Comments on: Fool For Peace

By: freddie

freddie — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:47:11 +0000

“The whole idea of ‘Palestinian’ ethnicity is pure myth.”

How so?

By: robins

robins — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:29:05 +0000

Just to make it clear to some of the commentators above:
I live in Jerusalem and am familiar with the details of the situation here. I have respect for Ray Hanania and I would like to take such proposals seriously.Therefore I would want to hear serious considerations regarding the problems about Jerusalem (point 4), and how to approach Hamas (part of points 10 and 2). Actually, the violent extremists of Fatah would also be included in this latter issue.
I would love to see ‘grass root’ activism giving a lead where top-down approaches have failed, but as it stands, this isn’t it.

By: Paul Frenkel

Paul Frenkel — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:30:23 +0000

“Would the Palestinians vote for a Christian president anyway?”

Nope.

By: Israelinurse

Israelinurse — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:17:33 +0000

4 would be the stumbling block. Most of the rest is pretty acceptable, give or take a bit of polish here and there.
What is important is that the guy has ideas and seems to understand that some sort of compromise will be necessary.
Good luck to him, I say.

By: Gordon Bennet

Gordon Bennet — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:31:19 +0000

you’ve forgotten that this is the Harry’s Place comments section, home to people for whom this entire conflict (and several others) only exists as an opportunity for their self-expression and political vanity.

Total bollocks. I, and many others here, have a family in Israel. You really should stop projecting your own shortcomings on other people.

By: Gordon Bennet

Gordon Bennet — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:29:02 +0000

Lynne, I am not sure but it sounds to me as though you may be denying them volition and agency. You say “if Palestinians were actually presented with a viable alternative”. Who is supposed to present them with this alternative? They claim to be a nation. Let them prove this by coming up with their own truly civil institutions (rival gangster clans don’t count) as every nation has been doing since the year dot. They’ve had plenty of time to do this.

By: Gordon Bennet

Gordon Bennet — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:25:38 +0000

To truly make peace, you have to compromise with your enemies and make concessions, even to the point of conceding major points of principle. Hanania gets it, unlike most Palestinians and many on this board. What you completely fail to get is that one side wants to annihilate the other - and says so quite openly. What would you suggest: both sides agree to have Israel annihilated just a little bit?

By: Alcuin

Alcuin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:52:31 +0000

… this entire conflict (and several others) only exists as an opportunity for their self-expression and political vanity.

I suspect you may have hit a target there. I have always wondered why so many decent people get so wound up on this issue, and the billions of petrodollars spent by Arabs on propaganda does not quite seem enough – we have to be receptive to the message in the first place, and those who are suspicious have to keep quiet. I like it.

By: Monty

Monty — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:51:53 +0000

Would the Palestinians vote for a Christian president anyway?

By: Lynne T

Lynne T — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:08:23 +0000

Sharks:

The Palestinians have certainly been shamelessly exploited and propagandized for generations by both “native sons” like Arafat and ostensible Arab and non-Arab Muslim brothers-in-arms like Nasser, the Al-Assads, Khomeini et al, but if they were truly hard-wired as you suggest, it would not have been necessary to propagandize and bribe them to raise their children to be suicide commandoes.

Only a fool would try to predict what would happen if Palestinians were actually presented with a viable alternative to Fatah and Hamas and allowed to vote in truly free and fair elections. Currently, we have a population caught between rival gangs, but more likely than not, most are fed up with the general decline in living standards since Israel had to adopt security measures to reduce terror attacks and can also connect the dots between the cost of “resisting” Israel and the lack of services and development within the PA.