Child Abuse in Palestine: Updated.

Update: At the time I had written this, Sami Salim had been identified in several newspapers as a 16 year old. He was in fact 21. Child Abuse in Palestine

I firmly expect that people here will start making excuses for this and start calling me names but there is no justification for sending children to die.

Today, Palestinians sent another 16 year old boy into Israel with a bomb to blow up as many Israelis as he could.   He's now a martyr, a hero.  There will be gigantic murals of him in schools and on billboards.  Hamas has celebrated this as an "act of defense."

Time and time again, terrorists groups in the West Bank and Gaza have taken teenagers, including the retarded, and used them for their own ends.    Sometimes it has been simply to stand around gunman as they shoot at soldiers in the hopes of blaming Israel for a child's death.  Sometimes it has been to call them into the streets to  throw rocks at soldiers.. putting the children in dangerous situation.   Sometimes it is to parade in militant uniforms toting realistic looking toy guns.. the last thing I would think any adult would do with a child in this situation.  Sometimes it is to sing songs about killing the Jews and sometimes it is to blow themselves up.

Yet I never hear any outcry about this.   Make no mistake, this is abusive and neglectful behavior on the part of the adults responsible.