Puppet child ‘kills’ Bush on Gaza TV kids show

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Brandishing "the sword of Islam," a Palestinian boy stabs President Bush to death in revenge for American and Israeli actions in a new puppet show for children aired by Hamas-owned television in the Gaza Strip.

The show, part of a series called "Exceptionals," first aired Sunday.

In the episode, Bush, a hand-held puppet dressed in a green uniform and wearing boxing gloves, is shown talking to a Palestinian child.

The child, with tears in his voice, accuses Bush of killing his father in Iraq, his mother in Lebanon and his brothers and sisters in Gaza with the assistance of the Israelis.

"You are a criminal, Bush, a despicable man. You made me an orphan. You deprived me of everything," says the hand-held puppet.

The program was broadcast on Hamas' al-Aqsa television, which has used puppets and cartoon characters in the past to illustrate the Islamist movement's battle against Israel and opposition to U.S. support for the Jewish state.

No one was available at the station to comment on the show.

"I must take my revenge with the sword of Islam," the puppet-child says, stabbing the Bush puppet several times in the chest and ignoring pleas of "I repent, just don't kill me" — and an invitation to a toy-filled White House.

"I killed him," the puppet says, accusing Bush of being "impure" and vowing the White House would be turned into a mosque.

Last year, al-Aqsa television aired a program starring a Mickey Mouse clone, Farfur, who urged children to fight Israel in the name of Islam. Farfur was killed off, on-air, by an actor posing as an Israeli security agent.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is shunned by the United States over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

The group has accused the United States of backing Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, attacks against militants that have at times caused civilian casualties.

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