The only way to tank Islamist popularity is to give them their shot at governance. The trick is to make sure that the population gets a chance to vote them out, once they are good and sick of mullahs trying to run their lives.
So, in your view, the Islamists are incapable and will never evolve and will ever remain so inflexible that reality will not force them to adapt to changing circumstances. IMHO, you may be overly pessimistic. For all anyone knows, the mullahs and the Palestinians may surprise you by achieving just the opposite result of what you have envisioned to be the probable outcome.
BTW, the European colonial masters of yore held a view similar to yours with regard to their colonials opting for independence. Were they ever disdainful, even contemptuous, to begin with! But were they ever surprised by the dynamism, resourcefulness, success and achievements of most of their former colonies in the post-colonial era? The answer to that is a resounding YES!
Maybe the new Palestinian government, with avuncular inspiration and assistance from Iran and Syria may amaze us all as the new up and coming kid on the block? Not?
Of course, it could be argued that Palestine was never a colony of the Israelis (Zionist Jews, to be exact). But, like it or not, it was a quasi-colony until recent times when her status changed into what she is now, due in no small part to relentless opposition and armed hostilities of the Islamists.
To be sure, Arabs are well known for their rhetoric. For example, Saddam Hussein once declared that Iraq was at the forefront of Moslem Renaissance in the Middle East and that the Gulf War and the destruction visited upon his country were nothing more than the inevitable price for that renaissance. Lately, the Islamists reminded us of the their avowed aim to destroy Israel. To me, this is all rhetoric (talk is cheap!) and the Islamistss will, sooner or later, see their objective to be impossible in the light of reality. But they will continue to trumpet their cause for whatever mileage they could extract from it. Meanwhile however, that does not mean that due preparations to avert danger are unnecessary.
IMHO, the genesis of the wrath and hatred of the Islamists arose from the Crusades of yore and later it was reinforced by the disdainful and harsh treatment of the Arabs by the western imperialists. Even Winston Churchill, the so-called "last of the English gentleman", thought fit to bomb and kill Kurds in the 1920s with poison gas. His "justification" was that the Kurds were "sub-human." You can extrapolate from Churchill's contempt what other imperialist-minded westerners thought or still think of most of the Middle Easterners today. It seems it never occurred to the former western imperialists their colonials would/could some day rise up in arms to rid their territories of colonialism and even seek to become nuclear threats! Today, Iran is reacting to the past incursions and nefarious machinations of the US (overthrow of Mossadeq, installation of the Shah, and the Iran-Iraq War (1978-1988)).
Hawkmoon said in response to criticism that the western treatment of their Arab colonials was unethical, evil and unnecessarily harsh with an, oh well, reality is reality, and life is harsh, and this world is not an utopia.. While all that may have a vestige of truth, he forgets that the western imperialists, while Christians, were a bunch of evil hypocrites. They seem to have forgotten the Biblical injunction, "Do not unto others that ye would not have done unto you" and more......... Indeed, what goes around, comes around, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be! Verily, the mystical Law of Karma (Law of Compensation) is inexorable, immutable and impersonal, applying to all, Christians and non-Christians, Moslems and non-Moslems and etc, alike! Indeed, as the great Master Jesus and to some folks, G_d himself, hath said, "As you sow, so shall you reap." Today, whether you like it or not, manifestation of Karmic action occurs big-time in the Middle East!
In the light of Karma, the biggest joke of the century is Bush's proclamation, "9/11 was an unprovoked attack." Perhaps "unprovoked" is correct if one accepts the notion that Bush and his neocons were party to it for a "Pearl Harbor" to serve their intentions.
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