Brian Finch has a nice Tech Central Station column on the (not so new) phenomenon of self-detonating people using themselves as weapons of war. Included in Finch’s piece is this clear-headed riposte to both Thomas Friedman and Nicholas Kristof:

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times ominously warns us that we face a ‘whole new form of warfare,’ one in which suicide bombers are being successfully used to pursue a political agenda. Friedman says this tactic threatens more than just Israel, because if the Palestinians succeed others could turn around and do the same thing to the United States.

Meanwhile, Friedman’s colleague Nicholas Kristof writes on how Israel’s military actions only further encourage suicide bombers and that Palestinians joyfully celebrate each suicide attack, giving the impression of a new, undefeatable foe. And only by pushing forward with Palestinian statehood, Kristof argues, can we ‘sprinkle hope’ and possibly emerge from the enormous shadow of despair that the suicide bombings cast.

There is a much simpler truth to the situation in the Middle East, however. While Thomas Friedman correctly notes that the Palestinian suicide bombers are as much of a political weapon as they are military weapon, he is drawing the wrong conclusion as to the extent of their threat. They are not a threat to ‘all of civilization.’ Instead they represent the realization by much of the Arab world that Israel cannot be destroyed through conventional means. They reflect the need on the part of Israel’s foes to find a way to instill fear into Israel and shame into Israel’s allies [my emphasis].

And the E.U. and the U.N. — rather than sending the message that such an obvious and manipulative strategy will not work — continue to lend credence to such tactics by railing against Israel.

Sadly, Secretary of State Powell’s meeting with Arafat might have sent the same message to the Arab world.

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