The Palestinians are Arabs; and the Arabs, whatever their medieval achievements (as best I can understand, they were mainly achievements of transmission — "Arabic" numerals, for example, came from India) are politically hopeless. Who can dispute this? Look at the last 50-odd years, since the colonial powers left. What have the Arabs accomplished? What have they built? Where in the Arab world is there a trace or a spark of democracy? Of constitutionalism? Of laws independent of the ruler's whim? Of free inquiry? Of open public debate? Where in your house is there any article stamped "Made in Syria?" Arabs can be individually very charming and capable, and perform very well in free societies like the U.S.A. There are at least two recent Nobel prizes with Arab names attached. Collectively, though, as nations, the Arabs are no-hopers.
All of this applies to the Palestinians. I spent some of my formative years in Hong Kong, a barren piece of rock with zero natural resources, under foreign occupation, chock-full of refugees from the Mao tyranny. The people there weren't lounging in UNRWA camps or making suicide runs at the governor's mansion. They were trading, building, speculating, manufacturing, working — with the result that Hong Kong is now a glittering modern city filled with well-dressed, well-educated, well-fed people, proud of what they have accomplished together, and with a higher standard of living than Britain herself. If, following the Oslo accords — or for that matter, in the 20 years of Jordanian occupation — the Palestinians had taken that route, had set aside their fantasies of revenge and massacre, and concentrated on building up something worth having, I might have respect for them. As it is, I don't.
The only halfway sympathetic thing I can find to say about the Palestinians is that UNRWA has surely been part of the problem. If you go to the UNRWA website, you will see how proud they are of having fed, clothed, sheltered, educated and cared for the Palestinian refugees of 1948... and their children... and their grandchildren. The number of people UNRWA cares for has gone from 600,000 in 1948 to nearly four million today. Now, I understand that the prime impulse of bureaucracies, especially welfare bureaucracies, is the consolidation and expansion of their turf, and a steady increase in the number of their "clients"; but this is ridiculous. The good people of Hong Kong should go down on their knees every night and thank God that there was no UNRWA in the colony in 1949.
Sheesh. Four million people and they have done squat since 1948 to better themselves. They were given Gaza in 2005, but are they capable of doing anything except hate? No.
Here is a 2005 post from this blog, written shortly after Israel pulled out of Gaza and when the grateful Palestinians began to attack Israelis from Gaza:
These people are completely hopeless:Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas said on Saturday it would fight to drive Israel out of the West Bank and Jerusalem after the Jewish state completes its withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip this year.
"Gaza is not Palestine," a masked spokesman for Hamas's armed wing told a news conference in Gaza City.
"As for Jerusalem and the West Bank, we will seek to liberate them by resistance just as the Gaza Strip was liberated," said the spokesman, surrounded by gunmen and militants with rocket launchers.
Note to the rest of the world: DO YOU SEE NOW? ARE YOU BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND?
No?
How about this (hat tip: The Corner):Buried in several of Hammoudeh's conversations with an "unidentified male" in October 2000 is surprising inside information on the private views of Palestinian Authority's leader Yasser Arafat about ongoing peace negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.(emphasis mine)
Despite what Arafat was saying publicly about supporting the negotiations, Hammoudeh's telephone conversations tell a different story, according to the prosecution's evidence. Unidentified Male: "Abu Ammar (Arafat) told me that everything has been screwed up . . . Since February (he) has been hopeless, finished. From February . . . eight months ago . . . (Arafat) has had a closing with this Barak . . . I sat with (Arafat) in his room and he told me: 'It's useless.' But he doesn't say this on television. He says 'my partner.'
"We sat with (Arafat) . . . and he told me that it was over . . . and we should seek other avenues. . . . "Do whatever you see fit. Military action if you want to, or whatever. . . . I will not interfere.' " He offered this summary of Arafat's private words to him: "Proceed and do not be afraid. Anything I do or say, ignore me."
If only the world would ignore their continual whining and perpetual victimhood; and appreciate the con game the Palestinians have been playing for decades. If only the world would call them to account for undermining every peace process; breaking every truce. If only the world would focus on the murderous rage and suicidal anger the Palestinians project; instead of focusing on and blaming the objects of that projection.
When I look at the Palestinian situation, I see a bottomless cesspool of swirling self-destructive rationalizations. How many times will Israel have to make honest concessions and take the first step toward peace? How many times will Israelis have to demonstrate their goodwill and willingness to live in peace with these maniacs? How many truces, treaties, aggreements, must be broken-- before the world sees the Palestinians for the cheap con artists they are?
They don't want peace. They don't want to live in their own state if Israel exists. They don't care about the suffering of innocent people - Israeli or Palestinian. They don't care, because they have no honor. They are incapable of goodwill. They have no leader with any integrity. They have nothing but their hatred.
And as they parade and dance around with their UN-funded banners, pretending that they are real men; shooting guns in the air and setting things on fire; preparing their children for future suicide missions; I know without the shadow of a doubt that they will squander this new opportunity as they have squandered so many over the years.
When do you suppose the rest of the world will figure out that they are being conned?
Well, it is now 2009 and the Palestinians have remained true to their hate and bigotry. They have not built a state but a garbage dump--which is appropriate, considering the leadership. And there are some people and countries in the world who are beginning to wake up to the con at last. Not many, since the majority still seem to think it is somehow all Israel's fault the Palestinians try to kill Jews on a regular basis.
The Palestinians don't want a state. They just want to live in hate. Like many psychopaths and substance abusers given a "second chance" (and "third" and "fourth" etc. etc.) to turn their lives around by the court, the Palestinian leadership has cynically used numerous opportunities to act out the essential deadness within their souls. At the present time, their national mental state--paranoia, psychotic delusions, suicidal and homicidal behavior; unrepentant aggression and hatred-- is unlikely to result in a good prognosis for the future of the Palestinians.
And it doesn't take a psychiatrist to come to that conclusion.
I would have to agree with Derbyshire. I don't give a falafel about the Palestinians until or unless they are willing to renounce their hate and violence and stop being the left's favorite victims.
No comments:
Post a Comment