Choice: throw away future

Rachel Levy was in the wrong place at the wrong time.\nOn Friday, March 29, Levy wanted to buy groceries for a Passover dinner. Instead of going to the local convenience store, she opted to go to the grocery store, where she would unknowingly walk through the door and brush against a female suicide bomber. \nLevy didn't think too much about the bombs that could go off at any place or any time in her home of Jerusalem. According to Newsweek magazine April 15, she "remained apolitical," and "pretended Israel was a normal country." The Newsweek article, a feature by Joshua Hammer, went on to say that Levy lived the life of a normal 17-year-old girl; her shelves held bottles of perfume and lotion, she had a never-ending diet of salad with a pickle, a lollipop and a Diet Pepsi. She lived her life as if suicide bombers didn't scatter Israel or Palestine, and as if there was no political conflict torturing political leaders.\nThe suicide bomber who killed Levy and a guard in the doorway of the grocery store was 18-year-old Ayat Al-Akhras, a "fiercely opinionated," very smart, ambitious girl. Before she made the decision to join Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and become a suicide bomber, she had her own plans for the future. She was to be married in July. She wanted to pursue a journalism degree at Bethlehem University. But she decided that the need to alert Palestinian leaders that they are not doing their job was more important. \nIt blows my mind that someone like Al-Akhras would give up her future and her life, and become another suicide bomber, just to further drive the Middle East conflict to extremely unsafe levels. Why throw away what could have been a successful future? Al-Akhras could have graduated Bethlehem University with a degree in journalism. She could have written front-page stories about political issues, or, being as opinionated as she was, she could have had her own opinion column discussing how the Arab leaders should straighten up their act. \nShe could have.\nBecause if she didn't become a suicide bomber, if she talked herself out of it somehow, Levy would be alive today. Levy could go on living her normal teenage life in what she pretended was a "normal" country. Both families wouldn't be grieving over their dead daughters. Everything could be normal again.\nUnfortunately, 80 percent of Palestinians support suicide bombings and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade frequently recruits those interested in becoming a suicide bomber. The growing number of Palestinian suicide bombers has reached 66 as of now. The number of innocent Israelis they have killed is 170, but that number is sure to grow, too.\n With the recruitment of female suicide bombers finally being allowed, and especially young females like Al-Akhras, more suicide bombers are sure to cause damage, and it almost seems as if the conflict in the Middle East will have no ending, no conclusion. The number of people killed by bombs in Israel or Palestine will never stop growing. Those people's lives will be cut short by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.\nI guess I just don't understand why anyone would want to cut their life short, and purposely kill another in the process. I guess I just can't comprehend how a smart, ambitious girl with a bright future would throw it away. But to her, she wasn't throwing anything away. And that's a shame.