OOMENS AND PORTENTS:

Palestinian "miracle baby" draws crowds to Bethlehem (Ellis Shuman, December 3, 2003, Israeli Insider)

A two-week-old baby was born with a birthmark spelling out the name of a Hamas terrorist. The baby's family believes it's a divine sign.

"It is a gift from God," declared Aysha Ayyad, after her grandson was born with a large birthmark across his cheek that roughly spells out in Arabic the name of his uncle, a Hamas terrorist killed by Israeli troops several months ago. The two-week-old baby is attracting crowds to his Bethlehem home; the devout Muslim family believes the mark is a divine message of support for the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel.

When the infant was born two weeks ago, the family planned to name him for his father. But noting that the birthmark roughly formed the Arabic letters spelling "Ala," the family took it as a divine sign that he should be named after his dead uncle.

Ala Ayyad, 25, was killed by Israeli troops on March 25, 2003, in an ambush prepared by a special undercover Border Police unit waiting to arrest the Hamas terrorists. Ayyad was suspected of involvement in the November 2002 suicide bombing attack on a bus in Jerusalem's Kiryat Menachem neighborhood, in which 12 Israelis were murdered. In the ambush that killed Ayyad, a Palestinian civilian and Christine Sa'ada, a ten-year-old girl, were also killed.

According to Ala's grandfather, the baby was born on the 27th day of the holy month of Ramadan - revered as the night the Koran was revealed to the prophet Mohammad. "I went to the Imam of the mosque and asked him about the birthmark," said Abu-Imad, the grandfather. "He said it was a gift from God."

Spooky. By some strange coincidence, one of the pumpkins we bought for the kids this Halloween was the spitting image of Charles Martel.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2003 4:12 PM