Mere Rhetoric: IDF To Palestinians: "Please Don't Let Your Kids Play With The Rocket Launchers Shooting Qassams At Our Schools And Hospitals"

Two rockets hit Sderot just as kids were returning to school. Then the IAF tried to go after the rocket launchers. Then three Palestinian kids who playing around the rocket launchers got hit - a week after two other Palestinian kids who were collecting the launchers for reuse by the terrorists had also been killed. You wouldn't think that this is the kind of thing you have to warn people about:

"We already do all we can to prevent harming innocent people," an officer said. "Palestinians need to know that it is dangerous to be near or play near Kassam rocket launchers." The IDF expressed sorrow at the children's death, but said Palestinian extremists bore responsibility because they put rocket launchers in civilian areas. The army said it has warned residents of Gaza to keep children away from the launchers. The use of children in terror activity is not a new phenomenon in Gaza. Last week, a 15-year-old boy was caught on his way to perpetrate a suicide attack next to troops stationed there. Two other Gaza children, aged 10 and 12, were killed two weeks ago after they were, according to the IDF, handling Kassam launchers.

And you thought that "Smoking May Cause Cancer" was the dumbest, most obvious warning label ever. So either: the Palestinians genuinely don't know that it's risky to let their kids play around rocket launchers or they value their kids' lives less than they value the opportunity for anti-Israel propagandizing. Certainly Hamas routinely and intentionally creates humanitarian disasters for the sake of a few more "the Zionists are so evil" media releases. And we're are talking about people who shoot 2 year old girls in the face. So strapping 15 year olds with suicide vests is not exactly out of character.

Not that this is new. Many pro-Israel bloggers - us included - cut their teeth on Palestinian Terrorists Recruit Little Kids stories because they're (a) so pervasive and (b) the kind of thing that a naive person would expect well-meaning liberals to care about. Most people get over those kinds of expectations after a year or two.

At least we don't have Islamic mothers in advanced countries like Canada encouraging their teenage boys to become suicide bombers.

References:
* School Year Begins; Students Increase by 1% [INN]
* Islamic Jihad claims IAF missile missed target [JPost]
* Palestinians Embrace New Tactic Of Sending Really Young Suicide Bombers Into Israel [MR]
* Hamas Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Disaster In Gaza - Now They're Shutting Down The Few Medical Clinics That Are Still Working [MR]
* Words Are Funny Things [MR]
* Palestinian Terrorists Recruiting More Children [MR]
* Words Are Such Funny Things [MR]