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Facing Reality in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

[Weekly Standard] David Gelernter - There was no such thing as "Palestinian nationalism" until modern Zionism created it out of whole cloth, by placing enormous value on a piece of land that used to seem as precious to its landlords as a rat-ridden empty lot in a burnt-out neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. The Jews gradually got possession of an arid stony wasteland - and they loved it. They turned it into a gleaming, thriving modern nation, not only a military but an intellectual powerhouse. And so it is only natural that the former owners' descendants want it back. Any competent psychologist will agree: When someone is mooning over a thing he can't have because it belongs to someone else, the responsible and humane course of treatment is not temporizing sweet-talk but a blunt lesson in the facts of life. "No, you cannot have my wife (girlfriend, husband, etc.), and we are not going to negotiate over it." There is no irreconcilable difference in the fight between Israel and the Palestinians. There is only greed and envy. The problem will be solved as soon as the world stops trying to solve it.
2009-01-13 06:00:00
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