Evil is as evil does

The Toronto Star reports that Israeli officials have charged that Palestinian militants tried to smuggle a bomb through an Israeli military checkpoint with the help of an unwitting 11-year-old boy.

Israeli authorities said the boy, sixth-grader Abdullah Quraan, was carrying explosives and that his handlers intended to blow him up near the checkpoint.

Moran Bokent, 19, a military policewoman monitoring the checkpoint, said she checked the boy's backpack. "I opened it and saw on top a box with wires coming out and a plate with metal balls on it."

She then called the bomb squad.

The boy, and others, claimed the bag he was carrying - swiftly blown up by soldiers - contained auto parts.

Regular readers know that I have been very critical of Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians, including how they are treated at roadblocks. And with the bag destroyed, there is obviously no way to tell if it was actually a bomb or not. But I can hardly fault Israel for a "better safe than sorry" attitude in cases like this.

What I wanted to say here, however, is that if the charge is true, if some murderous fanatic (or fanatics) tried to turn an unwitting 6th-grader into a walking bomb, there are no words to express the depth of my contempt.