A Song of Life, a Song of Death
by Rabbi Shea Hecht
Songs to influence children to kill, or to heal.
Sometimes, all it takes to know someone is the songs they sing.
News about the latest TV character created by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to educate their children is just part of a long string of songs and cartoons created by the PA for a nefarious purpose.
Once again, the Muslims are using song to influence their children to kill and to encourage violence against Jews, death to Israel and blessings for homicide bombers. They have often used songs to indoctrinate their children against Jews and prove the dictum, "Hatred is not inborn, but learned."
The character of this TV show is a cute rabbit who aspires to finish off the Jews and eat them. When the rabbit says he wants to kill the Jews, the hostess of the show, a young girl, shakes her head in agreement. The TV program concludes with singing: "We will never recognize Israel...." with the young hostess stressing the command to "liberate our homeland from the Zionist filth."
Youth groups and summer camps run by the Palestinian Authority consistently reinforce the anti-Jewish rhetoric that the children learn in school by teaching them anti-Semitic songs. The songs children learn at these camps are such classics as, "We'll Throw Them Into the Sea," "Revolution Until Victory," and "My Children in the Suicide Squads."
When innocent children are brainwashed and taught this kind of evil with song and cartoon, it should be no surprise that a seemingly endless parade of young people can hardly wait for the day when they, too, can walk into a crowded Jewish shop or caf? and blow themselves to smithereens, taking the lives of everyone around them.
I marveled over the contrast between this story and others that focus on how the Israelis use songs to educate their children.
I just came across a story titled, "Sderot Teacher's Song Empowers Children in Face of Rockets." In this case, a Sderot teacher's song has empowered area schoolchildren to deal with the fear of Kassam rocket attacks, integrating forms of relaxation therapy into a children's song. When teachers reported the fear and panic the students suffered each time the "Color Red" alert sounded, Shachar Bar, an art therapist who teaches in Sderot, became concerned. She then composed a song to help the children deal with their fear of Kassams. The song focused on relaxing and calming the children in the tense and dangerous situation of the threat of Kassams raining down on their heads.
Ms. Bar says the song has spread throughout Sderot, and to the area kibbutz and moshav schools, as well. "Suddenly, they had a tool to deal with their fear that they could hold on to."
"The words help you think logically and be a little less afraid," fourth grader Yiska Yifrach of Kibbutz Sa'ad says about the song.
I recently came across a radio interview of Walid Shoebat, a former PLO member, who interestingly enough used the "song formula" to make a life-altering decision. He says that his feeling of hatred against Israelis and Jews turned to understanding and concern partially because of songs. He says he searched for even one Israeli or Jewish song that encouraged violence against other people and could find none - convincing him that perhaps the Muslim campaign against the Jews was just a pack of lies.
The former PLO member who turned pro-Israel knew that if you want to understand the fundamental differences between Muslims and Jews - look at their songs.
