Fouad Ajami: Don't Let Arafat Distract Us

Opinion Journal ^ | 04/13/2002 | Fouad Ajami

[Pokey78]

The sky won't fall in Araby. Entrenched regimes, which have mastered precious little save the art of staying in power, will not be stampeded by the crowds who chant in support of Yasser Arafat. This is not a "crisis" of American foreign policy playing out in Ramallah, and reverberating in Amman, Cairo and Beirut.

[Mr. Peabody]

Uh, no. Arabs are the Grim Reapers.

[Mr. Peabody]

Of course it means war. That's what is going on. It's up to the Israelis to defeat the Arabs (who call themselves Palistinian), no more half measures. Then they can impose the peace. And a better life for Jews and Arabs.

[schu]

Perhaps the stats about the Israeli economy are true, but they still have a long way to go before they end up in the gutter with the Pali’s. Over 50% illiterate, so filled with hate they sign up their teenage sons and daughters to kill for them, stuck in a never ending “war”, no place to live, no one who wants them (Jordanians, Lebanon, Kuwait). No freedom of religion, speech, assembly. AMG, you are sure hitting a homerun with this line of thought…

[schu]

You just don’t get it do you? You make me laugh.

The Pali’s are so consumed by Israel, have been so used by their Arab brethren, that they cannot even see what they have become! The Jews took the desert where Arabs lived in total poverty and turned it into something good. A thriving economy, democratic principles, a better life for their children, all that in Israel. You Islamists just cannot stand it! Pathetic.

Yes, its like the slums of Harlem, its like those folks blaming the rich for their dilemma, instead of looking in the mirror and recognizing that you are responsible for your lot in life. You choose, blame others or get to work and make it better. But we all know that your type is incapable of looking in the mirror.

[Mr. Peabody]

Palestinian society has lost it's moral underpinnings. There can be no homeland until they relearn what it means to belong to a civil society. They have to spend their 40 years in the wilderness before they can be trusted. An Israeli military governor will do in the meantime.

[schu]

Sorry, it is not going to be a war of attrition. Read your history, at some point the West is going to say enough is enough and finish the business started by the Islamists. Just ask the Germans and the Japanese what happens when the West gets pushed over the edge. But as typical of most Islamists, you are stuck in thinking based upon a 12th century view of the world.

The point is this, no matter how hard you try, the Israelis will never be at your level, never be as debase as your beloved Islam. And the reason is because they are fundamentally free, a concept with little or no meaning in Islam.

[Gritty]

This writer is good!

[RobbyS]

Of course he is right. If we haven't figured out Arafat's game by this time, we must be awfully stupid.... Like the Europeans and our Ivy League elites.

[RobbyS]

American Jews seem to be about as useful to Isrel as they were to the European Jews during WWII.