$25,000 from Iraq

[NewsGuy]

Not that this concept is anything new, but today it was announced that the financial reward which Iraq guarantees to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers has now been increased from $10,000 to $25,000.

Not bad, considering that the average Iraqi earns a tenth of this new reward amount (Per capita income is $2500 in Iraq). The average Palestinian living in the Gaza strip earns $1000 per year.

Now, taking into account that suicide bombers are by-and-large worthless individuals with no skills for a better future, this $25,000 is a major incentive.

It is also a sad indication of the values in Arab society, where getting an education or job skills to support one's family is considered far less prestigious than blowing up oneself to mass murder innocent civilians.

[NewsGuy]

Here's a take on this story published just today on Fox:

"In Tulkarm, one of the poorest towns on the West Bank, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council handed out the checks from Saddam. The payments have been made for at least two years, but the amount has suddenly jumped up by $15,000 — a bonus for the families of martyrs, to reward those taking part in the escalating war against Israel.

Paul McGeough, reporting from the West Bank, was the only foreign correspondent in the hall Monday night when a Palestinian official handed out the checks. McGeough's story in today's Sydney Morning Herald describes a very hellish twist on the Academy Awards:

The men at the top table then opened Saddam's checkbook and, as the names of 47 martyrs were called, family representatives went up to sign for checks written in U.S. dollars.

Those of two suicide bombers were the first to be paid the new rate of $25,000 U.S. and those whose relatives had died in other clashes with the Israeli military were given $10,000 U.S. each.

The $500,000 U.S. doled out in this impoverished community yesterday means that the besieged Iraqi leader now has contributed more than $10 million to grieving Palestinian families since the new intifada began 18 months ago."

. . .

"I asked the Ramallah office of the Arab Liberation Front," McGeough said. "They said I could go."

He was welcomed. So the Palestinian Authority is blatantly exposing its terrorist funding from Iraq? To foreign reporters?

"You can interpret it in various ways. One way is that it is a deliberate way for Baghdad to escalate the suicide bombings."

. . .

This should be a huge story. This should be on the front page of every serious newspaper. But you have to spend some time looking for any mentions of it. On March 12, the Associated Press quoted Baghdad's Al-Iraq newspaper's quoting of deputy minister Tariq Aziz, who said the payments have been made since 2000 and recently were increased. The BBC monitored a broadcast this week about the blood money deal. Other news organizations report nut-sandwich "solutions" by the likes of Muammar Gaddafi, who at least sounds more sincere the Saudis. But McGeough is the first to bring this twisted tale to the current war coverage.

What about Washington? Is it worth pursuing a peace deal when the Palestinians are being paid by Iraq to blow up their sons and daughters? When the Palestinians are applauded by the Arab nations for the bloodshed? Should we even bother with heartfelt discussions about U.N. inspectors and diplomacy when Iraq is a proud example of state-sponsored terrorism? What do we get from ignoring Mohammed Atta's meeting with Iraqi spies in Prague? Should we play nice with the psycho who parades his enemies' families on satellite teevee just to teach those exiles a lesson?

[dagitab]

Israelis can play the same game too. Concerned Israeli citizens would form a group that will hire mercenaries. Every time a Palestenian suicide bomber kill X number of people, the mercenaries will be activated to kill 2X, 3X, maybe 4X number of Palestenians, defending on how mean they want to get.

As of now, one dead suicidal Palestenian can be equal to 5 to 20 dead Israelis. By doing my arithmetic, a dead suicidal Palestinian bomber might still be equal to 5 to 20 dead Israelis, but that suicidal Palestenian will bring along with him/her 20 to 80 dead Palestinians.

That's the only kind of arithmetic the Palestenians will understand. If carried out, I'm pretty sure the suicide bombing will stop eventually or else the Palestenian's race will be wiped out.

[muslim4israel2]

I heard it was $6000. The figures are inconclusive. Sad whatever it is. :(

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by muslim4israel2
I heard it was $6000. The figures are inconclusive. Sad whatever it is. :(
Yes, the fact that Saddam Hussein, one of most popular figures in the Arabs world, is paying off mass murderers to target Israeli children, is sadi. But the fact the Palestinian parents are strapping bombs to their children's bodies and sending them out to blow themselves up for the Iraqi reward money, is outrageous.

And the figures are not inconclusive. Your sources are feeding you lies to cloud the issue in some way.

[muslim4israel2]

The IDF get salaries for there part in mutual genocide.

[victot]

i just want to point out:

israel has 1 of the best armies in the world. since the beginning of the intafada, how many palestinians a day have been killed?
perhaps an average of 3 a day...

i mean, that is sad, it's a terrible situation over there, but if israel truly set its heart to killing palestinians, they could have more impressive numbers than 3 a day.

[muslim4israel2]

Yeah-3 unarmed school children a day is not too impressive is it. Do those stones block there indiscriminate fire at civilians?

[Oh Jerusalem]

Oh, the poor, unarmed, helpless wittle Palestinians.

http://www.idf.il/daily_statistics/english/graph2.stm (note the graphics error: the first two figures in the text are in the 6000s and 5000s respectively, with the right hand digit truncated)

http://www.idf.il/daily_statistics/english/graph6.stm

http://www.rotter.net/israel/

Here's the IDF news from September 28, 2000, the day before Arafat declared the Oslo War on Israel. Rocks indeed:

http://www.idf.il/english/announcements/2000/september/28.stm

Day one of the Oslo War:

http://www.idf.il/english/announcements/2000/september/29.stm

1st summary reports of the rioting:

http://www.idf.il/english/announcements/2000/september/30.stm

Interesting read in item 3 herein:

http://www.idf.il/english/announcements/2000/october/1.stm

As you can see, you can keep on modifying the URLs above, changing the year, month and day accordingly. Note that some days, such as the Sabbath, there may be no archived news so you might sometimes get a page not found error.

[Barkokhba]

Originally posted by muslim4israel2
The IDF get salaries for there part in mutual genocide.

Genocide is a nice term if you are trying to use emotion to support your arguement, but it is factually incorrect.

[muslim4israel2]

Go to sleep.