Friday, August 03, 2007

Parrot talk

Palestinian Leaders Say What the Americans Want to Hear -Meron Benvenisti

After years of bloodshed that has brought the Palestinians only terrible disaster, Prime Minister Salam Fayad is returning to the formulas that his teacher and spiritual mentor Yasser Arafat declaimed when he was on the skids after the first Gulf War and was in desperate need of American aid. In moments of weakness, Palestinian leaders say what the Americans want to hear.

A new generation of Fatah people will extend their hands into the coffers of the Palestinian Authority, which will fill up again with donations from the international community.
(Ha'aretz)

1 comment:

LHwrites said...

True. History tells us this, and those who do not elarn from history are condemned to relive it. However, that said, if change is ever to come, we won't know until we here good things---and then when we wait to see---we see results. It is the nature of things, and you need to give members of the international community more chances than you need to give, say, children. Look at Iraq. Saddam Hussein had complied completely with removing WMD. It was our naivety in not considering that he was in a difficult position and felt he could not publicly admit this. How could we not have understood his position; afraid to let Iran or Al-Qaeda know he no longer possessed those feared weapons, when both groups would have considered attacks against him if they knew. When, at the last moments before we invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein relented and said he would allow UN inspections, we should have done that, and not invaded. But of course, as we have since learned, this was not about WMD, or Terrorism. We need to try not to make the same mistakes with the Palestinians, as more than our soldiers are at stake, but Israel as well. e must always be vigilant and persistent, but always ready to embrace and support those who would make true overtures of peace.