The Reason The Palestinians Want An International Conflict

quartetLast week the Middle East Quartet called on Israel to “cease settlement construction and on the Palestinians to halt violence and incitement.”

And it upset Mahmoud Abbas.  Deeply.  And it upset him because, even though the report was critical of Israel, it dared to criticise the Palestinians too.  Can you believe the chutzpah?

He was disappointed because he wanted the report to only blame Israel and he wanted the report to call on Israel to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines.  And even though I don’t believe in the cessation of what the report terms “settlement construction,” the mere fact that it tried to show some attempt, allbeit misguided, at a kind of balance between the two parties upset Mahmoud greatly.

So he did what he always does.  He whinged to the UN Security Council, urging them to reject the report.  Now, this is nothing new, because every time Israel responds to a terror attack, or when some guy builds a toilet in his backyard, or when a palestinian has a flat tyre, or when the weather report said it would be 23 degrees and it was only 22, he complains!

He complains because the last thing he wants to do is have direct negotiations with Israel.  The last thing he wants to do is resolve the conflict. He will do everything in his power to involve the UN Security Council, the European Parliament, the World Organization of the Scout Movement, the International Association of Lyceum Clubs.  Anyone and anything – as long as he avoids Israel directly.

And the reason he wants to continue along this path is because he wants to be awarded a fake state of Palestine without any of the responsibilities and obligations that go with it. He wants to get all the cake with all the cream and all the toppings, but not pay a cent for it. Even though he’s already declared himself President For Life, he wants a kingdom to go with it!  Kind of like how Jordan was formed – a fake country created by the British to give some pompous Arab clan leader a patch of land to rule over – a patch of land illegally trimmed out of the British Mandate for Palestine.

Unfortunately, much of the world bodies acquiesce to this childish ranting of a man drunk with the riches of a so-called “occupation,” one that has made him and his family very rich people indeed.

And carrying on from this, the PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah’s office said, “The Palestinian Leadership expressed its dissatisfaction with the recent Quartet Report. The Report offers an imbalanced assessment of the realities on the ground, and equates between the victim and the colonizer, while giving Israeli settlers a pass.”

This is truly incredible, because does anyone even know or care who the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister is, or that there even is one??  He has about as much influence as emptying an ocean with a teaspoon.

But importantly, what we can gather from his statement, is that the Palestinians will always see themselves as victims – victims who, despite having received billions of dollars through the years, and are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid, have done nothing with it.  And that mentality is what gives them an expectation that somehow the world must create a state for them, while they sit back and do nothing. Why negotiate, when you can simply sit back and let the world scramble over each other to throw money at you.

In truth, the Palestinians are victims.  But they are not victims of Israel, or the international community or some international conspiracy. They are victims, the same as any ordinary citizen in any Arab country, of corrupt regimes who see people as cannon fodder to be denied human rights and freedom.

When the international community begins to realise this very simple fact, they’ll be able to assess the “realities on the ground” and force the Palestinians to accept that to build themselves a future will require responsibilities – responsibilities that no one has yet demanded of them.

18 thoughts on “The Reason The Palestinians Want An International Conflict”

  1. Norman_In_New_York

    Abbas clearly doesn’t like his bluff getting called, no matter how haltingly the Quartet does it. And it promises to get worse when the U.S. Congress takes up aid funding.

  2. I find it truly astounding that the Palestinian Arabs or anyone in the world can honestly believe this drivel. How often do you hear “the Palestinians believe this is their land”? In the real world, where grownups live, a people don’t own chunks of land, haven’t for over 200 years. Countries have borders, but individuals don’t “own” land unless they bought it. Let’s say Israel gives up a chunk of land tomorrow, do the Palestinian Arabs imagine they will be able to run and stick their stake in the ground?

    1. Jim from Iowa

      Grown-ups, even in the 21st Century, still believe in all kinds of things, Inessa. Like some grown-ups living in the West Bank believe that this is their land by divine right. And there are grown-ups in Kentucky who believe the Noah’s Ark story in the bible is literally true and that Noah and his family built holding pens for dinosaurs on this really big sea-faring vessel. And there are grown-ups who see absolutely no difference in how a six-pointed star is used by the Walt Disney Co. in some of their “Frozen” merchandise and how the Trump campaign used a six-pointed star in their tweet concerning the corruption of Hillary Clinton. Grown-ups believe all kinds of things in this crazy world.

      1. ahad_ha_amoratsim

        Some even believe that Yehuda and Shomron are not the legitimate, historic names for the “West Bank”, or that Jews have no historic connection to that land, or that Israel’s right to that land, as the last legitimate possessor, are not superior to those of Jordan, who illegally invaded it in 1948 as part of their unprovoked war of genocidal aggression.
        Or that Jews have no right to live on land they bought if the neighbors don’t want them there. Or that the PA and Abbas are moderates who want peace. Or that there was a historic Arab state called Palestine. Or that “settlements” means anything more than Jews living where people don’t want them, or are somehow the cause of Arab determination to destroy Israel and murder Jews.

        Or for that matter, that scary looking rifles cause murders or are more dangerous than rifles that don’t look as scary.

        Yep, Jim, you are right — grown-ups do believe all kinds of things in this crazy world.

      2. The six point star is not unique to Jews unlike symbols such as the menorah. The symbol was also used in Christian churches as a decorative motif many centuries before its first known use in a Jewish synagogue (Wikipedia). And the five point star was linked to devil worship, but then also communism. But yes, grownups believe all sorts of things. If I claimed that some people originated from aliens and that I had an inherent ability to speak 70 languages that I just need to tap into, I might be a schizophrenic…….or a Scientologist. Less than 20 years ago, we couldn’t communicate like this. It is mind boggling how much the world has changed with the Internet. How is it possible that with all the power that knowledge and enlightenment should give us, we use it to invoke age old hatereds and superstitions?

    2. Well, where do “countries” come from anyway?
      Look at it this way.
      There are peoples, like almost every Native American tribal nation, or the Kurds, who claim homelands for their people but who are not presently in possession of most or all of those lands. These claims are rooted in history, and are true.
      The mere fact that the Western powers or the Middle Eastern powers chopped up those lands and spit on these peoples doesn’t make the land any less theirs. There are recognized states in our times, and there are peoples’ homelands, and sometimes these overlap and sometimes they don’t.
      So, if their lies had been true, and there were thousands of years of a distinct Palestinian people, living in a region, having kings or parliaments or whatever, and all of that, then it would be perfectly reasonable, sensible, and appropriate for them to lay claim to a “chunk of land” as you put it, whether or not anybody else agrees with them.
      It’s just that, as we know, their claims are bogus.
      But the concept of land ownership by a people, in this sort of sense, is how we Jews lay claim to our homeland, and kept doing so for nearly 2000 years without having being in control of any land to speak of, or having a political state with any recognized borders.

      1. My point is that even if one takes the position of the Devil’s Advocate, and argues that the Palestinian Arabs have rights as native descendants, or indigenous peoples, there is nowhere else in the world today that an indigenous people justifies massacring all other populations on the pretext that “this land belongs to them”. Rather, the way it works today is that people who can prove indigenous status, are considered as belonging to this land, rather than the land belonging to them. As in, there is a country within certain borders, I can prove my roots being traced as an indigenous person, even from many generations ago. This means I can move to this country and live there. I can buy or rent a property in this country. I can work there. It does not mean that I can physically displace anyone living in a location my ancestors lived in. It certainly does not mean I can go around killing people, even if they live in the location where my ancestors lived. There are areas all over the world that have been carved up and divied up with artificial borders – former Yugoslavia, former Soviet Union most of the Middle East. There are parts of Poland that were Poland, then they were Soviet Union, then they were Ukraine or Belorussia. The people either stayed put and their passports changed or they moved. Or in some cases, it’s not about indigenous status, just proof of tracing roots to a country. For example, people whose relatives were from Poland and survived the Holocaust, can now apply for Polish citizenship. Spain has offered citizenship to Jews who can prove Sephardi roots traced back to Spain. But it is only in the case of Israeli Jewish children being murdered in their beds that the “grownups” all over the world nod knowingly and sympathise with the poor, desperate, displaced Palestinians and their quest to regain their dignity through murdering Jews. Seriously?

          1. Sorry for the long ramble. As you say, this is the reason we, Jews, lay claim to our homeland, and have done for 2000 years. But in a practical sense, as a Jew I can migrate to live on Israel and I can become a citizen, but I do not get actual land allocated to me for gracing Israel with my presence. And then we (and the world) should ask – what is it the Palestinian Arabs want in the practical sense. Even the most moderate ones, if they want to claim this land and live in it, do they want to live there as Israeli citizens? I don’t think that’s what they have in mind. On the other hand, they want the areas they claim for their state to be free of Jews. So the only way to accommodate them is for Israel to disappear. And that’s why no one can solve their problems.

            1. The fact that for a century, the Arabs who call themselves Palestinian now have rejected any and all compromises and offers for a state of their own, seems to point to the fact that their leading echelon is not interested in any solution (which, incidentally, would force them to actually work at a state building and maintaining), but are quite satisfied with the status quo.

              1. My point exactly. There is no reasonable way forward if Palestinian Arabs demand their right for a state while at the same time demand their right to move into another state and continue to assert these “rights” by murdering Jews. I don’t understand how no one, especially not even the U.S. administration, calls them out on this absurdity. I mean, I do understand how, and it’s depressing to contemplate. It is inherently stupid of the U.S., UN, EU, etc to continue to make demands of Israel, as long as the Palestinians’ demand for “right of return” is not done away with. That single concept makes a mockery of any possible negotiation and is the root of all the incitement and violence. It doesn’t help that Israel, from the Knesset down, seems to treat Israeli Arabs with the deference afforded to minority groups with special indigenous status, rather than merely a minority group with equal rights. How else to explain actual affirmative action laws re entry to universities, jobs and the antics of MPs like Haneen Zoabi and Tibi?

                1. To which “actual affirmative action laws re entry to universities, jobs” do you refer?
                  Could you elaborate, as I’m not aware of any such laws for Israeli Arabs, besides their being exempt from mandatory Military/Civil service.

                  1. As I understand, large organisations, and universities sometimes have “quotas” for places to be filled by non-Jewish (as in, Arab) students or workers, so as not to be discriminatory. That’s not to say that Arab graduates or workers do not deserve their achievements. I’m not certain that this practice still happens, but it definitely used to. While the underlying reasons may be honourable (encouraging diversity, increased opportunities to be equal, respected members of society, equal representation of minority communities), as often happens, people do often ruin and corrupt the noblest of ideas.

                    1. I was not aware of any institutionalized (i.e., written) such practices. Though it’s always possible that such institution/workplace or other has some informal such guidelines/practices, and in academia, students from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g., of Ethiopian decent, from the periphery, or from the Arab sector), or due to personal circumstances didn’t do so good at high school, may get some additional help (financial/academic), that is just common sense and “leveling out” the playing field.

                      However, after doing some research, seems I was mistaken and Israeli Arabs do have a slightly lowers acceptance barriers at Israeli academia, so I have to assume that practice is also common in the workplace.

                      But – as I wrote before – these are private practices, and I’m unaware of any “affirmative action ‘laws'” in force in Israel.

                    2. You may be right, it may not be actual laws, but certainly a well known practice, written or not, to have quotas for university places, and employment. As usual, there are positive and negative factors. In theory it makes some sense. However, when a “minority group” is as large as this, and the corresponding “majority” is not at all homogenous, it does seem that a large group is afforded special treatment, whereas other disadvantaged minority groups are not because they are viewed as being part of the majority. Entry to some prestigious university courses in Israel is quite difficult, so that many Israeli school leavers can more easily get into universities overseas than in Israel, but then you have to be able to afford studying overseas. I have first hand knowledge of this as my husband completed a Business degree in Australia, and he couldn’t get into a similar university course in Israel. The other thing about the army exemption, is that Arab students do get a two to three year head start on university studies. I don’t know why there isn’t some form of community service instead of army service, but predictably, where there is perceived “special treatment” of another group, there is resentment.

                    3. I looked at the Technion’s slight favouritism towards Arabs, and seems that it only applies in the less in-demand faculties. In the top faculties, one gets in on merit alone.

                      As for the Army/Civil service, you get no argument from me: personally, it was rather infuriating getting to University only at age 23 (Army service + more than a year’s work to gather the tuition money) and study alongside Arab students who were 18.5 years old.

                      The Druze of course serve as anyone else, and to a large extent, so do the Bedouin Arabs. The Christian Israelis started volunteering due to the efforts of Father Gabriel Naddaf.
                      My opinion: one cannot really feel Israeli unless one served, so – it may be that things may change in that regard.

  3. The Palestinians don’t want the UN to “give them a state” per se. What they want is for the UN to change the name of Israel to Palestine and kill or drive into exile, destitute, (A-GAIN!) the Jews. What happens after that – most likely, a brutal multi-front war as Iran and various Arab powers fight over the land and belongings of the Jews – doesn’t matter at all.

  4. Errata:
    Andit upset Mahmoud Abbas. -> And it upset Mahmoud Abbas.
    withdraw to the 1948 armistice lines. -> withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines.
    all be it misguided, -> albeit misguided,

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