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Israel, PA Preoccupied with Existential Threats

(Telegraph-UK) Stephanie Gutmann - After the Israeli Interior Ministry announced a construction project in contested East Jerusalem, Vice President Biden reportedly said that the lack of an agreement over Palestine is "endangering U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." Oh please. Like what's really irking the Taliban and al-Qaeda is the placement of borders over in Palestine. If there was a "final status agreement," everybody would settle down and take up crocheting. The VP's comment reveals some profound confusion about how the region works. Almost everyone - Israeli and Palestinian alike - admits in private that with Hamas busy stockpiling Iranian weapons and tightening its law enforcement and Sharia noose on the citizens of Gaza, there was little chance either Abbas or Netanyahu would commit to terms that change the status quo significantly. Both, in their own way, are quite preoccupied with very large existential threats. The Palestinian Authority is as menaced by Hamastan as Israel. In fact one of the factors keeping Abbas' crew from being completely overrun by Hamas (as it was in Gaza in 2007) is the presence of "occupying" Israeli soldiers. Most of the PA declarations, therefore, about Israel's "intransigence" in building this apartment building or that are a form of semaphore, mostly directed to the EU - we can't be expected to offer our people a free press or end incitement to terrorism while we're under Zionist occupation, so please keep giving us aid.
2010-03-12 09:21:30
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