The Big Lie About the Middle East,Tell Baker: Arab nations don't care about the Palestinians

Time ^ | Dec, 10, 2006 | LISA BEYER

[PRePublic]

The Big Lie About the Middle East,Tell James Baker: Arab nations don't care about the Palestinians

No sensible person is against peacemaking in the Holy Land. Applause and hopefulness would seem the reasonable reaction to the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the Bush Administration "act boldly" and "as soon as possible" to resolve the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. But as a front-row observer of similar efforts over the past 15 years, I could muster neither response. In lumping the Iraq mess in with the Palestinian problem--and suggesting the first could not be fixed unless the second was too--the Baker-Hamilton commission lent credibility to a corrosive myth: that the fundamental problem in the Arab world is the plight of the Palestinians.

[PRePublic]

Finally even the Time agrees to the fact that "Palestinians" are being used by Arab nations in their war against the west, especially in their anti Israel bigotry.

Well Time! it was always the case, ever since 1948...

[Jeff Chandler]

the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the Bush Administration "act boldly" and "as soon as possible" to resolve the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.

And after that invent a money tree and dog that craps chocolate.

[FairOpinion]

I don't know who the author, Lisa Beyer is, but I command her courage to state this. It's the absolute truth, yet it's amazing that others don't dare point it out, as she did"

"It is a falsehood perpetuated not just by the likes of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, who came late to the slogan after their actual beefs--Saddam with his neighbors; bin Laden with the Saudi royals--gained insufficient traction in the Arab world. The mantra is also repeated like an axiom in the U.S.--in parts of the State Department, in various think tanks, by editorial writers and Sunday talk-show hosts.

To promote the canard that the troubles of the Arab world are rooted in the Palestinians' misfortune does great harm. It encourages the Arabs to continue to avoid addressing their colossal societal and political ills by hiding behind their Great Excuse: it's all Israel's fault."

[SierraWasp]

RIGHT!!!

[FairOpinion]

I meant "commend" -- typo.


Main Entry: com·mend
Pronunciation: k&-'mend
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French comander, from Latin commendare, from com- + mandare to entrust -- more at MANDATE
transitive verb
1 : to entrust for care or preservation
2 : to recommend as worthy of confidence or notice
3 : to mention with approbation : PRAISE
intransitive verb : to commend or serve as a commendation of something
- com·mend·able /-'men-d&-b&l/ adjective
- com·mend·ably /-blE/ adverb
- com·mend·er noun

[Sender]

Umm, my dog once, well he...well anyway, all the Reese's peanut butter cups disappeared one night.

[FairOpinion]

Better watch it.

This is the second time you agreed with me.

If you agree with me a third time, I will have to really wonder about me. ;)

[SierraWasp]

Stop it! You're wasting space!! I knew what you meant and told you you were right!!!

[operation clinton cleanup]

Wow! Is this a Time spoof site?

[CFC__VRWC]

Even the media's starting to turn on Baker now. Despite their very best efforts, even they couldn't make his steaming fudge dragon of a report into anything more than a joke.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Baker-Hamilton commission lent credibility to a corrosive myth: that the fundamental problem in the Arab world is the plight of the Palestinians.

Yup. The fundamental problem in the Arab world is islamic imams who maintain their power and money by taking everything from their people and blaming their poverty and problems on Israel and America. They complete the cycle by constantly imbuing them with an advanced victimhood complex. Islamic people direct their frustration and hate toward the supposed oppressors, America and Israel, instead of the islamic dictators who are really causing the problems.

It doesn't help that islamics living in other places of the world who are educated and have access to truth keep perpetuating the myths and fund the imams and terrorists by giving money to charity scams. It also doesn't help that the media perpetuates the myths while the governments of the world encourage and rationalize the deplorable behavior of the islamics.

[stevem]

I can't, for the life of me, figure out what took so long for the ISG to come up with their report. It just seems to me they could have done better with about 8 minutes of discussion. It would have gone something like this:

We need to move quickly to make sure there is a lasting peace in Iraq.

We need to be imaginative AND bold to make sure there is a lasting peace in the Holy Land.

We need to make sure there is peace and harmony netween Islam and the rest of the world.

We must be sure the different factions of Islam get along with one another.

We need to do thiese things today and we will be able to withdraw from Iraq later today.

I hope they didn't pay these bozos very much.

[Sender]

Don't worry, they get around to demanding we stop being on Israel's side at the end. It's still TIME.

In the past, Washington tilted to the Israelis' side but not so much that the Palestinians couldn't live with it. President Bush has turned the tilt into a slap-down. He says he supports Palestinian statehood, but the Palestinians don't hear the words; they grasp the lack of feeling he evinces for them. They take in the unprecedented silences in Washington when Israeli forces overreact; they wince at White House endorsements of what the U.S. used to call illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. If James Baker had wanted to improve U.S. policy toward the Palestinians, he might have whispered these things into Bush's ear instead of sucking up to the Arab states with his inappropriate and quixotic peace plan.

[joem15]

Let's include Jimmy Carter, the World's foremost authority on Mid-Eastern affairs, in the discussion. Mr. Carter seems to know everything about the Middle-East 30 years after he was hung up and left out to dry by Iran. The Camp David Accords lasted how long? To quote from Wiki/Pedia:

"The time that has elapsed since the Camp David Accords has left no doubt as to their enormous ramifications on Middle Eastern politics. Most notably, the perception of Egypt within the Arab world changed. With the most powerful of the Arab militaries and a history of leadership in Arab world under Nasser, Egypt had more leverage than any of the other Arab states to advance Arab interests. Sadat's alacrity at concluding a peace treaty without demanding greater concessions for Israeli recognition of the Palestinians' right to self-determination incited enough hatred in the Arab world to bring about Sadat's assassination in 1981. Egypt was also suspended from the Arab League from 1979 until 1989.

Also, the Camp David Accords prompted the disintegration of a united Arab front in opposition to Israel. Egypt's realignment created a power vacuum that Saddam Hussein of Iraq, at one time only a secondary consideration, hoped to fill. Because of the vague language concerning the implementation of Resolution 242, the Palestinian problem became the primary issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict immediately following the Camp David Accords (and arguably, until today). Many of the Arab nations blamed Egypt for not putting enough pressure on Israel to deal with the Palestinian problem in a way that would be satisfactory to them.

Lastly, the biggest consequence of all may be in the psychology of the participants of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The success of Begin, Sadat, and Carter at Camp David demonstrated to other Arab states and entities that negotiations with Israel were possible — that progress results only from sustained efforts at communication and cooperation. Despite the disappointing conclusion of the 1993 Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel, and even though the 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace has not fully normalized relations with Israel, both of these significant developments had little chance of occurring without the precedent set by Camp David."

Granted, it is a long read, but the fact is that Jimmy Carter, apparently, has a vested interest in the success of the PLO. His legacy depends on the establishment of an independent Palestinian Nation. Jimmy, do you have room on your peanut farm for a few million Palestinians?

[Valin]

I know some Palestinians and they hate the other Arab nations (in particular the Saudis) only slightly less than (cue the omonious music) the Jews.

[Valin]

No sensible person is against peacemaking in the Holy Land. Applause and hopefulness would seem the reasonable reaction to the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the Bush Administration "act boldly" and "as soon as possible" to resolve the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.


Applause and hopefulness? Maybe in the land of OZ, but here in the real world.....

[CFC__VRWC]

I hope they didn't pay these bozos very much.

Nothing that the ISG did was intended to actually address Iraq and offer constructive ideas on how to achieve an acceptable outcome there. All they were interested in doing was participating in a big bipartisan circle jerk and then collating and publishing in one place the entire body of inside-the-Beltway groupthink, so they could get invites to all the A-list cocktail parties and frequent quotes and appearances in the media. In return, the media and the rest of the left would get a great big club in the form of the ISG report with which to bludgeon the Bush Administration for the next two years.

Baker's report turned out to be a wet noodle instead of the club they wanted. And now Baker and Company are starting to get a little taste of how high the price of failure is. It'll get a lot nastier soon.

[Joan Kerrey]

myth: that the fundamental problem in the Arab world is the plight of the Palestinians.
-------
absolutely correct. Arab leadership have always and continue to use Palestinian Arabs as pawns in their quest to destroy Israel. Nothing has changed since 1948. They don't want peace, never have and never will as long as Israel continues to exist. A treaty means nothing to Arabs when it comes to Israel as Islam allows the dishonoring of truces and other agreements as an acceptable tactic toward a greater goal. Arab governments should never be trusted. For the Baker report to suggest that the Iraq issue can only be settled by settling the Arab Israeli issue has long been the talking points of Arab leadership. This tiny little speck called Israel on the middle east map is the source of all the suffering not only in the middle east but the entire world. Give me a break. There can be no peace in the middle east until Israel has secure and recognized borders, something Arab leadership will not allow. Arab leadership is the source of all the problems in the middle east, not Israel.

The destruction of Israel has always been more important than the establishment of a state for the Palestinians. For Baker to suggest otherwise plays right into the hands of the Arab League and others wishing for Israel's destruction. It's a lie and it's a myth and to see this in the report is just downright insulting and an outrage.

[ClaireSolt]

Some good comment here, but the obligatory dig at Bush irks me. Like it or not, our policy has laid bare a reality among Palestinians that shows they are a long way from being a state governing itself. That's good.

[FreedomPoster]

Wow, I can't believe this is in Time.