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YNet reports:

A group of young Meretz Party activists sent a letter on Wednesday to Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal calling on him to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, recognize the State of Israel and launch negotiations on a ceasefire to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state…

“The Israeli occupation and the Palestinian terror have failed. The only solution is mutual recognition of the fact that both nations are here to stay and must therefore develop a normal relationship,” they told Mashaal in the letter.

If only it were that simple!

I don’t know what the Meretz activists think — that Mashaal will see their point, that his statement that he would agree to an independent Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders was a real offer of peace which must be pursued, or what.

It’s certain that Mashaal has not repudiated the Hamas Covenant, which calls for Israel to be destroyed.

This is a textbook case of why the ‘Western liberal approach’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict doesn’t work.

A normal relationship between the two nations is the last thing that Mashaal wants. Ending the occupation of the territories, establishing a Palestinian state and living in peace and prosperity is not his goal. In Mashaal’s world, the Palestinian terror has not failed. It has gained Hamas control of Gaza, and will shortly do the same for much of the West Bank. No, it has not yet succeeded in driving the Jews from Haifa, Jaffa, and Jerusalem, but in time he believes that it will.

Why on earth should he agree to end a policy that is achieving its aims in order to obtain a goal that he does not desire?

The Meretz activists think that Mashaal wants what they want: peace and prosperity. In fact, not even ‘moderate’ Palestinians like Mahmoud Abbas want this. What they want is to reverse the outcome of 1948 and recover their honor by expelling the Jews from the land that they believe was stolen from them.

From a Western point of view, the Palestinians are irrational, but they are what they are.

I think we are not going to succeed in teaching the Palestinians history. We are not going to explain to them that the Jewish state is really legitimate, and that they should give up the irredentist dream which has come to dominate the consciousness of the entire people — indeed, which has in essence created the ‘Palestinian people’.

What we need to do is to teach them in a practical way that terrorism will not bring their goal closer, and that the consequences of its employment will be horrific for them.

What this implies will not make the Meretz activists happy. One thing is that Israel must never respond to terrorism by giving up control of land, as she did in Gaza. ‘Ending the occupation’ is not likely in the near-term. And another is that the response to terrorism must be severe.

Does this mean that there is never a possibility of peace? Assuming that Israel is capable of continuing the struggle with as much or more perseverance as the Arabs, then some day an Arab leadership will arise that is prepared to say, as Rabin did, “Enough”.

But this won’t be today, and it certainly won’t be Mashaal!

Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestinians, Mashaal, Meretz

Below: the Devil takes full possession of Jimmy Carter’s soul. I wonder what he had to pay for it?

Carter lays wreath at grave of Yasser Arafat

Jimmy Carter is not (entirely) senile, and he has read a history book. He knows full well that Yasser Arafat is personally responsible for the murder of countless Jews, mostly innocent civilians, children, Olympic athletes, and an old man in a wheelchair.

He knows full well that at least three wars were started as a direct result of Yasser Arafat’s machinations, in which hundreds of young Jordanians, Lebanese, Israelis, Palestinians and others were killed.

He knows full well that Yasser Arafat had hundreds of Palestinian Arabs who were his political opponents murdered, allegedly for ‘collaboration’ with Israel.

He knows full well that Yasser Arafat stole literally billions of dollars which were intended to build a Palestinian economy and improve the condition of the Palestinian Arabs, and deposited it in his Swiss bank account. His fat, spoiled wife still gets $10,000 a month from the Palestinian Authority (undoubtedly covered by the US).

He knows full well that Yasser Arafat entered the Oslo ‘peace’ process with no intention to make peace and immediately constructed an ‘educational’ and media system designed to destroy the possibility of peace and to help young children grow up to be martyrs for the cause.

He knows full well that Yasser Arafat destroyed the two-state option by ordering and financing terrorism during the Oslo period and then rejecting the Clinton-Barak proposals in 2000, choosing war instead.

He knows full well that Yasser Arafat made peace between Israel and the Palestinians impossible by intervening at one of the rare historical moments when the conflict could have been solved and preventing its solution. How many more Arabs and Jews have yet to die as a result?

Carter knows all this, but he still honors the foul piece of garbage, the filthy snake who was likely one of the worst political actors of the 20th century (and believe me, he had competition)!

What did the Devil pay him for his soul?

Technorati Tags: Jimmy Carter, Arafat, Satan

Human nature is perverse in many ways. Why are some otherwise reasonable people sexually attracted only to partners who are obviously total losers, over and over? But irrationality is not confined to the personal sphere. There is a dark side of the psyche that pulls some in the direction of destruction and death, that admires really massive evil.

For example, how do you explain the popularity of Adolf Hitler, who started the Second World War and was responsible for the death of as many as 72 million human beings. Why do people collect Nazi memorabilia and dress up in SS uniforms? One would think that evil is repellent, but apparently the opposite is the case for many.

Or take the fascination with mass murderers, or particularly violent ones:

[Charles] Manson’s influence has ranged wide, in pop culture and beyond, covering fashion, graphics, music,] movies, television, and the stage. In an afterword composed for the 1994 edition of the non-fiction Helter Skelter, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi quoted a BBC employee’s assertion that a “neo-Manson cult” existing then in Europe was represented by, among other things, approximately 70 rock bands playing songs by Manson and “songs in support of him.” – Wikipedia

Perhaps there is an evolutionary explanation for this. Someone with no compunctions about murder and a certain degree of cleverness (note that neither Hitler nor Manson were simply brutes) is likely to succeed in a world close to Hobbes’ state of nature, and this renders him an advantageous ally.

This is part of the reason that terrorism works. Terrorism creates fear, which in turn generates both hostility and identification (the Stockholm syndrome). But there is also an element of admiration for the degree of brutality and indifference to suffering that characterizes terrorist acts.

Israel, unfortunately, has been a laboratory for the study of the effects of terrorism since before the founding of the state, and in Israel we see both extremes: extreme hostility and hatred of Arabs by some, and a pathological desire to appease on the part of others — probably more Stockholm syndrome than Manson appreciation, since the latter is mostly displayed by those who view it from a safe distance.

Here in the US, most people responded to 9/11 with fear, horror, and anger as one would expect. But especially in academic environments, there was also a strong current of, almost, approval. Ward Churchill famously blamed the victims:

As for those in the World Trade Center… Well, really, let’s get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire – the “mighty engine of profit” to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly… If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I’d really be interested in hearing about it. — Wikipedia, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens

Churchill’s point of view was by no means extraordinary, although possibly he went out of his way to provoke a reaction (and it didn’t help that he impersonated an Indian, falsified his military record, and committed multiple forms of academic misconduct).

Jihadists claim that there has been a wave of conversion to Islam in the world since 9/11 and the other major terrorist actions. I’ve been unable to substantiate or refute this, but if it is true we can suggest several possible reasons, starting with the most benign:

• The increased consciousness and discussion of Islam, which leads ‘searchers’ to consider it.

• The perception that “if they are serious enough to die — and to kill so many — there must be something to it.”

• Finally, a perverse attraction to the massive amount of evil done in the name of Islam.

Technorati Tags: terrorism

Jimmy Carter, the Saudi-paid CEO of the Saudi-financed Carter Center has decided to meet with Hamas head Khaled Meshaal in Damascus, despite pleas from the Israeli government and several members of the US Congress, and against the recommendation of the US State Department.

But Carter does not take orders from the State Department or Congress, and he certainly doesn’t have great respect for the government of what he calls an ‘apartheid state’, so off he goes.

“I feel quite at ease in doing this,” Carter said. “I think there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process.”

Although he said the meeting would not be a negotiation, he outlined distinct goals.

“I think that it’s very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire – things of this kind,” he said…

“I’ve been meeting with Hamas leaders for years,” Carter said. — Jerusalem Post

Has he talked to them about the Hamas Covenant, which says that it is a Muslim’s duty to kill Jews, that not one inch of ‘Palestinian land’ may be possessed by non-Muslims, and that “the only solution to the Palestinian question is jihad”?

Israel refuses to negotiate with Hamas because it is impossible to compromise with someone whose bottom line is your destruction. Unless Carter is capable of getting Meshaal to repudiate these principles, nothing good can come of their meetings.

But plenty of evil can. Hamas can gain respectability and sanction; instead of a gang of terrorist murderers who have killed literally hundreds of Israelis in shootings, suicide bombings, stabbings and missile strikes, Hamas takes on the cloak of a responsible governing power, which represents the half-million Palestinians of Gaza (and which has many supporters in the West Bank as well).

Hamas wants respectability above all, so that it can eventually receive aid from the West and be allowed to rejoin a ‘unity government’ with Fatah, permitting it to take over the West Bank as it did Gaza — and incidentally take possession of the huge amount of weapons pumped into Fatah by the US.

But there are other interests at work here as well. The Sunni Hamas’ present isolation has forced it to turn to Shiite Iran for financing and weapons. A return to at least partial respectability would reduce this dependence, exactly as Carter’s Saudi bosses wish.

So Carter is actually acting to further Saudi aims, helping the Kingdom gain control of the Palestinian movement, or at least keep it away from Iran.

Hamas supporters sometimes say that there is no reason that it should be marginalized. After all, didn’t it win a majority in the Palestinian Authority government by ‘free and fair’ elections (which Carter monitored)?

If you think that the legitimization of Hamas is a good thing, keep this in mind: if the genocidal Hamas is the legitimate voice of the Palestinian people, then Israel is at war — not just with Hamas, but with the Palestinians.

Because there can’t be peace with someone whose bottom line is your destruction.

Technorati Tags: Jimmy Carter, Hamas, Israel, Saudi Arabia