Suicide Bombers New Targets: Christians

Abu Afak, Mittwoch, 08. Oktober 2003, 03:31 (vor 7891 Tagen)

New Targets for Suicide Bombers
By Dr. Walid Phares
Oct 7, 2003

When al-Jazeera reported the suicide attack
against the Haifa restaurant, one item went
unnoticed by the international media. The reporter
said "the restaurant is co-owned by an Arab. A
number of Arabs were killed in the explosion." At
first sight, there is no striking news in it. It
is not the first time Arabs are killed by
istishadis (Islamist suicide bombers). Nor would
it be impossible that Israeli Arabs would be
casualties in jihad operations against the Jews.
One-third of Haifa´s population is Arab. Moreover,
many "scholars" of jihad have long warned that
Muslims and Arabs could become collateral damage
of martyrdom strikes. That has happened and will
happen and al-Jazeera´s panels will always find an
answer to it. But the south Haifa restaurant was
not owned by an "Arab," nor were most of the
killed workers "Arabs." And here lies the issue.

The owner of "Maxime," the South Haifa restaurant
is a Lebanese Christian. George Matar is not an
Arab Muslim; he is a Maronite Catholic from
Lebanon whose roots are Aramaic. Many of the
workers who got killed or injured are Lebanese
Christians, as well. Al-Jazeera and many Arab
media outlets missed that point, possibly
intentionally, since indicating the real ethnic
and religious identities of this owner and some of
the workers would open a new file on the jihadists
both in Israel and in the Middle East. Why would
the Islamist suicide bombers particularly target a
Lebanese Christian restaurant in Israel, when they
could have attacked an Arab-Muslim culinary
establishment anywhere else in the city?
Mainstream Jews in Haifa eat at all kinds of
restaurants, especially on the Sabbath. So what´s
behind Hanadi´s mission? Was she there to kill
Jews or Christians -- or both?

How did "Abu Charbel" (George Matar´s acronym)
ended up being bombed in Israel by Palestinian
Islamic Jihad? Was he part of that war between the
Islamists and the Israelis? All law-abiding
civilians basically want peace and security,
regardless of whether they are Jews, Christians or
Muslims....."

"...George Matar, his family and his relatives,
including a nephew who died during the blast just
days before his wedding, all came from across the
border. Up in Lebanon, one million and a half
Christians live under Syrian occupation and
Hezbollah intimidation. Almost half of the
country´s population, the Christian ethnic group
is the older community of Lebanon. Descendent from
the ancient Aramaic, known also as Phoenicians,
the Lebanese Maronite and Melkite Catholics and
Orthodox Christians have resisted the onslaught of
the Arab-Islamic conquests for more than 13
centuries. Defeated after a 15 years long war with
the PLO, Syrians and Islamists, the Christian
community fell under the fate of occupied nations
in 1990. But for a whole decade, a small portion
of these Christians, along with a number of
Muslims and Druze, chose to ally themselves with
their Jewish neighbors. In the most southern part
of the country, they formed an enclave, called by
the world, Israel´s "security zone." In May 2000,
the Clinton Administration and the Barak
Government abandoned those "last of the Mohicans"
to Hezbollah. More than 6,000 Christian Lebanese
crossed the borders into Israel, in an
unprecedented exodus.

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