Michael Widlanski/Media Line: VIRGIN VIDEO ON ARAFAT'S TV PROMISES SEXY
AFTER-LIFE FOR 'MARTYRS'

By Michael Widlanski (The Media Line) June 27, 2002

When Palestinian terrorists who blow themselves up in order to murder as
many Israelis as possible, are they acting out of despair or out of hope?

A new Palestinian movie video, which aired today (June 27) on Yasser Arafat'
s Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation gives an inside view into Palestinian
thinking that may supply the answers.

A dark-haired and good-looking 35-year-old Arab man is seen walking with an
attractive woman of about the same age.

It is clear that she is his wife or his girl-friend and that he loves her,
but the movie has no dialogue or written on-screen text, only background
music and some very clear and heavy suggestions.

The movie clip, which preceded and introduced the 3PM afternoon news, is
about Palestinian "martyrdom"-its causes and its rewards.

The man and his wife see Israeli army (IDF) soldiers, and frowns darken
their features, and the music is very morose.

The young man clearly starts thinking about how to strike out at the Israeli
soldiers.

Almost immediately, the music changes to a more optimistic tone as, out of a
kind of mist, stunningly beautiful young women-between 18 and 22 years of
age-begin to beckon to him.

The gorgeous women, who are younger than his wife, are all clad in billowy
white robes. They are all smiling fetchingly as they call to him, making
motions with their hands as if to say "come-here" and "join us."

We next see the man after he is captured by the IDF following an apparent
attack on them.

But, as the music takes on another sinister twist, the Israelis deliberately
release the Palestinian man.

Their plan is clear: they are going to kill the handsome Arab man "while
trying to escape."

He appears as a target in the cross-hairs of an Israeli automatic rifle.

His wife cries, her face screwed up in agony, but the end is not sad.

The camera moves quickly from the bereaved widow to the new Palestinian
martyr who is smiling in paradise.

One of the gorgeous women in white greets him and pulls him into the mist
where she and seven or eight beautiful women begin to surround him and
gently caress him.

The video ends on a happy note without a word having been said, but the
message is clear: here is the Islamic tradition of a martyr being welcomed
into paradise where he will be ministered by 72 beautiful virgins.

But is this movie clip a message of hope or despair?

Israeli intelligence and psychological experts-inside the IDF as well as
Israeli universities-- have been forming their conclusions, without the
benefit of this latest video, but the movie clip seems to reinforce their
general conclusion.

The suicide bombers act out of a combination of despair and hope. Israeli
experts and outside observers have seen the despair which is clear, the
product of war, economic deprivation and daily frictions and furstrations.

In addition, several of the human bombers who have attacked Israeli troops
and Israeli civilians (as well as some who were captured before they could
attack) fit a clear psychological pattern:

Wafa Idris, who blew herself up on Jaffa Road several months ago, was a
woman divorced and thrown out by her husband after she had a miscarriage and
was told by doctors she could never give birth.

Other women bombers have had similar desperate personal problems, while many
of the male suicide bombers were men who were infected with hepatitis,
cancer and AIDS.

Their actions obviously had a strong background of personal desperation and
despair, but those who gave them bombs and strapped the explosives to their
bodies gave them something else: hope, hope for a better life in the world
to come.

The new Palestinian television video-aired in the afternoon for maximum
viewing by Palestinian children-underscores the message of hope.

It is a hope for a better world, but not in this world, not in this
lifetime.

© 2002 Michael Widlanski

Michael Widlanski is senior analyst at The Media Line and lecturer at The
Rothberg School of the Hebrew University. Fuller versions of his articles
are available at www.themedialine.org