Fox News has decided to start referring to Palestinian suicide bombers as “Homicide” bombers simply because Israeli officials have been using the term for several weeks now.
What Israeli officials choose to do is up to them. They have an endemic problem on their hands. Beyond that, nobody should be surprised by any government using semantic tricks in their propaganda.
The problem is that other media outlets will surely follow the linguistic stupidity of Fox. Why was the decision made to start referring to suicide bombers as homicide bombers? Where is the logic in that?
It can be safely said that all bombs are built with homicidal intent. All bombers will consider their mission a success if they inflict widespread homicide. Some bombers, in fact most bombers, are not suicidal. Some bombers would like to blow stuff up and kill people again and again and again and again.
Therefore, to differentiate the actions and behaviors of most bombers from the actions and behaviors of Palestinian bombers, the unbiased observer has no choice but to refer to Palestinian bombers as suicide bombers. They put a bomb on their body, they walk into a crowded area, they detonate the explosives.
It’s one shot deal because the bomber does not come back for further employment. People that blow themselves up in crowded areas are rightfully called suicide bombers no matter what the Israeli government would like to call them.
The aims of government and the aims of the media should be two different things. It is disappointing to see the media adopt an inaccurate and misleading term simply because it is used unyieldingly by one side with a vested interest in making these attacks look less desperate than they really are.
