Suicide bomber chickens have come home to roost

Obviously my heart goes out to all of the innocent victims from yesterday’s triple suicide bombings in Amman. But I can’t ignore the fact that for years the Arab world stood by passively—if not in support—while countless suicide bombings were unleashed against Israelis.

First the Israelis suffered. When the Arab world wasn’t cheering, they were yawning. After Saddam was overthrown, the suicide attacks began in Iraq, primarily against Shiite targets. Huge segments of the largely Sunni Muslim Arab world either supported such attacks or turned a blind eye. Indeed, it is well-known that Zarqawi’s terrorist group has enjoyed sympathy and support from Iraq’s indigenous Sunni Arabs and from those around the Arab world, who view the insurgents as heroes fighting American occupation.

But now Sunni Muslims in Jordan have suffered horrendous losses thanks to the evil work of three Sunni suicide bombers. For so long Sunnis in the Arab world gave outright or tacit support to the phenomenon of suicide terrorism, so long as it affected Jews and Shia. But all along they were riding on the back of a hungry tiger. It was only a matter of time before the tiger attacked—and so it did in Amman.