"Hardship" vs. "Exhilaration" Models

Turning Abbas's logic on its head -Daniel Pipes

First[ly], the many billions of dollars and record-shattering per-capita donations from the West have rendered the Palestinians poorer. Second, Palestinian impoverishment is a long-term positive development.

The hardship model, subscribed to by all Western states, attributes Palestinian actions to poverty, isolation, Israeli roadblocks, the lack of a state, etc. Eliminate those hardships and Palestinians, supposedly, would turn their attention to economic development and democracy. Trouble is, that change never comes.

The exhilaration model [suggests] the absence of despair and [the presence of] overwhelming hope, in fact, feed extremism. For Palestinians, hope derives from a perception of Israeli weakness, implying an optimism and excitement that the Jewish state can be eliminated. Conversely, when Palestinians cannot see a way forward against Israel, they devote themselves to the more mundane tasks of earning a living and educating their children.

Exhilaration, not hardship, accounts for bellicose Palestinian behavior. Accordingly, whatever reduces Palestinian confidence is a good thing. A failed economy depresses the Palestinians' mood, not to speak of their military and other capabilities, and so brings resolution closer.

Palestinians must experience the bitter crucible of defeat before they will drop their foul goal of eliminating their Israeli neighbor and begin to build their own economy, polity, society, and culture. No short-cut to this happy outcome exists. Who truly cares for Palestinians must want their despair to come quickly, so that a skilled and dignified people can move beyond its current barbarism and build something decent.
[Jerusalem Post]