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U.S. policy of blaming the victim leaves Palestinians no hope
http://www.sptimes.com ^ | 8-10-03 | BILL MAXWELL

Posted on 08/19/2003 11:34:24 AM PDT by OXENinFLA

If the Jews are God's chosen people, then the Palestinians are God's cursed people.

I cannot think of a single, substantive, long-lived good thing that has happened for the Palestinians during my lifetime (I was born in 1945).

All people - even Palestinians - need a victory at least one time in their existence. At some point, all people need to be affirmed in their positive aspirations. All people need real hope, at least temporarily. People cannot withstand perpetual abuse without suffering irreparable damage to their individual and collective psyches.

For sure, the Palestinian diaspora has suffered in ways that we may never know. And nothing good will ever happen for these people until the United States develops the political vision and the moral backbone to lead the way. The state of Israel apparently has little if any genuine interest in empowering Palestinians with the tools to become self-reliant neighbors, neighbors who have legitimate claims to much of the land that Israelis now call their home.

What has been going on in the embattled region is the classic game of blaming the victim.

From the beginning, with the creation of the nation of Israel, Palestinians have been the victims of Israel's determination to keep them virtually powerless. Since 1948, successive U.S. administrations, citing Israel's need for security, have given the Jewish state carte blanche to implement undemocratic policies that dehumanize Palestinians. American would not tolerate such policies anywhere else in the world.

The most troubling result of this dynamic - America's unblinking alliance with Israel - is the birth and maturation of Palestinian organizations that use terror as their means of protest. The sooner the United States begins to earnestly listen to the Palestinian side, the sooner real progress will occur.

One of the biggest mistakes the United States made, under the leadership of George W. Bush, was to isolate Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, the elected leader of the Palestinian people. Demonized by Israel and by most Americans, Arafat has been the unwilling victim of a sophisticated shell game.

Arafat is not blameless in the Holy Land's tragedy, but neither is he the prime source of the region's half century of carnage as many Israelis and right-wing Americans claim.

Arafat, like Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is a creation of Mideast politics and the violence of religious obsession.

Following the original Oslo accords, Arafat kept the lid on violence by developing a truce with terrorists. Slowly, though, the Israeli government itself undermined Arafat's authority in several ways.

One was the unabated construction of settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza. Each time Arafat met with U.S. and Israeli officials to talk peace, the Palestinian Authority leader was given a plan that did nothing to halt the Israeli land grab. When Arafat rejected these schemes, he was blasted for being an unreliable partner in peace. The truth is that Arafat was never handed a good agreement, one that considered the plight of the Palestinian diaspora.

Arafat simply refused to play the game. He is paying for his courage by being confined to a few rooms of his bombed-out headquarters.

Now, Israel is playing the same game with new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Propped up as a man of peace - the un-Arafat - by Israel and the United States, Abbas is now being handed empty agreements that will undermine his authority and transform him into an untrustworthy partner in peace.

Israel, for example, released more than 330 Palestinian prisoners the other day ostensibly as an unsolicited gesture of good will. But hold on. A large number of the prisoners were to be released in a few weeks and months anyway. Hamas and other terrorist groups are not fooled by this ruse, and Abbas will wind up looking like a fool if he pretends that Israel was generous.

Then, we have the fence (wall) that is snaking its way through Palestinian territory, that is turning some villages and towns into ghettos.

What is Abbas to do? What kind of credibility will he have with terrorists if he accepts a so-called road map that includes a wall that subverts Palestinian hopes of statehood?

President Bush has made noise that he might cut the cost of the fence from the $9-billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Israel if Sharon does not agree to modifications to the fence.

This is another shell game. The cost of the fence is so small that a deducting it from the $9-billion figure will not amount to a hill of beans.

This time the victim is Abbas, not Arafat.

What about the settlements? Even as Abbas talked to Israeli officials the other day about eliminating terrorism, Sharon was approving the construction of nearly two dozen more upscale settlements in the occupied territories.

Again, the victim of the shell game is Abbas, not Arafat.

Sharon and Bush will turn Abbas into another Arafat in short order if they do not stop dissembling. No fence or wall be able to contain the fury of the Palestinian diaspora.

If honest brokering does not enter the process on the U.S. and Israeli side, the chosen people will continue to prevail over the cursed Palestinians.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: plopropaganda
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Have at it folks.

What a steaming pile.

1 posted on 08/19/2003 11:34:24 AM PDT by OXENinFLA
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To: OXENinFLA
You forgot the "Barf Alert"!
2 posted on 08/19/2003 11:37:37 AM PDT by BubbaBasher (Diversity is something that should be overcome, not celebrated.)
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To: OXENinFLA
They took their victimology to an extreme today.. a bus bombing.I'm sure that will improve the Palestinian self esteem./sarcasm
3 posted on 08/19/2003 11:39:31 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: OXENinFLA
This is not the day for this character's column. Bill Maxwell is a nut. I could google up lots on him and his anti-semitic drivel.
4 posted on 08/19/2003 11:39:50 AM PDT by veronica (http://www.petitiononline.com/KN50711/petition.html - Confirm Daniel Pipes to USIPF ......sign this!)
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To: OXENinFLA
Arafat, like Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is a creation of Mideast politics and the violence of religious obsession.

Don't you mean Islam obsession? Or are the Jews at it again?

5 posted on 08/19/2003 11:40:28 AM PDT by KC_for_Freedom
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To: OXENinFLA

Think I'll go read the thread on the many new Israeli dead and leave this stinking one. Palis suck
6 posted on 08/19/2003 11:40:37 AM PDT by SouthernFreebird
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To: OXENinFLA
The irony is so think you need a diamond saw to cut it. Israel has been the victim of Arab violence for nearly a century already, but it's all the Jews' fault somehow. *boggle*
7 posted on 08/19/2003 11:41:04 AM PDT by thoughtomator (Are we conservatives, or are we Republicans?)
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To: OXENinFLA
Those poor victim Palestinians just killed or maimed a number of young kids in Jerusalem.
8 posted on 08/19/2003 11:41:32 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: thoughtomator
gah, thick even... hate when I catch a misspelling as I hit post!
9 posted on 08/19/2003 11:41:33 AM PDT by thoughtomator (Are we conservatives, or are we Republicans?)
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To: OXENinFLA
All people - even Palestinians - need a victory at least one time in their existence.

Untrue

Nonetheless countless people have tried to convince the palestinians to stop killing themselves and others, but they are too ignorant, filled with hate, evil, or deluded to control themselves long enough to break the habit. On an individual level, the only rational response for peace loving palestinians is to associate with some other Arabic speaking nation.

10 posted on 08/19/2003 11:41:57 AM PDT by af_vet_1981
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To: OXENinFLA
Well, Mr. Maxwell, the only answer is for the Palestinians to kill, kill, kill. Right? I think a homicide bombing a day will show the Israelis and the US the folly of their ways. Maybe two bombings a day. Those poor Palestinians, they sure get MY sympathy, also poor Saddam and poor Usama.
11 posted on 08/19/2003 11:42:29 AM PDT by Dudoight
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To: af_vet_1981
The PLO is the problem. The author of the article is a bonehead or worse.
12 posted on 08/19/2003 11:43:47 AM PDT by elhombrelibre (Liberalism corrupts. Absolute Liberalism corrupts absolutely.)
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To: OXENinFLA
. . . nothing good will ever happen for these people until the United States develops the political vision and the moral backbone to lead the way.

Nothing good is going to happen to those people until they learn to act like human beings and stop murdering innocent women and children.

13 posted on 08/19/2003 11:45:25 AM PDT by pasquale
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To: BubbaBasher
This guy desperately needs a fact checker. He, like all palestinian terror apologists, convienently forgets that when the british were leaving "palestine", the UN and the British proposed 2 states, Isreal and Palestine, and the palestinians, not the jews, refused this proposal, instead wanting everything. The palestinians, not the jews then started the war, which the Jews won.

If not for the palestinian greed and the inability of arabs to win wars, maybe the palestinians would have some hope today. Unfortunately, all they know how to do is complain, demand more then they deserve, and then commit atrocities. so, very little to no sympathy here for the palestinians. Until the PALESTINIANS are honest, refute terrorism, imprison the terrorists among them, and benin to see reality as to what land they may get for a state, they will have nothing. And I'm not holding my breath for palestinian honesty or realism.
14 posted on 08/19/2003 11:45:30 AM PDT by brownie
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To: OXENinFLA
"If the Jews are God's chosen people, then the Palestinians are God's cursed people"

As far as the palies go, they are not God's cursed people; I agree they are cursed, but disagree they are God's people of any kind.

15 posted on 08/19/2003 11:46:57 AM PDT by gedeon3
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To: pasquale
That's how they get to heaven and get all those virgins. IT's according to the Koran as explained by the ignorant who lead the really super ignorant.
16 posted on 08/19/2003 11:47:09 AM PDT by elhombrelibre (Liberalism corrupts. Absolute Liberalism corrupts absolutely.)
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To: OXENinFLA
Give me a break!

Perhaps beginning with the neck of murderer Arafart.

Arabs have many times more land area than Israel.

Arabs have many times more oil wealth than Israel.

Arabs have several more times 'holy cities' than Israel.

The TRUE GOD OF ABRAHAM [vs the demonic moon god of Mohammad] IS a compassionate and generous God. He Love the Palestinians, too.

But being THE BOSS, He insists that things are done HIS WAY according to HIS PRIORITIES.

HE CHOSE JACOB'S DESCENDANTS AS HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE. You don't like that, argue with THE BOSS. Hint, HE'S bigger than you are.

Given that you claim Allah is generous etc., what would it cost you Arabs to grant Israel Jerusalem and all of Israel including the West Bank? Any number of Arab countries have plenty of land and wealth to set up each Palistinian family in a grand style.

Pride, greed, jealousy and other ungodly motives in addition to the demonic hatred of satan are behind Palestinian aims to destroy Israel utterly and wipe her off the map. Satan has never given up on that goal. The Palestinians are merely the latest of his willing stooges.

Being satan's stooges is NOT a good way to garner ALMIGHTY GOD'S FAVOR.

Besides all that, God is working things to HIS will in HIS time.

But being on the side of satan determined to destroy Israel is not a good survival strategy and certainly not a good way to gain God's favor.

If you choose suffering, avoid raging surprise when suffering is what you get!


17 posted on 08/19/2003 11:48:11 AM PDT by Quix (DEFEAT her unroyal lowness, her hideous heinous Bwitch Shrillery Antoinette de Fosterizer de MarxNOW)
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To: OXENinFLA
All people - even Palestinians - need a victory at least one time in their existence.

Well it all depends on what the meaning of "victory" is. It was just reported in the last hour that a bomb went off in a bus in Israel. If there are dead innocent people, this will be just one more in a long string of grand victories for the Palestinians, who revel in death, pain, ignorance, prejudice, and poverty. These people live in physical and moral squalor.

18 posted on 08/19/2003 11:49:36 AM PDT by 68skylark
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To: elhombrelibre
The PLO is the symptom of the problem, which is terrorism. The author of the article is a bonehead or worse.
19 posted on 08/19/2003 11:50:37 AM PDT by af_vet_1981
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To: OXENinFLA
All people - even Palestinians - need a victory at least one time in their existence.

Of course the last thing this writer would consider is asking the "Palestinians" what they would consider a "victory."

20 posted on 08/19/2003 11:51:07 AM PDT by Shermy
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