Two Views of the Present Situation: Utopian and Realist [Palestine]

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | June 24, 2002 | Steven Plaut

[xsysmgr]

THE NEW CANON is emerging that Palestinians perpetrate suicide bombings and similar mass murders because they are so desperate, their plight so hopeless, their suffering so great.  It is what we hear nonstop from the Cherie Blairs, the Ted Turners, the Eurocrats, and the Israeli Left with its captive universities and media—the utopians who have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

The utopian view holds that the wave of Palestinian suicide bombings is a reflection of the fact that Israel has taken away all Palestinian hope.   Israel has brought these murders on itself by its policy of blocking and denying Palestinian aspirations and ambitions.   The violence is a reflection of Palestinian desperation and frustration at the chance that they will be unable to realize their dreams. The key to stopping the suicide murders is to grant hope to the Palestinians by providing them a state as soon as possible. Israel brought the violence on itself by its refusal to expel Jewish settlers and by signaling that it would not end the occupation. Palestinian violence is retaliation for killing Palestinian leaders. The upsurge in world anti-Semitism is a reaction to Israeli brutality and obstinacy. If Israel would just remove itself altogether from the "occupied territories," tensions would decrease and peace would ensue

Here’s the view from reality: The wave of Palestinians suicide bombings is a reflection of the fact that Israel has granted the Palestinians and their radical leadership hope - the hope that they will really be able to destroy Israel.   Israel has brought these murders on itself by its policy of encouraging and coddling Palestinian aspirations and ambitions.  The violence is simply a reflection of Palestinian excitement and ambition at the chance that they will be able to realize their hopes and dreams, that is, their dreams of destroying Israel and driving the Jews into the sea. The key to stopping the suicide murders is to take hope away from the Palestinian and Arab Israel haters. Israel brought the violence on itself by its offers to expel Jewish settlers and its signaling that it was willing and anxious to end the so-called occupation.

Palestinian violence is caused by Israel not making Palestinian terrorists and leaders pay a deterring price for their intransigence and violence.

The upsurge in world anti-Semitism is a reaction to Israeli weakness, defeatism, and timidity and an expression of the same appeasement mentality that greeted Hitler's rape of Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. 

If Israel would just remove itself altogether from the "occupied territories", violence would escalate and total war would ensue.

Israel cannot have security nor survive for long unless it re-occupies and denazifies the "occupied territories." -- that is unless it seizes control of the terrorist apparatus, including the terrorist Palestine Authority, and destroys it, punishes the guilty, and creates a civilized and reasonable authority those Palestinians who are willing to coexist with non-Arabs and non-Muslims in its place.

Allowing the Palestinians presently in power to control their own territory is exactly what the Oslo "peace" process did, and like the Oslo process it will produce endless mass murders of Jews.

If the Palestinians have their own state, a new genocide of Jews is inevitable.

Steven Plaut is professor of business administration at the University of Haifa in Israel. He also teaches in Greece, California, and Hungary, and has a Ph.D. from Princeton in Economics. A Native-born Philadelphian, he has lived in Israel since 1981. A collection of his writings may be found at www.opinionet.com.

[rageaholic]

The famous French historian De Toqueville also wrote on the subject.

He found that the most dangerous point for an established regime is not when it oppresses its subjects, rather the danger point comes when an opposing revolutionary group senses the regime is open to change or appeasement.

De Toqueville showed that, despite the propaganda, the French Revolution occurred during a time when the government actually sought to become more moderate towards its subjects. Bloodthirsty revolutionaries, as they so often do, interpreted this merely as a sign of weakness or a threat to their appeal.

The French revolutionaries themselves became more oppressive than the regime they overthrew. I have no doubt the same would occur were the Palis given self-determination.

[Tacis]

He doesn't know what he is talking about, either. The Palestinians are murdering Israelis because the Israeli settlers are stealing Palestinian land, hilltop view by fertile orchard, and there is no end to their predations. But, there is no end under any conditions and the best short term answer is to occupy everywhere with troops, imprisoning any Palestinians with weapons, including stones. A fence will be unsatisfactory because it will have to be moved as new land is stolen. In the long run, noting will change and the Israelis will run to us more often demanding that we pay for some new wrinkle. There is more than enough blame for both sides and both side are poorly served by their rspective leaders.

[bsaunders]

I guess I must assume that the Palistinian murders of Israelis before 1967 were due to the fact that Israel would occupy land in the future. What forsight these Palistinians must possess.

[dennisw]

>
The Palestinians are murdering Israelis because the Israeli settlers are stealing Palestinian land, hilltop view by fertile orchard, and there is no end to their predations.

That is one dimensional bullshit. Settlers are taking nothing. They steal no fertile orchards. This exists only in your fevered mind. Israel permits settlers to build on certain unused lands. The West Bank is large dry place with many unused spaces. And how about the 800,000 Jews driven from Muslim nations. Do they figure in your calculus?

Some Pallie land has been taken by eminent domain to build roads and bypass roads on the West Bank. Some of these roads are Jewish only to bypass Pallie snipers and hooligans.

[Kermit]

" It is what we hear nonstop from the Cherie Blairs, the Ted Turners, the Eurocrats, and the Israeli Left with its captive universities and media—the utopians who have learned nothing and forgotten nothing."

Please add George W Bush to this list, because that's what he's said. Sadly.