Exploding Grannies Now?

A grandmother became the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber yesterday when she blew herself up in Gaza and slightly wounded two Israeli soldiers, according to the London Times

Fatma Omar An-Najar was the first suicide bomber to be claimed by Hamas for nearly two years. Its armed wing said that she was aged 57, but her family said that she was 68.

Israel said that its soldiers had spotted her and threw a stun grenade, causing her to set off the explosives early.

Women suicide bombers are rare but by far not unheard of in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (or anywhere else the RIFs are operating - see Rusty Shackelford's great little ditty "Jihadis Take Pride in Murdering Their Women").

In fact, there have been two female suicide bombers just this month (the latest this past Friday). Perhaps there's a connection to the fact that (also this month), Hamas organized a march of Palestinian women across an Israeli cordon to end a mosque siege in Beit Hanoun (one of the bloodiest conflicts of the past several months, btw).

Yeah, Hamas organized women to march because they are such strong, brave and valorious men, right? No, it's just the RIFs hiding behind a woman's skirts again.

Not that I don't think women can't fight on the front line--they can, and do! just look at the US Military and more so, the IDF, not to mention the Canadian Forces, the latter two of which have women in combat roles routinely.

But Hamas knows the IDF soldiers (male or female) will hesitate before firing on a female civilian, whereas a 25 year old male won't receive the same (critical) period of hesitation from the armed IDF'ers. Talk about "using" a woman's skirts to infiltrate the enemy. Oh wait, I forgot, the RIFs also like to cross-dress and wear Burqas to evade capture. Duh. Where's my memory gone?