Palestinian Fractal and The Deal of the Century

New Right Network ^ | February 20, 2020 | Gary Gindler

[WWII_Historian]

Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” or, officially, “A Vision to Improve the Lives of Palestinian and Israeli People” (the Plan) was published during the height of the shameful bluffpeachment, so it flew under the radar in America. Apparently, the ostentatious political correctness of the Plan (the opposition of “Israelis” and “Palestinians,” “two-state solution,” etc.) misled most pundits – and the Plan quickly disappeared from front pages everywhere.

The Deal of the Century was referred to as another futile effort to achieve an ephemeral peace in the Middle East. However, if one puts aside the politically correct newspeak (I understand that this is very difficult, but try), then you immediately realize there is no “Palestinian-Israeli” conflict – simply because the separate “Palestinian nation” does not exist.

At the same time, if one obeys the doctrine of political correctness and accepts that the “Palestinian nation” exists (for reference, Jews were called Palestinians before the war of 1967; since 1967 only Arabs were called Palestinians, thanks to the filing of the Soviet Politburo), then such a conflict does exist.

In this – politically correct – formulation, the existing conflict is insoluble even theoretically, because two peoples (both real and fictitious) lay claim to the same territory – Western Palestine.

Trump proposed a plan that is politically correct in form and completely politically incorrect in content – and thus a plan that was obviously unacceptable to terrorist enclaves.

...

For the Arabs of the Middle East, the “Palestinian problem” has long turned into the problem of a used condom. Furthermore, their fate is the same.

[monkeyshine]

Well I agree there is no Palestinian nation. The Palestinian people are not even unified, they are mostly descendants of migrants who moved to the region in the early 1900s. Just like the Jews, who did unify under one flag, one government, one rule of law even though they too came from scores of different countries speaking dozens of different languages.

The issue to deal with though is the fact that they identify as Palestinians now, and they live there now. They want political independence, but they are not unified with one political vision, and scores of different clans and militias rule over various enclaves. So there are only a couple of ways to deal with it. They have to unify under one banner, and then negotiate something. The alternative is just more of the same, or worse.

[DoodleDawg]

The alternative is just more of the same, or worse.

So be it. The U.S. is out of the peace negotiating business in the Middle East. It's up to Israel and the Palestinians to make peace or not make peace. The U.S. no longer has any standing to mediate and never will again.

[monkeyshine]

Well, afaik, we’ve offered $50 billion. Not sure if it’s all taxpayer money or if they’ve assembled a multi-national fund of public/private development.

One thing I’ve always found ironic is the overt anti-Israel hatred of ‘pro-Palestinians’, as if you can’t be in favor of both peoples having peace and prosperity? And yet, the Palestinian technocrats depend heavily on the Israeli government - they use the Israeli currency, they pay taxes to Israel, Israel manages their telecoms and much of their public utlities like water, electricity, waste management. On the surface the Palestinian spokespeople rail all day about how evil Israel is, but on a day to day basis they depend on and work with Israelis to keep their society well lubricated.

I guess it’s just politics. But it’s also an insanity, repeating the same mistakes. I agree to an extent - the US should more or less retreat from that mess. We should do what is best for us. Bill Clinton made the biggest effort ever. Arafat was the most frequent visitor to his white house of all foreigners. And his deal collapsed. Word is he told GW Bush simply to ignore Arafat and stay out of it, which is why the Bush Admin laid down a set of rules (which were never met) if they wanted US to help. Plus, Bush had a lot of other priorities after 9/11. 9/11 made the Pali cause 2nd hand news, especially after all the effort Clinton put in. Arafat rejected the “best and final offer” so there was nothing much more we could do. The current offer is considerably less generous to the Palis than the last offer when Clinton was in power and the Israelis had a leftist government.

I don’t know and haven’t analyzed Trump’s program in much detail, but frankly I think it’s just an opening gambit and in some part tied to his campaign - so he can say to the voters we’re making progress on XYZ and let’s not change horses mid-stream.