Pigs Will Fly

This is, um, interesting (via Tim Blair):

Israeli police have come up with plans to place bags of pig lard on buses in a bid to deter Palestinian militants from carrying out suicide attacks, the Maariv daily reported.

Authorities believe that the move could discourage Palestinians from carrying out attacks as pieces of their exploded body could come into contact with the pig fat, prejudicing their chances of entering into paradise.

Maariv has more details:

Rabbi Eliezer Moshe Fisher, of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, ruled on Wednesday that “there is no halachic ban on using bags of lard in buses and other places” when saving lives is concerned. The halachic permit says bags of lard may be used in any place that might be a target for suicide bombings, such as schools, shopping malls, railway stations etc.

The rabbi also said that if the police do not use pig fat in buses, tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews will arm themselves with spray guns filled with liquid lard, which they will spray on terrorists whenever the need arises.

On the Maariv front page you can cast your vote on "Will pig fat be an effective deterrent against suicide bombers?" Latest count: Yes, 45%: No, 27%: Maybe, 29%.

Comments

[mgl]

You've got to be impressed by the mindset of people who'd be dissuaded from performing suicide bombings by the prospect of getting pig fat on their scattered remains. And the mind boggles at the image of Hasidic Jews with lard spray.

"The devious Zionists are packing lard now, Ahmed."

"Curses! They have found our only weakness! We have no choice but to call off the operation!"

[timmyhawk]

But actually it might work. About a century ago the British army faced suicide attacks in the Sudan by an earlier form of Islamic radicals. After a while they started burying the remains of the suicide attackers in pig skins, which ended the suicide attacks. I'm not sure whether Israeli, not to mention any other Western societym is actually willing to take such measures but they may in fact prove effective and should not be ruled out.

[mgl]

Oh, I don't doubt that it may work. I'm just amazed the world is still populated with people boneheaded enough to live in mortal fear of coming into contact with lard, even as a dismembered corpse.

But hey--if Hamas et al really are that primitive, I encourage the Israelis to take full advantage of their taboos.

[Mick H]

Well I voted "Yes" in the Maariv poll, so I feel that I've done my bit. I just hope Tony Blair isn't missing this opportunity to push British pork: the Israelis presumably won't be keen on setting up their own pig farms. They want unclean animals - hey, our pigs are filthy.

[tony]

What an apt illustration of the idiocy of the beliefs of those societies, it's beyond Monty Python.