And what have the Palestinians done with this independence, this judenrein territory under the Palestinians' own control? They have used their freedom to ... launch rockets at civilians in nearby Israeli towns.
Why? Because the Palestinians prefer victimhood to statehood. They have demonstrated that for 60 years, beginning with their rejection of the United Nations decision to establish a Palestinian state in 1947, because it would have also created a small Jewish state next door. They declared war instead.
Half a century later, at the Camp David summit with President Clinton, Israel renewed the offer of a Palestinian state -- with its capital in Jerusalem, with not a single Jewish settler remaining in Palestine, and on a contiguous territory encompassing 95 percent of the West Bank (Israel making up the other 5 percent with pieces of Israel proper).
The Palestinian answer? War again -- Arafat's terror war, aka the second intifada, which killed a thousand Jews.
This embrace of victimhood, of martyrdom, of blood and suffering, is the Palestinian disease. They are offered their own independent state. They are given all of Gaza. And they respond with rocket attacks into peaceful Israeli towns -- in pre-1967 Israel proper, mind you.
What can Israel do but try to take out those rocket bases and their crews? What would the U.S. do if rockets were raining into San Diego from across the border with Mexico?
This is terrible to say, but the best hope for Palestinian peace may be a long, protracted Civil War between Fatah and Hammas that kills the bloodier elements on both sides.
The notion that the Palestinians want a state (save as a false one, re Gaza, that would allow them to kill more Israelis) is laughable. To the entire Arab world, the notion of a Palestian nation is laughable. "Palestine," has become the last, best justification for the Arab World (less free Iraq, mind you) to continue its backward, retrograde, undemocratic, anti-woman, anti-gay universe. Mention any reform--the smallest--from everything from an international conference to (and here I speak from experience) graduate school BYOB party, and this is what you'll hear: "Not until Palestine is settled." Alternately, in panel forums, the attendees will simply settle for shouts of "Palestine! Palestine!", as if lungs were a mark of intelligence.
No: the powers of the Arab world want the Palestinians right where they are, victimhood and blame and anti-semitism all justified. And Krauthammmer knows this better than anyone.
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