Dalal Mughrabi

Along with Samir Kuntar and the other prisoners being swapped for dead Israeli soldiers, Israel is also sending the remains of some 200 Palestinian and Lebanese. One of these is eliciting much jubilation in Palestinian circles: a Palestinian woman terrorist called Dalal Mughrabi. Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official and close associate of PA president Mahmoud Abbas, called Mughrabi

"the first Palestinian woman to carry out one of the most courageous operations in Israel" and said "we want to turn Dalal’s funeral into a national wedding, a major celebration. The operation she carried out off the shores of her hometown of Jaffa was heroic and exemplary. She will always be remembered as a symbol for the Palestinian women’s struggle."

Wow, Dalal Mughrabi sounds like a real heroine, what did she do? Wikipedia has quite a dry piece:

"Dalal Mughrabi was a female Palestinian fighter who participated in the Coastal Road Massacre.

On the morning of March 11, 1978, Mughrabi and her Palestinian Fedayeen unit of eleven members, including one other woman, landed on an Israeli beach, killed an American photographer named Gail Rubin and hijacked a taxi, killing its occupants. They proceeded along the coastal highway shooting at traffic along the way. They next hijacked a bus and later a second bus, from which the passengers were transferred to the first one. The bus was finally stopped at a police roadblock. A shooting battle ensued. Eventually, Mughrabi blew up the bus which became a large deathtrap of fire. Many of the passengers were killed. In total, Mughrabi and her team killed 37 people. Some 71 people were wounded. Mughrabi and several other attackers were shot by Israel's future Prime Minister, Ehud Barak. The attack became known as the Coastal Road Massacre. Israeli military forces launched Operation Litani against PLO bases in Lebanon three days later."

Sounds like a real hero doesn't she? Well the
Palestinian Authority have named a Hebron girls' school in honor of her and her name has also been given to summer camps and both police and military courses and an article published in Thursday’s edition of the PA-funded Al-Hayat Al-Jadedda newspaper hailed Mughrabi as a "living legend and a wonderful example for all women."

The Front Page article concludes:

"It’s not a pretty picture, especially considering that Lebanon’s March 14 bloc and the Palestinian Authority are considered moderate or relatively moderate actors—in the former case with some justice, in the latter with none. Even among the relative geopolitical moderates, let alone the rest, toward Israel a tribal ethos prevails that regards grisly killers—alive or dead—as heroes for emulation. It’s a reality that Israelis and those wishing to help Israel need to face fully and without evasions."

I think that peace in the Middle East must be a long way off, if "moderate" Islamic people think along the above lines. Now consider how Hamas and Hezbolllah consider Israel; sorry I forgot they don't even recognise Israel's right to exist.