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It's Time to Stop Infantilizing the Palestinians
(Telegraph-UK) Alan Johnson - Despite the jubilant reaction of many Palestinians to the kidnapping of three Israeli teenage boys, the Palestinians will likely pay a very small price in the international community or global public opinion. Why? Because a mindset has taken root in the West that treats the Palestinians as children - "the pathology of paternalism" it has been called. It assumes that Israelis have responsibility and choice, while Palestinians do not. This kind of thinking casts the Palestinians as passive victims and discounts the threats Israel faces. The Palestinians remain perpetually below the age of responsibility. But if the Palestinians are treated as children, never held accountable for cultivating a culture of hate, then they will never make compromises for peace. And without those compromises, Israel will not take risks for peace. Nor should it. The writer is the editor of Fathom, published by the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM).