Friday, November 6, 2009
In real, functioning polities, when a leader decides not to seek office again, we give them a gold watch and say, "Thanks for your service." In a non-functional thug-state, life stops when Dear Leader moves on. It's a symptom of dysfunction. But that's not why I'm posting. Check out this absurd unsigned story (Dalia Nammari is listed as a contributor from Ramallah, West Bank) from AP (in The New York Times). It's all about The Narrative: Abbas' Move Reflects Deep Palestinian Despair
By saying he wants to step down as president, Mahmoud Abbas has highlighted a deep Palestinian despair rooted in decades of failed peace initiatives and fruitless violence.
Neither strategy has yielded a Palestinian state, and Israeli settlements still encroach on lands that would make up their would-be nation.
Stop right there. What rot. "Decades of failed peace initiatives and fruitless violence"? Can someone please hip me to a single peace initiative the Palestinians have ever put forward? One? Fruitless violence, yes. But have they ever pursued peace? The only thing they've ever done, under Arafat or Abbas, is throw bombs and demand gifts. Truth.
Facing a hawkish Israeli government and an Obama administration reluctant to put muscle behind its demands on Israel, many Palestinians say they see no hope at all.
No...responsibility...what...so...ever. The rest is similar garbage. No need for further quote or commentary.
[h/t: Sara]
and an Obama administration reluctant to put muscle behind its demands on Israel,
They have been indoctrinated to see themselves as victims and true to form look to a nanny to save them, from themselves.
One wonders what a free Palestinian state would look like? Would they even bother to have laws? If the garbage truck doesn't pick up the trash, do they blow it up? Shut down the government? Appeal to the UN?
I thought Abbas was an "Abba" tribute band.