Why Suicide Bombing Is Now All The Rage

Meanwhile, Israelis will continue to live in perpetual fear of bodily harm and grievous loss from bombers while Palestinians suffer the consequences of Israel's vengeful reprisals. And mothers like Ibtisam Daragmeh will stare at images of children they thought they knew. Children who, in their "martyrdom videos," hold Kalashnikovs and wear fatigues. Ibtisam's son Mohammed, 19, blew himself up in Jerusalem on March 2, after positioning himself next to a group of women with baby carriages waiting for their husbands to leave a bar mitzvah ceremony. He killed nine other people and injured more than 50 in the name of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Two weeks ago, a neighbor came by to pay a condolence call. She mentioned that she wished she were Mohammed's mother so her son could be a martyr. Ibtisam began crying uncontrollably, and another one of her sons showed the woman out the door. Says Ibtisam: "Palestinian mothers share the sadness of Israeli mothers. A mother is a mother. We are helpless. We can only cry tears."