Dr. Phil became famous by offering people a reality check in
the form of a question: How’s that working out for you?
The same applies to what is called the Palestinian cause.
Evelyn Gordon sums up what the Palestinians have
accomplished since the first Intifada in 1987:
After
25 years of fighting Israel in every possible way–“popular resistance,” suicide
bombings, rockets, diplomatic warfare, boycott/divestment/sanctions efforts–all
the Palestinians have to show for it is 25 years of steady decline. Indeed, the
facts bear out Ashour’s assessment: Despite massive international aid, Gaza’s
per capita GDP has remained virtually flat, totaling $817 in 1987 and
$876 in 2010.
Unemployment, which was generally under
5 percent in the 1980s, had soared to 45 percent by
the end of 2010. And to add insult to injury, neither the terror nor the
diplomatic warfare succeeded in preventing Israel from flourishing over those
25 years.
For the record, the Israeli GDP is well over $30,000.
How do the Palestinians survive? Why do they continue the
fight? Simple: they are wards of Western governments and international aid organizations. Apparently,
they feel no shame being a dependent, even a beggar state.
And they believe that their cause is being sustained
politically by sympathetic Westerners.
Gordon explains that Western enablers are perpetuating
Palestinian misery:
Yet if
Palestinians are primarily to blame for their addiction to such
counterproductive tactics, the international community has played a crucial
role as enabler. First of all, the massive international aid–more than four
times as much per capita as any other nation receives–has cushioned
them from the consequences of their bad decisions. Gaza’s situation may not be
rosy, but it’s better than that of many other countries: As Michael Rubin noted,
Gaza outranks more than 110 countries worldwide in terms of both life
expectancy and infant mortality. And as long as international aid is keeping
them relatively comfortable, Palestinians feel little incentive to change their
tactics.
Far
worse, however, is that by offering the Palestinians almost unstinting
diplomatic support while relentlessly criticizing Israel, the world feeds
Palestinian fantasies that these tactics will someday succeed–that eventually,
the world will force Israel to its knees.
She concludes:
For all
its vaunted concern for the Palestinians, it seems the international community
would rather let them suffer another 25 years of steady decline than try to
wean them from their failed strategies.
I find it difficult, even impossible, to believe that these
policies are based on anything other than the rankest form of anti-Semitism.
2 comments:
Stuart, you do realize of course, that this makes you a radical rightwing crazed Jew Loving anti-human rights provocateur of the worst sort. Congratulations and welcome to the club. {/sarcasm} With all kidding aside, pointing out reality to the left is almost pointless, their minds are made up and they do not want to be confused with facts.
Blaming the victim for not lieing down and dieing, then calling everyone who notices an anti-semetic.
How’s that working out for you?
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