Conventional wisdom rides again
By Jonathan Tobin
Arafat is buried, but the usual foolish policies rise from the deadFunny thing about that...I watched for hours and I only saw his coffin disappear into the mourners. And..what has Sharon given Israel besides the latest jihad that started with him insisting in walking into the Muslim's mosque?
In much of what we laughingly call the "civilized world," the death of archterrorist and murderer Yasser Arafat was mourned with the usual solemnity given to a distinguished head of state.
And who is the "we" laughing as the welfare state of Israel holds out it's hand to be filled with US tax dollars? Maybe some of our thousands of homeless children?
Indeed, much of the international media gave Arafat's send-off the "Princess Di" treatment, with lengthy biographies in which platitudes about his symbolic value as the leader of the Palestinian cause were augmented by euphemisms about the tactics employed by his henchmen.
Arafat's legacy is that HE convinced the Palestinian people to accept a two state solution. He even agreed to sharing Jerusalem which Sharon did not...not even your platitude symbolic value Rabin did that (you know, the one that Jewish extremists assissinated).
Even many of those who didn't buy into the nonsense about this Egyptian-born former Soviet satellite being a heroic revolutionary leader were still liable to treat him as a major celebrity. In contemporary American pop culture, no higher compliment can be paid.
And you can prove Arafat was Egyptian-born? Or do you find it personally repulsive that he might have been born in Palestine...even Jerusalem? Would you need to give him his birthright?
In the Palestinian territories, the solemn rites for Arafat were celebrated with the usual pomp and circumstance of that violence-besotted culture:
And the Jewish holy book is not full of "historical violence-besotts"?
riots and uncontrolled bursts of gunfire, which accounted for numerous casualties.
I watched all of it. There was no riot. Bursts of gun fire at weddings and funerals are their culture - imagine not knowing this about their culture. "Numerous casualties"...a handful? Did you not notice the instant the coffin disappeared from view the entire crowd of 10's of thousands immediately became silent?
But in the corridors of the American foreign-policy establishment were no tearful eulogies, such as were heard on the BBC. Nor was there any gunfire — at least, none that was reported.
You obviously do not watch our alternative TV. "...nor...any gunfire" - it is not an American culture.
But the policy wonks at the State Department...are commemorating Arafat'... calling for more U.S. pressure on Israel to revive the peace process.
And the Jewish people do not want a peace process, right?
FAITH-BASED POLICY
In these quarters...Middle East peace...conflict refuse to acknowledge that they may have been mistaken, or that theories may be based more on wishful thinking than reality.Our true "Faith-based" consist of evangelicals who are preparing for "the" rapture.
It is true that the death of Arafat removes one of the principle obstacles to peace.
We have heard that claim for too many years now is a good time to prove it.
And you can bet that Israel will go a long way to avoid being blamed for any of Abbas' failures.
We're waiting...
In his previous incarnation as the prime minister of the P.A., Abbas achieved nothing.
Is re-incarnation a Jewish belief?
Sharon won't make the same mistake again, and will probably release terror suspects and close down security roadblocks in order to be seen as being supportive of Abbas, even if it results in Israeli casualties.
The only casualties that need be counted, right?
But the experts are dead wrong, as they always have been, when they say that Bush must reverse course in his second term and emphasize bludgeoning Israel into concessions to get a peace deal,
Bludgeoning? And where are the Jewish peacemakers? I know there are many but their voice is still weak.
rather than putting the emphasis on the need for Palestinian reform.
"Reform" meaning give up their weapons. Ever hear of a bilateral disarmament? Just because Israel has the nuclear bomb does not make them right.
There is no more risible piece of conventional wisdom than the one that tells us that the primary roadblock to peace is the refusal of Bush to force Israel to give more territory and to refrain from acts of self-defense against Palestinian terror.
Try allowing a UN peace keeping force in as Arafat often begged of them.
A decade of Oslo negotiations...even for those dimwitted experts
Name calling is the first clue to a weak stand.
The Israelis, desperate for a respite from terror and willing to go a long way to get it,
But not yet desperate enough to share Jerusalem.
can't buy peace if the Palestinians aren't selling.
And even as past peace negations were ongoing Sharon was behind the scene stealing more Palestinian land.
And the absence of a Palestinian will for peace is what has always been lacking.
They are the ones living in abject poverty while Israeli's enjoy pizza parlors...when they can.
CAN ABBAS DO IT?
Maybe, but...give up on the so-called "right of return" for Palestinian refugeesI can understand the number of Palestinians forced off of their land is overwhelming. I also understand NOT all Palestinians want to return - please, be logical...do a survey.
If...the conflict is still not about borders but about the existence of Israel itself
Arafat stated such in 1995 at Camp David.
(as the Palestinians with the guns and bombs continue to tell us),
And the Israeli fighter jets, unmanned guided planes with bombs, and nuclear weapons don't tell us anything?
Suicide bombers and rocks are a poor nations weapons...not of choice but of necessity.then all the U.S. pressure in the world won't do anything but undermine Israel's ability to defend itself.
How's it working? or are you refuting your own words "The Israelis, desperate for a respite from terror and willing to go a long way to get it"
But Arafat's death has given Israel's critics license to resurrect the same patent nostrums they peddled before.
Only more urgent now that the US is in the middle of a hornets nest trying for a better position for cheap oil - and throw in Israel's aided defense posture.
Will they succeed?
Oh us peacemakers are praying our heads off and doing everything we can think of to end this madness.
Bush ...Prime Minister Tony Blair, will cause him to reverse the revolution in American foreign policy that they effectuated in his first term.
We have no wool over our eyes - at the beginning of Bush's term he told Sharon - get out of Ramallah now, and when questioned again about "now" he replied "immediately" - then Bush shut up and didn't say another word until after he was elected - in this, Rice and Bush were reacting to the US public voice.
Bush and Rice are being asked a simple question: What do they believe... Here's hoping that Condi Rice is too smart — and Bush too stubborn — to get that one wrong.
Bush and Rice - two puppets in a pod and Corporate American is pulling the strings.
No, no anti-Semitism here - just an old great grandmother wanting these ancient relatives to learn to be neighbors - you know Isaac (Sharon) and Ishmel (Arafat).
(Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia
Jewish Exponent)
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