It is an axiom of conventional wisdom about the Middle East that the government of Israel is a hard-line opponent of peace that must be pressured and cajoled to deal with the Palestinians for the sake of the survival of its people. This chestnut is an evergreen of foreign policy discussion used against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s predecessors that has always been false. But the persistence of this canard in the face of contrary evidence is testimony to the strength of anti-Israel prejudices among the chattering classes.
If this notion could survive the Palestinian leadership’s decision to turn down offers from Israel in 2000, 2001 and 2008 that would have given them a state in virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share of Jerusalem, then it will certainly outlast today’s refusal of the Palestinian Authority of Netanyahu’s offer of peace talks without preconditions. Nevertheless, those wondering why such an ardent supporter of the Palestinians like President Obama has abandoned them in the last year can’t blame it all on election year politics. Having staked out positions and picked fights with the Israelis to tilt the diplomatic playing field to the Palestinians directly, even he understands there’s no point getting into arguments for the sake of a group that simply won’t talk, let alone make peace, under any conditions.
The Palestinians claim their refusal of negotiations is based on the idea that it is pointless to talk if Israel isn’t going to concede every point of contention such as borders and settlements in advance. Part of this is, however, Obama’s fault. Since he demanded three years ago that Israel freeze settlement building as a precondition to negotiations — something that not even the Palestinians had thought of prior to 2009 — it is difficult for PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to insist on anything less. But since Israel already froze building in the West Bank in 2010 and Abbas still wouldn’t talk, the point is moot.
The fact is, neither Abbas or his Hamas coalition partners have any intention of ever signing a piece of paper that recognizes the legitimacy of a Jewish state and therefore end the conflict for all time. This is something that even Obama is beginning to understand, but it is one that many liberals and others who think the struggle over this tiny plot of land is about borders find inexplicable. Yet, it is actually quite easy to understand.
Palestinian nationalism flowered in the last century not as an attempt to recreate an ancient ethnic or national identity or to recover a dying language or culture, as was the case with nationalist revivals in places like Ireland, the Czech Republic or even the Jewish movement of Zionism. Rather, it was a reaction to the Jewish return to the land. Though apologists for the Palestinians contend that it was not a purely negative movement, it is impossible to understand Palestinian nationalism as anything but an effort to prevent Zionism from succeeding. Its essence is the illegitimacy of the Jewish state, and any effort to wean it from that belief constitutes a contradiction that the Palestinian grass roots and its vast refugee diaspora simply cannot accept.
It is this everlasting Palestinian “no” that is the basic fact of the Middle East conflict that cannot be talked out of existence. Nor can it be charmed away by Israeli concessions that stop short of the destruction of the Jewish state.
Anyone who doesn’t comprehend this will never be able to explain this latest Palestinian refusal to talk, those that came before it, and the inevitable “no’s” that will follow.
The Palestnians will be in much worse shape vis a vis Israel and the U.S. with a President Romney, not to mention Iran.
An independent state is a practical goal. Palestinians put virtue over practicality. What is virtue? It is dying in a jihad while killing Jews. nThe world loves the Palestinians for their selflessness.
No, the world loves the Palestinians because of their never say die heroics. Unlike the WWII Jews who went meekly to slaughter – the Palestinians fight and are willing to die rather than let Israel's slow genocide continue. This is why so many Jews hate the Palestinians. Jealousy.
I'm not sure who 'the world' is. Perhaps it's the Arab world of backwards genocidal maniacs who rule over a realm that can't build a washing machine let alone keep pace with even the latter half of the last century. That to me is their jealousy. They will never figure out what progress is so, like any spoiled child chooses instead to smash all their toys so that no one can enjoy them. Or perhaps it's their enablers in the west, the upper middle class white urban university students who wrap themselves in a keffiyah and call that revolution whereas their personal view of liberation is an iPhone and their view of privation is a day w/o cable TV. To me that's jealousy too – the kind borne of the realization that sophomore anarchism and nihilism doesn't raise up anyone the way Israel does. Or perhaps it's wingmen, the racists, the nazis and antisemites who are simply jealous that their hero, Hitler wasn't successful and neither will his offspring, the Arabs.
Yet you hate Israel — and justify "the world's hatred" — for Israel's stubborn refusal to be meekly slaughtered by the Palestinians. One could almost conclude that you would hate the Jewish state no matter what it does or does not, just as many in Europe simultaneously hated Jews for supposedly being the secret force behind Marxism and behind the international bankers, and for being both clannish and pushy. n nNice bit of inversion, there, by the way, about the jealousy. Not quite as classy as the inversion about Gaza being a concentration camp or being the new Warsaw ghetto, but still an impressive bit of double think worthy of one of Orwell's black-whites.
I do not know who you are but you are not an Israeli, or at least a sane and fair one . The Arab population in Israel has multiplied at least five times over since the state's creation. Demographic growth is not the Arab problem. Accusation of genocide on the part of Israel shows your ignorance and maliciousness. You are probably too stupid to even be ashamed of yourself.
Arafat's robber den of thieves. They are in for one thing, the reward promised if they totally annihilate the Jews and Israel. nThe reward coming their way is the Reward promised in the Book of Obadiah. n nThis is Blood Covenant between Jehovah and Israel, of the House of Abraham, in which Jehovah cannot lie.
:It is an axiom of conventional wisdom about the Middle East that the government of Israel is a hard-line opponent of peace that must be pressured and cajoled to deal with the Palestinians for the sake of the survival of its people." n nHeh. Funny how reality in this case is 180 degrees opposed to conventional wisdom. n nSurvival of the Jews in their land, given that the 'Palestinian' nationality was created as a genocidal weapon aimed at the belly of the Jewish state, specifically requires that a 'Palestinian' state west of the Jordan never be created. n nIn the fullness of time, whether via a bullet, revolution, or old age, the midget king of 'Jordan', grandson a Bedouin chieftain imported by the British from what is now Saudi Arabia, and son of a British stenographer, will now longer rule over 75% of the Palestine Mandate, over a population which is over 75% 'Palestinian'. n nAt that point in time, 'Jordan' becomes 'Palestine'. Israel's job is to resist the pressure from its 'friends' to yield yet additional territory to the future 'Palestine'. n nCan Israel resist Obama's post election 'flexibility'? That is the immediate question. n n n n
Wow! What a great review! As Leporello says when the statue shows up at Don Giovanni's party, "Non l'avrei giammai creduto" (I never would have believed it).
…nThe world loves the Palestinians for their selflessness… JokeNoWits
The so called ‘Palestinians’ have been farmed like termites. Their intentions are quite transparent, not to imply ‘clear thinking’.
For "Palestinian Nationalism" to exist it would need a Palestinian people and a Palestinian nation. Neither ever existed. But so often commentators and advise-offerers overlook the fact that a sovereign state for the Arab Muslims of the Palestine region exists now for decades – east of the river Jordan. n
It seems as if in many ways we were better off with the Cold War. At least it was understood that Russia and China were our enemy. Now, we do not know who to trust. r n Excuse me, why do we continue to buy the junk products from China? We buy it because although “we” live in the United States of America, we have ceased being “American”.r nWe have been flooded by immigrants, who spit in the face of any American co-worker they can get away with and the employer not only tolerates this behavior, it encourages it. After all, who buys toxic soda, toxic fast food, toxic alcohol, spam. The damage is done. Now Obama is promising immigration reform to The Hispanics in return for voting Obama four more years. It is amazing he is offering everyone a payoff, including Russia, Iran and China, as soon as his “last election” is over, at which time he can show …”flexibility”. Where can I escape to after Obama term 2…Sri Lanka?
Who was it that recently stated that the "Palestinians" are an invented people? Ah, yes. Speaker Newt Gingrich, that's who. And what happened to Newt's Presidential campaign immediately following that statement? His popularity and rating went into a steep nose-dive as the MSM and academia went crazy over the fact that Newt was a "loose cannon" who says things that political correctness (i.e. left-wing liberal ideology ) claims are inadmissible in public. nWell, bottom line: History proves that the Palestinians ARE an invented people. But truth is a very, very rare commodity in 2012.
The Arabs are using the Palestinian NO card.
The Palestinians in Abba Eban's well- known phrase 'never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. They have conducted the conflict with their Arab and Islamic brothers help in the most non- ethical and yet self- defeating way. They are the Machivellians of their own self- defeat. nIsrael has tried to help them out of this again and again, but nothing seems to help. nThey truly need a different kind of leadership which will focus on their own welfare, and the benefits that could come to their people from true peace.
Let us remember that the Palestinians are very well paid to be the aggrieved party in this play. They receive billions of $s in aid from the UN, the EU and the US. If they made peace, that money would go away and they would have to work for a living.