What do they think will happen? That suddenly, after 60 years, the Israelis will just vanish? Or that the Israelis will cease to be able to dominate them -- utterly -- militarily? Or that even *if* the oil disappeared tomorrow that we would withdraw our support of Israel? Or even if we did withdraw our support that a single Israeli soldier would somehow immediately cease to be worth 10 Palestinian gangsters?
I do understand the idea of fighting on for a lost cause -- as a resistance. Not as a government. They have an obligation to the Palestinian people that they aren't recognizing. If they want to continue the fight, they need to get out of the government. Government is about civilization and society. If you want to be a leader of a nation-state, you have to follow the rules. If you don't want to follow the rules, you don't get to lead the country. Now, if, through their underground efforts, they manage to drive the Israelis out of the Middle East, *then* they can enter the politics of Palestine. But while Israel exists as a legitimate, UN-recognized entity, Hamas as a political entity has to follow the rules of civilized nations.
Sigh. Why are the problems of the Middle East intractable? Or am I being entirely to Ameri-centric? Are there civilized solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I don't see? Is there a way for Sunnis and Shi'as to get along? Is there a compromise between Islamists and democracies? Can the Saudi royal family be persuaded to move their form of government out of the Middle Ages? Will ethnic differences ever be unimportant on the edges of the Middle East?
Y'know, the humanist in my is keenly interested in seeing the problems solved. The purely jingoistic American in me is inclined to tell them to drink their goddamned oil and let them go back to constant internecine squabbling. Tribes with flags, indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment