Rice Feeds Fiction that Palestinian State Is Key to Peace - Sidney Zion
The idea that a Palestinian state would bring peace to the world is a sick joke. As is the notion that the Palestinian people want peace, but are prevented by their leaders.
[S]ome things are not soluble by reason. Certainly it would be in the best interests of the Palestinian people to run out Hamas, to reject the intransigence of Fatah, to just say let's live together with the Jews. But the Arabs do not always do what is in their best interests.
(New York Daily News)
Lessons of the Hamas-Fatah Fighting - Ze'ev Schiff
The bloody clashes between Hamas and Fatah in the Palestinian Authority show that the international financial and economic siege of the Hamas government, led by the U.S, is succeeding.
(Ha'aretz)
4 comments:
It's funny that you had an article saying that the average Iranian wants peace and to coexist with israel, but apparently, it is hard to believe the average Palestinian could be so reasonable. Maybe because the average palestinian is not so comfortable as the average Iranian. Often, being comfortably middle class or higher is a good motivation to live and let live and not maybe not want to blow yourself up, although even the well-off can be whipped into a religious fervor. The financial sanctions may be accomplishing something, but ahving the various factions go at each other may not be in our long term best interests. We suffer through an Iranian government that does not recognixe Israel, and we may need to do the same for a while with the Palestinians. Whether we believe a Palestinian state will bring peace or not, it is, just like the state of Israel, not going to go away....
There is no contradiction between the two articles.
It is probably quite correct that the average Iranian may choose to coexist with Israel if it suits their economic interests.
AND it is has been shown time and time again that economic interests fail to shape Palestinian Arab opinion. It is well documented that Palestinians living in the disputed territories desire the destruction of Israel.
Creating another terror state would be a huge blunder.
I don't know why it is propbably quite correct about Iranians, but i would like you to please point me in the direction of where it has been shown time and time again that economic interests fail to shape Palestinian opinion. Unlike Israel, the Palestinians have no home; no country and they have been abandoned by the world, and indeed, by all Arabs. But they have been taught that they have no land because Israel took it. Some enlightened Israeli leaders understand this and that is why they have made concessions. There are no examples of a time, or group of Palestininas, that have had economic success, safe and secure property and a place to call their own that wasn't dictated and ruled by others. In the history of the world those conditions were always a recipe for civil unrest and agitation. And usually violence as well.
You and i appear to have a very different approach to the MidEast [which is why i enjoy reading your comments]. You seem to accept the Palestinian narrative [Arabs as victim, Israel as victimizer] as a given.
Unlike equivalent polls of Israelis, scientific polls of Palestinian Arabs living in the disputed territories have consistently shown:
*strong support for terrorism on both sides of the Green Line
*rejectionist ideation across the political spectrum
Clinton's camp counted on economics being a prime motivator, and believed that the Palestinians would ultimately make decisions based on the desire to live prosperously [remember the thriving indutrial zones between Israel and PA lands...remember Clinton's "peace dividend"].
Instead, history has been consistent and Abba Eban, of blessed memory, has been proven right again...long ago he stated "the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an oppportunity."
The "enlightened" concessions you spoke of have led us nowhere. Concessions have escalated violence, not abated it.
i would also reject your notion that "Israel took" Palestinian land. The historical record shows Arab rejectionism as the centerpiece of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Their rejection of the UN's partition plan is only the tip of the iceberg. There was no need for war in 1948...it was [and continues to be] Arab choices that fuel the conflict.
BruceB
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