Music videos are big all over the world, there’s one circulating in the Middle East (search) that has nothing to do with entertainment. It has to do with war and peace and the immediate future of a lot of people.
The video was broadcast on August 10 on Palestinian television. It begins with a young couple divided by barbed wire and longing for each other's company. The woman decides to come to her boyfriend in spite of the obstacle. As she does, she is shot in the back by an Israeli soldier.
The woman is then transported to paradise where she joins other women, all dressed in identical long white gowns. These are the "maidens of paradise." As they dance in water, they depict the afterlife in Islamic tradition.
The young man is then seen trying to visit the grave of the woman. He, too, is shot in the back by an Israeli soldier. He also goes immediately to heaven where he joins the maidens and is reunited with his girlfriend.
How do diplomats compete with this religious doctrine?
Secretary of State Colin Powell (search) recently spoke to a group of Israeli and Palestinian young people at a Seeds for Peace camp in Maine. There was lots of talk about the peace process not being stopped by bombs, but there is no peace process. There is only a war process, fueled by a sizeable number of people who believe what the music video teaches.
They think their god has performed a shotgun marriage between mosque and state.
They believe they get paradise instantly if they are killed by infidels.
During lulls in the war process, Israel's enemies simply re-arm. The land they've had returned so far isn't the end of it -- it's merely the beginning. All of Israel is their objective.
No diplomat can stand up to a religious doctrine that promises rewards like those depicted in the music video on Palestinian TV, which is owned by our supposed new partner in peace and its peace-loving prime minister, Mr. Abbas..
And that's Column One for this week.
What do you think? Send your responses to: afterhours@foxnews.com.
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