long time—bigotry, propaganda and anti-Semitism. One of its most famous characters was Farfour the Mouse, a dead-ringer for Disney’s more famous and much more lovable rodent. Farfour liked to point imaginary AK-47s at offstage targets while urging the kids to take up arms against the Jews. “You and I are laying down the foundation for a world led by Islamists,” he would say. “We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness and liberate Jerusalem.”

A nasty mindset! Those who live by the imaginary AK-47, die by the imaginary AK-47. Farfour’s life was short and violent. An Israeli official beat poor Farfour to death in a land dispute. He was murdered, said the show’s teenage presenter, “by the killer of children.”

Nahoul, the bumblebee, replaced Farfour. They were cousins of sorts. “I want to continue in the path of Farfour,” said Nahoul, “the path of Islam, of heroism, of martyrdom, of the mujahideen.” He might as well have said in the path of Ahmed Yassin but an old man in a wheelchair was not quite the image they wanted to project.

Farfour drew his first breath in April of 2007 and went to meet his maker in June of the same year—two months, a very short shelf life. Station officials said the rodent was removed from the scene to make room for new programming. Hani Habib, a Palestinians political analyst, said the show was a recruiting poster for Hamas. The imaginary AK-47 was like Uncle Sam saying, “I want you.” “This program markets death when a child is supposed to have a long future to come.”

And the four-year-old daughter of Reem Riyashi sings to her dead mother and vows to follow in her footsteps. “Mommy, what are you carrying in your arms instead of me?”

Madness? A crippled old man…a clown in a Mickey Mouse suit…a four-year-old girl…Why would that dirty, stinking old man in the wheelchair and the clown in the mouse suit do that to a four-year-old girl who is supposed to have a long future to come?

It is beyond madness—it is beyond evil. Richard Speck was evil—it is beyond that. The last thing Al Capone wanted was for his kid to grow to be a chip off the old block. Where does the hatred come from? A hundred years ago there were no Palestinians—there were Jews but no Palestinians. The hatred must start somewhere. It did not spring full-blown from the head of Zeus. It did not originate in Christ or the Buddha. Could it have sprung ‘full-blown’ from the head of the Prophet?

Qur’an: 8:53 “The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may terrorize them.”

Qur’an: 4:168 “Those who reject (Islam) Faith, Allah will not forgive them nor guide them to any path except the way to Hell, to dwell therein forever. And this to Allah is easy.”

In the Prophet of Doom, Craig Winn likened Adolph Hitler to Mohammed—twisted images in a dark mirror reflecting back on one another. “Like Islam,” wrote Winn, “Nazism was a replacement or substitute religion. These doctrines are different sides of the same coin…Der fuhrer like der prophet, had to condemn those who stood in his way. Although both dictators became what they denounced, they had to clear the world of rivals.”

To clear the world of Jews, of infidels, of untermenchen, of Kuffars, of Poles…they would need an unending supply of mujahideen and stosstruppen. They would need recruits. Pity the poor children.