Honor killing and silence from the Left

This article has stomach churning details, but the gist of it is right here:

Suicide bombings in Israel had developed into a bloody and lucrative industry for Palestinians who carried out 39 attacks in 2002. But, since Israel began constructing its anti-terrorist fence, the Palestinian human-bomb industry has been reduced to bankruptcy by producing only 11 attacks in more than two years. Honor killing, on the other hand – which has always been an integral aspect of Palestinian life – began gathering momentum. With horrifying zest, weapon-wielding fathers, brothers, uncles and sometimes mothers, hunt down their daughters and sisters and commit shocking acts of violence for real and imagined immoral transgressions. The Arab motivation for murdering their own daughters flows from the same cultural wellspring that produces suicide bombers. The defensive form of honor, called ird, is consumed with female sexual purity and manifests itself in the murder of its own to restore family honor, whereas the offensive manifestation, sharaf, requires positive actions implemented to heighten social status and increase family honor. As Palestinian society retreats from its failure to infiltrate the daily life of Israeli citizens with death and destruction, it compensates by killing its own and depositing ird in its honor bank.

NOW has been strangely quiet. The NY Times has been strangely quiet. The WaPo has been strangely quiet. The LA Times has been strangely quiet. Any conclusion I state will be banal. I leave you to draw your own. But just in case you need a little help, here are a couple of those blood churning details:

Rafayda Qaoud shared a bedroom in her Ramallah home with her two brothers. After they raped and impregnated her, she gave birth to a baby boy who was adopted by another family. Her mother then gave Rafayda a razor blade and ordered her to slash her own wrists. When she refused to commit suicide, her mother pulled a plastic bag tightly over her head, sliced open her daughter’s wrists and beat her with a stick until she was dead. *** And when a four-year-old toddler was raped by a 25 year-old man in 2002, her Palestinian family left her to bleed to death because her rape had dishonored the family.

You may also want to take this information into account if you comment on DQ's post asking why we're more forgiving of the Founding Fathers' slaveholding than of current Islamic misogyny, and if you comment on my post asking whether Mohammed's personal pecadillo's (robbery, murder, child sex, etc), should count in examining Islam. Talking to Technorati: Islam, Mohammed, Misogyny, NOW, Women's rights, Honor killings, Palestinians, Child rape, Media