Mark Steyn's new piece examines exactly how depraved things have become in the Middle East..and just how crazy things have gotten with the jihadis:
"A few years back, when folks talked airily about "the Middle East peace process" and "a two-state solution," I used to say that the trouble was the Palestinians saw a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to a one-state solution. I underestimated Islamist depravity. As we now see in Gaza and southern Lebanon, any two-state solution would be an interim stage en route to a no-state solution.
In one of the most admirably straightforward of Islamist declarations, Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of U.S. and French forces 20 years ago, put it this way:
"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."
Swell. But, suppose he got his way, what then? Suppose every last Jew in Israel were dead or fled, what would rise in place of the Zionist Entity? It would be something like the Hamas-Hezbollah terror squats in Gaza and Lebanon writ large. Hamas won a landslide in the Palestinian elections, and Hezbollah similarly won formal control of key Lebanese Cabinet ministries. But they're not Mussolini: They have no interest in making the trains run on time. And to be honest, who can blame them? If you're a big-time terrorist mastermind, it's frankly a bit of a bore to find yourself Deputy Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions, particularly when you're no good at it and no matter how lavishly the European Union throws money at you there never seems to be any in the kitty when it comes to making payroll. So, like a business that's over-diversified, both Hamas and Hezbollah retreated to their core activity: Jew-killing.
In Causeries du Lundi, Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve recalls a Parisian dramatist watching the revolutionary mob rampaging through the street below and beaming: "See my pageant passing!" That's how opportunist Arabs and indulgent Europeans looked on the intifada and the terrorists and the schoolgirl suicide bombers: as a kind of uber-authentic piece of performance art with which to torment the Jews and the Americans. They never paused to ask themselves: Hey, what if it doesn't stop there?"
Read it all... Failure to solve Palestinian question empowers Iran
7 comments:
steyn said:
But, as the Palestinian "nationalist" movement descended from airline hijackings to the intifada to self-detonating in pizza parlors, it never occurred to their glamorous patrons to wonder if maybe this was, in fact, a terrorist movement conveniently adopting the guise of nationalism.
ff,
steyn agrees with me.
why can't you?
try this:
http://www.suntimes.com/index/steyn.html
Hi Louie, Hi Nazar.
Nazar,
I have a direct link on the
B L O G R O L L to Steyn's site that will give you all his articles, including the the stuff he's written for the Western Standard and the NRO.
You think I put that stuff on there for my health? (LOL!)
Louie,
Let's not have any misunderstandings. The Palestinians are not a ` nation' in any sense of the word and aside from a hatred of Jews and a shared feeling of victimization there is nothing to bind them together..as we have seen from the way they have conducted themselves since Oslo.
The same could be said about other Arab countries for different reasons. (Do read Karsh's `Empires in the Sand' as I suggested..I guarantee you it will be worth it.)
The point I made which you seem to vociferously disagree with is (a) That regardless of whether they are realy ultimately nations or not in the NOW...REALTIME, the Palestinians (and the Lebanese for that matter) are conducting themselves as sovereign nations and are regarded and treated by the world as sovereign nations - and thus, their attacks on Israel constitute acts of war rather than mere `terrorism.'
As for reshaping the map. the one million dollar question is `where do you put the people?'
Do you really even imagine that Israel wants to have to deal with 1.3 million homicidal psychotic `Palestinians' as citizens?
They tried that already, reasoning that if they gave these people a chance at a decent, westernized life with jobs, education and medical care like the Arabs have in Israel that they would learn to live among the Jews in peace.
Didn't work so well did it?
The same is true when it comes to the Shiite population of South Lebanon. They have been so indoctrinated to hate Jews (and Christians, for that matter) that the LAST thing Israel wants is a situation where these people are within their borders permenantly.
Wake me up and let me know what your plan is once you figure out WHERE YOU'RE GOING TO PUT THE PEOPLE.
When it comes to the `Palestinians, there MAY be a VERY VERY slim chance they could be repatriated to the Arab countries that caused the refugee crisis in the first place..except they don't want the Palestinians any more than Israel does!
Why do you think the Pals have been kicked outof almost every Arab country? WHy do you think Egypt stationed 2,500 troops on the Gaza/Egypt border to make sure none left Gaza for Egypt?
Sorry if I seem a bit strident, but the eff up with the Palestinians has been years in the making and will not be solved simply by making the Israelis their baby sitters.
What the Israleis could have done was to annex the strategic parts of Gaza where the Jews lived and annexed borders in Judea and Samaria along the Judean hills and the Jordan valley and moved those Arabs to the other side of the line...which is what may ultimately happen. Gaza and South Lebanon are a different animal entirely.
Sorry if I seem a bit strident,
i wouldn't want you any other way.
once you figure out WHERE YOU'RE GOING TO PUT THE PEOPLE.
i don't have the/an answer to that.
the only thing i have as a reference to this is the south circa 1867-1875.
the dems in deecee were intent on letting the south win reconstruction. this gave us organizations like the KKK. not nice fellows either.
i don't have the answers to many of your questions.
but giving up land/appeasement doesn't seem to work either.
the one thing i do know is that israel funds pays their own army.
hezz/ham is not funded by their own tax revenues, are they?
because they don't have revenues flowing into their so called armies. they are subsidized militias funded by theocrats in capitals not in the fight.
if hezz is destroyed in southern lebanon, in six years time there will be someone else their to take their place. that's how i see it. don't give them a place to re-build. and when/if they do, take that land also.
imo, the pallys have been used/misused by their leadership for an entire generation, to the whims of mid-east theocrats. i would have thought that at some point someone would say enough let us be about building a better society for ourselves and make the jooos envious. it probably did happen, but arafat had him taken out and shot in the desert, and blamed the killing on the jooos.
Just to answer your questions..both Hezbollah and the Palestinians Authority receive their funding mainly from the following sources:
A)Foreign Aid:
The Pals get theirs from the EU, UNRWA and other UN programs,Arab nations, Iran and USAid. Hezbollah gets theirs from Syria, Iran and other Arab nations.
B) `Taxes'and payoffs:
Both groups charge people `taxes' especially if they have a business.
It's like the old IRA days in Northern Ireland...some greaseball with an AK or an M-16 in hand walks in and tells you how much your contribution to the `Cause' is going to be. In South Lebanon and the PA this is institutionalized and government run as a `trading license'.
In the PA, various `monopolies' and `trading licenses' are also for sale to the well connected..with a kickback that goes to the local Capo or enforcer.
C: Criminal Activity
Both entities are heavily involved in drug growing and running, smuggling, and prostitution, among other things. The Hezbollah controlled Bek'aa valley is a prime opium, marijuana and hashish growing region. The Pals are more into smuggling, prostitution and counterfeiting money and documents.
D: Profits from investments funded by siphoned off aid and criminal activity:
Abbas controls the $1.4 Billion Palestine Investment Fund while his shills blather in the UN about a `humanitarian crisis'. When the Saudis made Hamas do an audit before giving them aid money, they found 37,000 no show jobs on the Palestinian `payroll'for paychecks and salaries for people who didn't exist. Three guesses where that money went.
Hezbollah has similar vehicles.
Again, the 500 lb. Gorilla is `what do you do with these people'?
I actually have an idea that will NEVER be adopted by the Arabs, but would end the Arab/Israeli conflict once and for all if done..which is exactly whythe Arabs would NEVER implement it.
it sounds more like a synopsis of the sopranos, sans burqas, than a response to my question.
:)
and now the $64,000 question, why does nothing like your description presented on/in MSM as part of the discussion of the M/E?
i can figure that one out for myself.
whoopsie, forgot about the blogroll thingy.
sorry.
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