In which a British reporter mourns the loss of his faithful guide while experiencing the anarchy that is Gaza:
I have always been reluctant to accept the Israeli statesman Abba Eban’s observation that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Arriving in Gaza yesterday, it had to be admitted that the man had a point. Four months ago, when I was last here, the place sparkled with optimism. With the hated Israelis gone, Gaza was going to show the world what Palestinians could do when left to their own devices.
The Strip’s miles of golden sand were to become a sort of Islamic Miami Beach, minus the booze and bikinis. Maybe, a few diehard optimists dared to hope, Yasser Arafat’s vision of Gaza as a Middle Eastern Singapore might at last start to be realised.
Yesterday, it felt more like the Wild West.
That article seems to be a throwback to the days of Kipling. It’s full of the British narrator longing for his faithful guide (unavailable due to blood feud problems), and mourns the loss of the only place in Gaza where you could get a beer.
But at least he isn’t blaming the Jews.
On the way, we passed through the town of Khan Younis. The main road was blocked by what I took at first to be an election rally.
Wrong. The Masri boys were at it again, this time wading into the Tahas, their sworn enemies in the southern end of the Strip.
The action in the main street was confined to fists and boots, but, as we turned into a parallel street to detour round the mob, we ran into a gun battle, with the rivals trading Kalashnikov fire from opposing blocks of flats. The cars in front of us sped up a bit, but 50 yards from the shooting, life was going on as normal.
Charming.
If Gaza was the place where the palestinians could show the world what they’d do once they had their own governance, it’s doing its job quite nicely. Anarchy. Chaos. Lawlessness. Murder. Yep. That’s about par for a terrorist state.
So, EU, what do you think of your creation?
The article opens with a nice bit of Orwell. Eban’s line was that the ARABS never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, and changing that word changes the meaning considerably.
Rewriting history can be so much fun, and you almost can’t avoid doing it when you use the word “Palestinian.” I especially love it [not] when a US official talks about “Palestinian land.”
That comparison of Gaza to the Wild West is slander. Dodge City and Tombstone were oases of peace and order by comparison.
Some people will never miss an opportunity to pick nits! I’m too lazy to look it up, but if Eban said “Palestinians”, he was referring to “Palestinians”. If, on the other hand, he used the word “Arabs”– well, that still refers to “Palestinians”. (“Palestinians” are Arabs…)
Either way, Ebban’s point is relevant. But then, if one really wanted to avoid the main point of this article . . . Oh, never mind!!! :-)