It seems that my juvenile scorn muscles have been in great need of exercise.
Poor, poor, pitiful Pals. They’re all depressed over the mess their democratically-elected government has made of their lives.
Ninety-two percent of Palestinians suffer from depression-related anxiety, caused by despair over violence between Hamas and Fatah gunmen and the apparent demise of the Palestinian unity government, according to a poll published by the Washington Times on Monday morning.
amil Rabah, the director of Ramallah-based Near East Consulting, polled 801 Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem for the latest survey, which has a margin of error of 3.4 percent.
The poll was taken last month, following a deadly flare-up between Hamas and Fatah gunmen that left dozens dead in Gaza and laid bare a dysfunctional unity government. The unrest cuts across region, political affiliation and social class, according to the poll findings.
Here’s a suggestion: Don’t vote for bloodthirsty terrorists or corrupt kleptocrats to lead you, and maybe your society might actually achieve something.
Guess maybe you shouldn’t have cheered Arafat’s return from Tunisia after all, hm?
This brings up a point that should be mentioned much more often:
Jordan did very little with the West Bank during its 19 years of control–during which time, of course, the demand for a Palestinian state could have been satisfied easily, yet strangely there was no outcry for one. By virtually every economic and social indicator life for the Palestinians improved in the early days of the occupation.
I lived on a kibbutz along one road from the territories into Haifa. Buses and sheruts (jitneys) passed by all the time. I’d sometimes catch one and there might be occasional documents checks.
In other words, the conditions of life were improving, the occupation–while indubutably an occupation–was not especially onerous…and the Palestinians chose a different path. They’ve done this to themselves.
Palestinians get no empathy from me. They did this to themselves and they seem to never learn!
Actually, I suppose that we can blame the Israelis. They brought Arafat back from Tunis and destroyed the progress that the “Pals” were making. Had Arafat been allowed to die of Aids in Tunis, there would probably be a peaceful and successful Israeli/Pal confederation with Israel indeed being the Jewish state.
OK, so that is the reason. G-d did not want Israel to be able to give up the West Bank area and did not want us to think that we could do it ourselves. Thus, He let the politicians make idiotic decisions (though that phrase may be a tautology).
I seem to recall that Arafat was brought back because there was already terrorism going on and Rabin and others thought Arafat could control it if he wanted to, and giving him access to the West Bank and Gaza so he could loot it and tyrannize over its people was the carrot for him to do so. Of course he didn’t control it, just made it worse. He intended it to be worse. If terrorism got him the PA what might more terrorism get him? The Palis have been following the same strategy, but they are now stuck with a nihilistic death cult for a policial culture. With the fence it becomes harder for the death cultists to kill Jews, therefore they begin to turn on each other. If the Palis want out of that cult they must appeal to Jordan and Egypt to rescue them, and forget the fantasy of a Palestinian state. I don’t believe they really care for a state anyway, it’s just an excuse to kill Jews. They will be content to be ruled by some kleptocratic Arab thug, and perhaps being gunned down by the death cultists will cure them of the desire to kill Jews. About this last I am not optimistic.