Maybe The Palestians Don't Really Want Their Own State
Very compelling piece (thanks, Martin!) in The American Spectator on all the negatives for the Palestinians if their professed desire for their own state were to become a reality. David Gutmann writes:
Under statehood, the Palestinians will no longer have their special charisma as the world's premier victims, innocent agrarians suffering under a harsh occupation. When the fickle world turns its attention to the latest victim du jour, their welfare benefits are likely to be sharply cut.Then too, the wiser Palestinians, who remember Arafat and his predatory crew, have their own good reasons for quietly resisting statehood. They realize that, should they gain their own country, externally imposed Israeli rule would be replaced by internally based oppression, by the corrupt or fanatic leaders who -- via factional warfare and the Arab politics of assassination -- typically reach the top in their societies.
Thus far, we have been looking at the Palestinians' practical reasons for avoiding statehood. They don't want to lose their world-celebrity status, nor the funding that goes with it, and they don't want either the likes of Hamas forcing Sharia law on them, or the likes of Arafat robbing them blind. But the Palestinian resistance to statehood has also less rational but equally compelling bases.
Foremost among these is the legacy of collective shame. With the possible exception of the Japanese, no culture is so vulnerable to a sense of shame and humiliation as the Arab world. Even in the 21st century, Arabs continue daily to lament Crusades that occurred nearly a thousand years ago. They still feel shame over the loss of Spanish Andalusia ("Andaluz" to the Arabs), their last European redoubt, evacuated in the 15th century. More recently, Palestinian Arabs have been exposed to traumatic humiliation by their defeat during the Israeli War of Independence. I remember how they initiated that war with febrile enthusiasm, confident that their magnificent Islamic warriors would sweep away the puny, cowardly Jewish opposition, certain that the Palestinians would inherit all of the Holy Land. But when push came to shove, instead of chasing the Jews into the sea, it was the majority of Arabs who ran away from the poorly armed Israeli Hagana (a militia that added insult to Arab injury by fielding women).
All of this may be true - and the shame angle is the cornerstone of pan-Arab hatred of the West.
But none of it translates directly into predictable action or direction.
We are dealing with a culture of thug-o-cratic despotism, favoritism, tribalism.
I don't think very many political decisions are made based on long-term calculation - like most narcissists, Arabs only comprehend passing time in terms of longstanding grudges and other personal slights.
Most decisions are based on immediate concerns of the despots to shore up their power - which is always being assailed/undermined.
The only long-term strategists are the Saudis, who are methodically using their cash to subvert Western culture.
Otherwise it's "whoever has the largest Swiss bank account before being assassinated, wins".
Ben-David at March 7, 2010 4:49 AM
Ralph Peters has usefully distinguished between "practical terrorism," which has a political object, and "apocalyptic terrorism," in which violence becomes its own end. The Palestinian leadership, and very substantial parts of the Palestinian population, have long since crossed the boundary into apocalyptic terrorism. It is a chimera to believe that people with this mindset are going to happily put away the AK-47s and the rocket launchers and settle down to life as farmers, merchants, and schoolteachers.
david foster at March 7, 2010 6:50 AM
Great comments from both of the Davids above, and I'll throw in another Dave-comment.
Ben-David, doesn't it make the whole "peace process" thing just look really stupid? Obviously, you can't have any kind of good-faith negotiation when one of the parties is as pathological as the Palis are. I thought it was a very useful demonstration for Israel to withdraw from Gaza, to illustrate just how sick and twisted that culture is. If I had any lingering doubts, that erased them. You'd think it would do the same for some world leaders, but so far it hasn't.
I'll be honest, I don't know what to do with them. I wonder if a "contain them as necessary and otherwise just ignore them" strategy would work. That's more or less what we did with Iran from 1980 to 2000, and it seems to have worked to the extent that there is now a significant reform movement inside that country. Then again, it may be a bad analogy; with 100% hindsight, I'm not sure that Iran was ever as monolithic as we all assumed it was back in 1979.
Cousin Dave at March 7, 2010 9:55 AM
The Gaza Strip has 25 miles of prime Mediterranean beach front. It is 6 times larger than Monaco. With good governance, the place could become a mega vacation/resort with hotels, casinos, off shore banking and the like. All those bomb throwers could become gainfully employed in legitimate enterprise. But do they do this ? No. They prefer to use their land to launch missiles and other deeds threatening the peace of Israel.
Nick at March 7, 2010 9:58 AM
Cousin Dave:
Ben-David, doesn't it make the whole "peace process" thing just look really stupid?
- - - - - - - - -
Oslo was never supported by a majority of Israelis.
Yitzhak Rabin ran on a "get tough" platform, emphasizing his military background. So did Ehud Barak. Oslo was a bait-and-switch, the agreements passed by a single (bought) vote in the Knesset, and sustained by weaknesses in Israel's democratic structure.
At least now the crazy lefties have completely burned out their credibility.
During both Lebanon engagements, Israeli newspapers ran maps with concentric circles showing the range of missiles from Lebanon and Syria. They've also run similar maps showing the range of Pali missiles from Gaza (some of which have landed near large cities).
Most Israelis have already mentally moved those concentric circles over to the West Bank, and had their "oh shit" moment. The country is only 13 miles wide at its most populous point. Everything is in range.
Any talk of 2 states west of the Jordan river is a dead issue for the overwhelming majority of Israelis.
Like Americans, we often have leaders who are dumber than we are - yet think they are smarter...
Ben-David at March 7, 2010 11:56 AM
Meanwhile, Bethlehem & other Holy Land sites on the West Bank would be much more valuable assets if Palestinians hadn't been using them as hideouts to launch suicide bombings. Naturally, everything is Israel's fault:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/print/59013
Martin at March 7, 2010 11:57 AM
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