The Rise of the Terrorist Bunny

Truly one of the saddest things I have seen in a while is an episode of the Hamas TV children's program "Pioneers of Tomorrow" aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 2-9, 2008. This is the same program that, last July, saw one of its main characters, Farfur, being beaten to death by an "Israeli agent". Farfur was a controversial Mickey Mouse look-alike character who frequently made anti-US and anti-Israeli comments and encouraged children to martyrdom in the fight against Israel.

Now a new character has joined the cast - Assud the Bunny. Assud returns from "the diaspora" following the death of his brother, Nahoul the Bee. Nahoul was depicted on the show as dying because he could not get to a hospital in Egypt for surgery.  Learning of his brother's "martyrdom," Assud declares, "Just like Nahoul took Farfour's place when he was martyred, I will replace Nahoul, Allah willing." He asks the the show's host, a young girl named Saraa, "We are all martyrdom-seekers, are we not, Saraa?"  She responds, "Of course we are. We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of our homeland. We will sacrifice our souls and everything we own for the homeland." The program concludes with Assud vowing to "get rid of the Jews and eat them up."  (To view this program, click here)

With this kind of programming poisoning the minds of children, how in the world will there ever really be peace in this region?  The producers of this program have no shame and no honour.  I stand by what I wrote in July concerning this program and its creators; to use children's programming in this way is despicable and unjustifiable. Western leaders who propose that Hamas should be treated as a legitimate organization that must be included in peace negotiations in the Middle East should seriously consider whether this is the kind of group that they really want to see in power anywhere. This is not a group that respects human rights or human life. Hamas is a terrorist organization and as such, cannot be trusted with the safe-keeping of anyone's children.