Think Again: Why the Palestinians can’t dance, in Obama’s own words

Obama’s own analysis leads to the conclusion that peace will not be had with the Palestinians because their goals are not those of Western liberals seeking a slightly larger slice of the pie.


It takes two to tango, and Obama’s own words make clear why the Palestinians can’t dance. Though the president will never refer publicly to the problem of Islam, lest he fan anti-Muslim sentiments, in Goldberg’s telling he is perfectly forthright with other world leaders: there will be no solution to Islamic terrorism until Islam reconciles itself to modernity. For that, Muslims themselves will require a vigorous internal discussion. None is on the horizon.

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And for precisely the reasons given by Obama, a Palestinian state in the West Bank would quickly degenerate into a failed state and terrorist haven. Institutions of civil society remain weak, and clan and tribal identity high. Civil war broke out in Gaza soon after the Israeli withdrawal, and the same would happen in the West Bank. And as a consequence, the West Bank would become a terrorist haven, as has Gaza, where vast, vitally needed resources are still dedicated to waging war on Israel.

Palestinian society fits Obama’s description of Arab countries in general: it is characterized by a “violent, extremist ideology or ideologies, turbocharged through social media” – indeed, in the Palestinians’ case, turbocharged by the official media and education system.

In short, Obama’s own analysis leads inexorably to the conclusion that peace will not be had with the Palestinians because their goals are not those of Western liberals seeking a slightly larger slice of the pie. They seek not a state – that they could long ago have had – but the end of the alien one next door.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Think-Again-Why-the-Palestinians-cant-dance-in-Obamas-own-words-455019