Letters to the Editor
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It Wasn't a Palestinian Chaim Weizmann They Lacked
It was a Palestinian Gandhi. Trying to beat the Israelis with force has been demonstrated time and time is not going to work. Why not try nonviolence?
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Breadbaker, right on
The escalation of violence is not getting anyone anywhere. check out the movie "Encounter Point" for an excellent film illustration of the real facts on the ground. (http://www.encounterpoint.com)
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A fascinating article to be sure
Khalidi brings up a lot of provocative points, and has given me a lot to think about. Kudos on an interesting and thoughtful article that goes beyond a lot of the senseless name calling that passes for conversation on this subject. As a longtime supporter of the Israeli left, it was enlightening to read his perspective.
I also wonder what their fate would have been had 1948 gone another way. Remember, the Israelis were fighting armed forces from a number of countries, none of them "officially" Palestine. If Israel had lost, would we now have a true Palestinian state? Or just some more land to be carved up by the autocracies of the region?
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The "Palestinians" have a state
it's called Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
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The Arabs were never intended to have a State in Palestine
The Mandate system set up by the League of Nations was never intended to allow an Arab State in Palestine. The civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine were not to be prejudiced but no political rights were to be granted to those non-Jewish communities. The reason was simple. 99.9% of the former Ottoman Empire was designated as the home for Arab self-determination. Jewish self-determination was to be limited to just 0.1% of the liberated territories. Even this promise to the Jews was not kept. 78% of Palestine became Jordan and the Jews were left with 22% of Palestine within which to establish their State. Even this territory is still begrudged and longed for to be occupied by the Arabs today.
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The Usual Suspects
Yes, yes. It's everyone else's fault but the Palestinians'.
It's the British. Certainly the Palestinians had an orderly system centered on the rule of law before those evil Europeans shut them down. Oh yes, absolutely.
It's the Joooooz (who, according to this halfwit, now have the ability to "control death" in Gaza. Nifty talent, previously unseen).
It's the "bigotry" and "discrimination" in the U.S. Gee, I wonder why people going about their business might look askance at individuals screaming "Allahu Akbar" at the top of their lungs in airports. And oddly enough, I don't see mosques on fire all over the country -- unlike churches everywhere in the Middle East.
The murderous violence between Fatah and Hamas has nothing to do with Palestinians. It was the Jews who shot those children in a car, going to school. It was the British who forced frothing mobs to destroy Gazan greenhouses and parade their infants in front of Al-Jazeera in bomb belts. It's the Americans arm-twisting their mullahs to spew their Koran-based hatred every Friday in the mosques. It's the space aliens who compel their mighty warriors to use women dressed in suffocating tents as human shields.
It's everybody's fault but the Palestinians'. How is this news?
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Infantilisation
Khalidi should be aware that the more a would-be nation goes on blaming others for their plight, the less likely they are to gain the self-confidence actually to create something lasting. It is a form of infantilisation, and implies that your destiny is controlled from elsewhere.
And going back in history to find the alleged villains - in this case the Brits - is even more debilitating, creating a kind of resignation: 'what can we do, with this awful legacy?'.
Sadly, this discourse is endemic when it comes to discussing less developed countries, and in my view is subtly if most probably unconsciously racist in implication: the Arabs (or in other cases the Africans) are always acted upon, and are incapable of acting themselves, of taking the initiative.
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Genocide? What genocide..?
Oh, right... only systematic violence against Jews is considered "genocide"... I forgot.
Why not give European Jewry half of Germany instead of a chunk of hte Middle East? Dumb ideas produce dumb results.
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Militarism is anathema to Middle East stability...
If Amercans learn anything from the mess in present-day Iraq, hopefully, it will be, "The peoples of the Middle East in general and Palestine in particular, will never be stabilized via any kind of military strategy."
Unfortunately, our current administration is spending most all of its time and resources proving it.
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What?
Only a few letters? Where are all the partisans? The ceaseless name calling? The bitter competition to proclaim themselves the bigger victim? What happened to the salon we all remember. An installment of Cary's column about a threesome is getting more letters than this.
Come on zealots! Do us proud!
We are waiting for you!
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Palestinians
The Palestinians were offered a country in 1948, they declined because they coveted the (mostly sand) that the UN offered the Jews and they believed their Arab brethren who declared it would be easy to massacre all the Jews. The Palestinians gambled and lost. They made their choice and actions do have consequences.
The Palestinians were again offered a country in 2000, they declined since peace would required them to relinquish their dream of destroying Israel. They have instead descended into the chaos and violence that now grips their society. Again they made their choice and actions do have consequences.
Unfortunately, I think that they won't and shouldn't be given a 3rd chance. Instead the Gaza strip should be reattached to Egypt (from whom Israel conquered it), Gaza residents should be given Egyptian citizenship. After all, Arafat was born in Egypt. The majority of the west bank should be reattached to Jordan, the refugees in other Arab dictatorships should be given citizenship where they have been living for decades and everyone should get on with their lives. The Palestinians had their chances and they blew it, too late and too bad.
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and the question remains.....what is to done with the Palestinians?
Leaving them in those rancid refugee camps is not a solution because those camps simply breed more fanatical suicide bombers; dispersing them to the various Arab governments might be possible if the various Arab governments are willing to accept people who otherwise serve as a convenient excuse to hate Israel; constructing mass crematoriums in the camps and then incinerating the Palestinians by the hundreds would certainly be one Final Solution, if Israel and its supporters can stomach being transformed into clones of the Gestapo and other tools of the Third Reich (although George W. Bush is happily changing the USA into the Fourth Reich)
these, then, are your alternatives to setting up a Palestinian state: continue the camps, disperse the people to other nations or exterminate the people
and God/Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah/Christ will have no mercy on your soul if you choose the third option