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Let's Not Make a Deal

[Jerusalem Post] Barry Rubin - The West is more concerned over the suffering of Arabs than the Arabs' own governments or leaders. The West is desperate to get the Palestinians a state, while both Hamas and Fatah want only an independent country on their own terms. Hamas wants total victory and Israel's eradication; most of Fatah merely wants an agreement to move that dream closer to reality. Why is this? Because they: think they are winning; fail to comprehend the concept of compromise; embrace a culture of patience in which steadfastness wins versus what they perceive to be a Western culture of instant gratification; use militancy as a demagogic substitute for peace or prosperity; understand that he who says no gains bargaining leverage; hold such extreme goals that they cannot be satisfied by any conceivable deal with Israel, America, or the West. The West assumes that the Palestinian leadership will be grateful if it is given a state, when it wants to be given all of Israel; that Iran merely need feel secure from U.S. power, when it wants to throw America out of the region; that the Iraqi insurgents want more of a voice for the Sunni minority, when they want to chop the head off the Shi'ite majority; or that Syria just wants the Golan Heights when it desires Lebanon enslaved and Israel destroyed. Or that the Muslim Brotherhood wants a reformed democratic state when it prays for an Islamist theocracy. There are very good reasons why Western efforts at engagement are never followed by marriage, and why endless confidence-building measures, peace plans, aid packages, and summit conferences keep failing.
2007-10-12 01:00:00
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