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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (247127)11/1/2007 4:31:20 AM
From: Elroy  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
Assume for the moment that Rubin is accurate.

Accurate in the below "rules"? They read like a smear campaign by someone who hates Palestinians, and you're making them out to be scientific research.

Which of the following will the Palestinian leadership voice? You've said yourself it is best to listen to them. Does Pal leadership voice any of these smear "rules"?

(1) Palestinians cannot stop other Palestinians from attacking Israel.
(2) He who is most militant is always right.
(3) More violence is good and a "victory" if it inflicts casualties or damage on Israel.
(4) No Israeli government can do anything good.
(5) Since Palestinians are the perpetual victim they are entitled to everything they want and never need to give anything in exchange for Israeli concessions.
(6) No Palestinian should be imprisoned for attacks on Israel one minute longer than required by international public relations‚ needs.
(7) Fatah won't discipline or expel anyone for launching attacks.
(8) Wiping Israel off the map is morally correct.
(9) The movement sets as top priority the so-called "right of return," the demand that all Palestinian refugees or their descendents must be allowed to live in Israel.
(10) It is more important to be steadfast and patient with a terrible status quo than to make big gains by ending the conflict forever.

Palestinian leaders may sincerely voice their dismay with this problem privately but won't fight to smash them. If they ever really do change we'll know.

Who among the Palestinians could describe the Rules and not immediately be branded a traitor himself?

If they were real Pal values/rules then Palestinians would voice them and support them, at least in Arabic. Some of them may be the idealogues values, but most humans are not idealists. And most of Rubin's rules ("The most militant is always right" comes to mind) are downright idiotic.

I don't know how accurate that analogy is, but let's suppose it's accurate. Aren't you missing a certain important event, a very large application of external force in the shape of an American/Nato invasion? Talk about your forcible rule reset!

The point is that negative assessments like Rubin's are not set in stone unmoveable objects. Surely he would have described Afghan "rules" as worse than current Pal rules, but Afghan got "fixed" with some effort. I don't know what the exact effort would be in the Pal-Israel situation, but the assessment that things are bad and cannot be improved, ever, is wrong.
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