Brainwashing the Faithful for Heroic Afterlives : Middle East: Radical Islamic terrorist groups use the rhetoric of hate in grooming young men to commit suicidal acts.

How easy is it for young men in Gaza to blow themselves up for a cause? That was one of the things the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles wanted me to explore during a recent investigation into the motivations of radical Islamic groups who have vowed to smash the Middle East peace process through acts of suicidal terrorism. Among the religious and political leaders I interviewed in three Arab capitals, none was more disturbing than a quiet-spoken, 21-year-old student at the Islamic University in Gaza City named Hisham Ismail Hamad.

I was introduced to him during a semi-clandestine meeting with a group of activists who claimed allegiance to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, arguably the deadliest terrorist movement now active in the Middle East. Six days after this meeting, on Nov. 11, young Hisham Ismail strapped explosives around his waist and drove his bicycle into an Israeli army checkpoint in Gaza, obliterating himself and three Israeli soldiers.

Did Hisham Ismail go calmly to his death? I can never know. But on the day we briefly met, death and revenge were certainly uppermost on his mind. I can only now wonder whether the street chants of “Allah o Akbar” (God is Great!) and the angry sermons vowing revenge against Israel for having allegedly killed one of their own were not part of a carefully orchestrated plan to prepare Hisham Ismail to meet his own death.

I met Hisham Ismail and a group of Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza, near the house of Palestinian journalist Hani Abed, who had been killed by a car bomb on Nov. 2. The Israelis had publicly blamed Abed for the drive-by shooting of two Israeli soldiers in Gaza in May. Whether the Israelis were actually behind his death will probably never be known. But Islamic Jihad certainly believed they were and vowed revenge.

The streets outside Hani Abed’s mourning house were filled with graffiti and huge banners proclaiming revenge. “Yes to martyrdom,” read one banner. “The slaughter of the Jews is our choice to victory,” read another. “The children of Israel will be the sheep for the butchers of the Islamic Jihad,” read a third.

I was taken to an abandoned parking garage just off the street, where men prepared Arabic coffee over a twig fire and passed around olives and pieces of flat bread. Cheap office chairs were arranged in a circle, and six people sat down to tell me about Islamic Jihad, their hatred of Israel and the plots of World Jewry to destroy Islam and Christianity.

One of them, about 40, identified himself as Omar Mohammad and was known to the others as “Khatib”--prayer leader--since he often spoke on Fridays at a Gaza mosque. Another, in his late 30s, called himself “Maher Mohammed” and was more of a political spokesman. A third, younger man frequently interrupted the others to utter inflammatory statements. He called himself “Mahmoud Ahmed.” Despite his youth, the older men were almost deferential to him, making me suspect he was connected to the movement’s military wing. Off in the far corner of our group sat Hisham Ismail Hamad, whose identity I only learned 10 days later, when my Palestinian contact phoned me in Washington with the news of his death. He stared at me intently throughout our interview, his eyes glazed over, nodding his head in assent. The whole scene had the air of ritual to it that was clearly perceptible at the time. Although I did not know what Hisham Ismail was preparing to do, I could feel the throbs of anger and blood-revenge in the room.

Khatib: “Today we have entered a new era, the era when Palestinian blood is no longer cheap. The Israeli side should understand that we are not going to avoid spilling our dear Arab blood. They should know that the revenge will come.”

Mahmoud Ahmed: “Islamic Jihad considers that Israel, Nazi U.S., Britain, France and the others are a cancer that must be removed. This is one of our central ideas. We would like to remind them that the Argentina bombs are only one of the actions of the Islamic Jihad. We will continue this type of action. In fact, it is our main strategy.”

A softer voice spoke then, and the others fell silent. It was Hisham Ismail: “Hani Abed, peace be upon him, is blessed today in heaven. He is not dead. No, he is happy. That is why the women are ululating: They are happy because he has given himself to Allah.”

We then got to talking about Israel and what many in Hamas and Islamic Jihad believe is a plot by Jews to dominate the world. They said that the Jews had explained their devious intentions in “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” an infamous forgery that first appeared in czarist Russia at the turn of the century and which has fueled anti-Semitic fires ever since.

“According to the Torah,” said Hisham Ismail, “the Jews say they are the leaders of nations. But in fact, Israel wants to destroy the world. They want to destroy American society, French society, British society. They want to destroy the whole world.” Then he added: “But we believe Israel will be destroyed by Muslims. This is what the Koran says.”

When I suggested that the state of Israel was a reality, these men vigorously disagreed.

“We Islamists can never accept such a state. We believe in Palestine from the river to the sea.”

Said Hisham Ismail: “Our rejection of the Oslo agreement (between Israel and the PLO) is not just words. How else do you understand our blood? Our rejection is not just words.”

They excused themselves then. It was time to preach more hatred and revenge to the crowd outside.

As I was putting together my notebook and cameras to join them, Hisham Ismail drew me aside. “If you want to learn more about the Jewish plot and the Protocols,” he said quietly, “you should read a book called “Palestine” by Bayan Nouwayid Hout. He explains how the Jews themselves have revealed their intentions in the Torah. It is all written there. Believe me.”

After his death, Hisham Ismail’s mother and sister, wearing dark veils, waved his portrait on high. Men like the Friday prayer leader, Omar Mohammad, would surely tell them that their loved one had joined God in martyrdom, just as he and the others had said of Hani Abed.

As terrorism experts such as Tel Aviv University’s Michael Kramer have noted, suicide bombers are not a dime a dozen. Groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah must select them from a very small pool of potential candidates. The bombers are generally between 14 and 22, without children of their own and without a police record that would make them suspicious to the Israeli authorities. Once selected, they are indoctrinated into the ways of sacrifice. Or if you prefer, prepared like sacrificial lambs for the knife. To persuade young men like Hisham Ismail to blow themselves up, Islamic Jihad goes to great lengths to separate them from their families, sealing them off in a bubble of hate-filled rhetoric that makes their choice of death seem rational, even sublime.

How many more young men like Hisham Ismail are being prepared in Gaza? If the men I met are any measure, quite a few.