Podhoretz: Towards the End of Israel

Podhoretz's insulting  contempt  for all things Palestinian is on display again:

The problem is that the Palestinians are the problem: They are drenched in an ideology of blood and murder and suicide.

A new nation must be brought into being, nurtured and built. But Palestinian political culture is a culture of destruction.

And a culture of destruction is, inevitably, a culture of self-destruction.

So: Bye-bye, Palestinian state. See you in a few decades, when Palestinians learn how to do something other than destroy others and themselves.

You have to love his stereotyping of an entire group. It reminds me of something a German once said about another group.  I'm also impressed that he recognizes that " a new nation must be brought into being, nurtured and built." Gaza is only twice the size of Washington DC, and has almost three times the population. The idea of a nation "brought into being" when Israel "controls maritime, airspace, and most access to the Gaza Strip" is absurd.  That quote is from the CIA Fact book, which also discusses:

"Israeli military measures in PA areas resulted in the destruction of capital, the disruption of administrative structures, and widespread business closures."

and Israel's failure to "lift the economic siege on Palestinians."

Podhoretz supported the destruction by Israel of the infrastructure in Gaza. There was never any doubt that every bomb that fell around Yasir Arafat would strengthen the hand of Hamas. Now he blames the Palestinians for failing to create a state.

Even worse however, is the ignorance and arrogance in his last statement, as these will cause the destruction of Israel. That country does not have the luxury of a "few decades."  If nothing else, the situation in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon  should have taught us the limits of our ability to control the outcome.

(h/t memeorandum)

Comments

[rick]

Netanyahu predicted more than a decade ago that adopting Oslo would create a terrorist state in Gaza. Prophetic, no?

What little consequence it is that many, if not most, Palestinians (Syrian and Jordanian Arabs who have recently insisted that we refer to them as Palestinians and we just nodded our heads and obliged) simply want to live in peace*, when those they have elected to represent them, behave precisely as Podhoretz describes.

I find it haunting that the left remains mute while Arabs slaughter each other in Gaza. Lebanon, the only state remotely resembling a democracy in all of greater Arabia, attempts to surgically remove terror while Syria assassinates the seventh major Lebanese political figure and the left cannot muster a grown. It makes one believe that voices are only heard when there is an opportunity to criticize America or Israel. Even as Israel watches silently, it is some how her fault. And the White Knight is talking backwards and the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”

*I used to believe this with all my heart. I am beginning to think that I might be kidding myself