Lynn's out in front of a concern we've been playing around with for a couple of days: when did the kidnapping of journalists by unrepentent Palestinian terrorists become an occassion for the celebration of "Palestinian culture"? These fanatics kidnap Westerners and demand that their terrorist bretheren be released from prison, and in response people push each other out of the way in their rush to sing odes to the Palestinian people and their culture. That would be the kind of culture that David Horowitz, in the wake of the Hamas election, described as that of the world's First Terrorist People.
As far as the families of the hostages are concerned, by all means, they should have no shame about flattering the terrorists. But Lynn also points to journalism that actually seems to be buying into the adulation that the families are heaping upon the presumably-beatific "Palestinian culture". Listen, no statement by a wife or brother is too fawning if uttering it might get a loved one free. But let's not pretend that Palestinian culture isn't very deeply marked by an adoration for suicide terrorism and the organizations that fund it.
Palestinians kidnap journalists in the name of Palestinian people and culture - and this becomes proof that Palestinian people and culture are overwhelmingly peaceful. This is only slightly less stupid than Westerners explaining to some of the best-read Muslim scholars on the planet - scholars believed by literally millions of followers - that they just haven't gotten the memo that Islam is a Religion of Peace. Hopefully, there will come a point where terrorist apologists will have to at least consider the possibility that Muslim fanatics know more about Islam than they do - and that Palestinian civilians know more about who really speaks for Palestinian culture than they do.

[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]