Op-Ed: An Intifada of Arab Disappointment

The "Palestinians" are furious at their own inner reality, one that makes a viable state impossible.

One of the most important characteristics of a nation is a strong feeling of unity that allows its people to achieve the goals that it deems important. A people with a strong and unified national identity is able to put aside personal, political, ideological and sectorial differences so that its citizens can work together to succeed in reaching a goal that is important and significant to all of them.

Real leaders sense the people's will to unite for the sake of a national cause and can overcome the differences between them; if they do not, they will be replaced by others who are better than they, who know what the priorities are when there is a crucial national objective at stake. A people with a strong feeling of unity can handle a democratic country that does not fear differences of opinion and changes in government, because these do not degenerate into violence and therefore do not endanger its existence.

The only thing uniting the "Palestinians" is their virulent hatred of Israel and their animosity towards the Zionist entity...

The Palestinian street has been demanding unity between Hamas and Fatah for a long time now, because everyone realizes that the split between the two organizations lets Israel claim that there is "no partner for peace." This limits the ability of the Palestinians to be effective ih the PA, the Middle East and the international arena...

On Friday, November 7, bombs exploded in the doorways and vehicles of ten Fatah leaders in Gaza, and another explosion destroyed the stage that Fatah had prepared for the Arafat memorial ceremony that was planned for the tenth anniversary of his death on November 11.

I always thought the Palis had two parties for two different functions.

One group plays the rational, civilized yet trod-upon victim of Israeli aggression. This is the group that testifies at the UN and travels the US and Europe begging for aid, and plays to all the newscrews for public sympathy and outrage at the Jews. They prepare and stage propaganda pieces for foreign consumption. When Arafat was alive, his group performed this function.

The other party works internally, for the most part. They're the ones who distribute and spend the aid money, except the minor fraction the first group spends to keep up appearances for the foreigners. They spend most of the aid money to make war on the Infidels - digging tunnels, hiring soldiers, buying materials for homemade weapons, or buying arms from overseas. This is the group that funds and carries out terrorist acts. They engage in propaganda too, but it's for true believers and their own peons, and to terrorize their victims. They stage rallies as well, to whip up the local crowds and recruit willing martyrs for the cause.

The civilized, public governing body is necessary because rich donors/governments don't want to directly fund the killing of civilians in terror attacks. That wasn't us, the Pali apologists say, it was those "death to America" fundamentalist fanatics that we're not part of. They exist so Pali sympathizers can give to the cause with clear consciences.

The fanatic, warlike group exists to strike terror into the enemy, and keep up appearances for the masses. They won't negotiate with the Jews or the infidels, that's for the other guys.

The two groups occasionally change roles and/or personnel and will often change names, but it's the same setup pretty much.

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