Here is a follow-up to my item yesterday about Mitt Romney and his comments about Palestinian culture in order to clarify some of the debate swirling on Twitter and the Internet. I want to make a couple of things clear: I was in no way disparaging the entrepreneurial and educational achievements of the Palestinian people, whose record in building human capital is among the most impressive in the Arab world. Nor was I claiming that Israeli security restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip play no role whatsoever in retarding Palestinian economic development. Obviously, they do. But even here Palestinian culture (and institutions) are, I believe, ultimately to blame.
Israel is not restricting movement in and out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip because it wants to play the role of colonial occupier or believes it has a duty to rule the benighted Palestinian people. The vast majority of Israelis are happy to give up any claims to rule in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and to acknowledge the Palestinians’ right to statehood. Indeed, in 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak was willing to cede upwards of 95 percent of the West Bank, part of Jerusalem, and the entire Gaza Strip to Palestinian rule. As we know, Yasir Arafat refused to take the deal.
Why? Much of the explanation may be found in Arafat’s character: shaped by a “resistance” struggle, he was unwilling to beat swords into ploughshares and become the president of a small, impoverished state with little claim on the world’s attention. But part of the explanation can also be found in the Palestinians’ dysfunctional political culture which they share in common with much of the Arab world–a culture that elevates grand gestures (such as “resistance”) over mundane realities such as improving economic life, and a culture that is so deeply impregnated with anti-Semitism it is simply unimaginable for most Palestinians to give up the “right of return” and truly accept they will never win back by force the land now occupied by the “Zionists.” Arafat was said to fear that if he actually gave up the struggle, he would not be long for this world, and he may have been right–look at the fate of Sadat.
If Palestinian political institutions–which, as I noted, are dominated by corrupt opportunists and ideological fanatics–were to change and moderates such as Salam Fayyad were to be truly in charge (rather than to be unpopular and marginalized, as is presently the case), then any Israeli government, even one dominated by Likud, would be willing to do even more to lift the security restrictions which Palestinians claim impede their economic development. So at the end of the day, Palestinian culture really does account for their impoverishment in spite of the tremendous success enjoyed by many individual Palestinians, especially those who have emigrated to other countries, and in spite of the vast amounts of foreign aid which has poured in to help them.
So too, Israeli culture helps to explain its success in spite of facing unremitting hostility from all of its neighbors since the day of its birth (which has forced it to spend a far higher share of GDP on defense than the U.S. or other Western countries) and in spite of its almost total lack of mineral wealth. It is not so much Israeli economic culture that explains its enduring success because, until fairly recently, Israel has had a backward socialist economy. Nor is it even the Israelis’ willingness to work hard–Palestinians work hard, too.
What is more important, I believe, is a factor identified by Francis Fukuyama–the level of “trust” in a society. Israelis have been willing, when push comes to shove, to pull together for the common good in a way that Palestinians, who have always been riven by clan and political rivalries, have not. Israeli political culture has also been resolutely democratic, and this, I believe, is the ultimate secret of its success–it is inconceivable that the egalitarian Israelis would have tolerated the rule of a strutting authoritarian like Arafat. Israeli political culture demanded that “resistance” fighters like Begin and Shamir put down the gun and compete for votes like normal politicians. The Palestinians have never, even now, demanded this of their leaders–or at least not made the demand stick–and they will continue to pay a heavy price for elevating “resistance” over economic opportunity.
And this says nothing of the radical Islamist forces led by Hamas.
From what I have read, the Palestinians are actually exiled Jordanians, who haven't a claim to anything other than victimhood, apparently.
We should not forget the destruction by Palestinians of the greenhouses left behind by Israelis after one of the concessions of land by israelis. The elite, foaming at the mouth, Palestinians find it much easier to steal the aid provide by gullible US politicians than to inspire the pathetic Palestinians used by the elites, living in squalor in ‘regugee’ camps to work. It is not any more complicated than that.
I never see my comments published on this site, I'll try once more. nAs stated by all kinds of palestinian leaders, their goal is to destroy Israel and replace it with a 23d backward (7c society). The Arab conquest started in 7c when the superpowers of the time were dying and never actually stopped. Today it uses more covert means, like islamization of Europe sold to them in the last quarter of 20c and universal terrorism. Just wate and see when they will acquire nuclear weapons. I still do not understand why COMMENTARY does not employ the correct language and publishes comments by Hezbolla operatives.
"Economic improvement" is not part of what defines the so-called Palestinian. Nor peace, nor a better life, nor family, nor dignity, nor decency. n nHatred of Israel, and nothing else, is how the Palestinians define themselves. If Israel and the Jews ceased to exist, then the so-called Palestinians would lose their raison d'être. This is why trying to deal with so-called Palestinians on a rational or humane basis will always be a fool's errand.
it's a pretty easy fix for the Palestinians: stop hating Jews, stop trying to "liberate" a country that never belonged to you in the first place, and stop the terrorism. the Gaza blockade will be lifted, the checkpoints will disappear. they are only there to keep you from murdering more innocent Israelis.
The rational for the foreign aid funneled to the Palestinians is really that it buys the peace such as it is, but such as it is , is a bad investment. We are in effect financing terrorism. There is no humanitarian aspect to the policy.
” Israel is not restricting movement in and out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip because it wants to play the role of colonial occupier or believes it has a duty to rule the benighted Palestinian people. ”
Just after the OSLO accord the Palestinians were roaming far and wide all over Israel until of course terrorism became too much in 2000 to put up with.
And by the way it was a group of private citizens around Afula who started the “Fence” even against Sharon’s will.
Israel tore up some of its industry and moved it to the Israel/Gaza border to provide the residents with jobs without the interminable travel to and from work only to have Hamas and Islamic Jihad bomb and shoot up the workplaces to extinction.
Nobody reports on how Jenin and other West Bank towns enriched themselves with Israeli customers until Palestinian violence forced the curtailment of open borders.
” Nor was I claiming that Israeli security restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip play no role whatsoever in retarding Palestinian economic development. Obviously, they do. But even here Palestinian culture (and institutions) are, I believe, ultimately to blame. ”
Forgive me for introducing the following article from Frontpage Magazine, if it is ideologically opposed, but it does make an important point:
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-greenfield/islams-universal-economic-failure/
” American media outlets have been denouncing him for saying that the GDP Per Capita differences between Israel and the Palestinian Authority represent a contrast in values.
The official media narrative is that these differences are the results of oppression, checkpoints and blockades. But then why does the IMF put Israel’s GDP Per Capita well ahead of the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
……
Israel has 1.2 Muslims inside the Green Line who account for 52 percent of its social benefits. Israel’s national unemployment rate is 5.6 percent. The Arab unemployment rate is 27 percent. Only 59 percent of Muslim men and only 19 percent of Muslim women are officially part of the workforce. That’s compared to 56 percent of Jewish women and 52 percent of Christian women.
…..
The response to all these numbers is the usual cry of racism, but racism fails to explain why Muslims fail more comprehensively at home than they do abroad. If Muslims fail in the West Bank, then Israeli checkpoints are to blame. If they fail in Canada, Australia and Europe, then racism is to blame. But if they fail in Pakistan, Somalia and Saudi Arabia– who is to blame?
Responsibility is the missing element. It’s the character value without which there can be no economic success.