How to Support the Palestinians

Actually, I support their re-integrating with Jordan etc, where they originally came from. Which they also have to become non-murderous before that happens, but it would be even better than a "two-state solution" since there is no need for a second state for "Palestinians" that didn't exist until they were created by Jordan etc, as a cudgel against Israel. Those other countries should undo that, and stop isolating their brothers and sisters and calling them something else.

Henry Racette (View Post):

Start with that, and everything else will become possible. Fail to achieve that, and the squalor and misery of the Palestinian people will continue.

Squalor and misery are more profitable for the 1%, though. Peace and prosperity requires actual work, and siphoning off international aid is easier. Squalor and misery breeds resentment that can be cheaply shaped and directed to maintain the ruling stats quo; peace and prosperity invites opposition from those who wish to do a better job, or undermine peace.

Squalor and misery gives you an external foe to blame, since obviously it can't be the fault of one's own society or culture or political structures. Peace and prosperity requires constructive engagement with external forces, a sober analysis of what makes those other countries more successful, and an emulation of those attributes where apt.

It's easier to toss rockets.

Henry Racette (View Post):

Start with that, and everything else will become possible. Fail to achieve that, and the squalor and misery of the Palestinian people will continue.

James Lileks (View Comment):

Squalor and misery are more profitable for the 1%, though. Peace and prosperity requires actual work, and siphoning off international aid is easier. Squalor and misery breeds resentment that can be cheaply shaped and directed to maintain the ruling stats quo; peace and prosperity invites opposition from those who wish to do a better job, or undermine peace.

Squalor and misery gives you an external foe to blame, since obviously it can’t be the fault of one’s own society or culture or political structures. Peace and prosperity requires constructive engagement with external forces, a sober analysis of what makes those other countries more successful, and an emulation of those attributes where apt.

It’s easier to toss rockets.

Hope springs eternal, dude.

Henry Racette (View Post):

Start with that, and everything else will become possible. Fail to achieve that, and the squalor and misery of the Palestinian people will continue.

James Lileks (View Comment):

Squalor and misery are more profitable for the 1%, though. Peace and prosperity requires actual work, and siphoning off international aid is easier. Squalor and misery breeds resentment that can be cheaply shaped and directed to maintain the ruling stats quo; peace and prosperity invites opposition from those who wish to do a better job, or undermine peace.

Squalor and misery gives you an external foe to blame, since obviously it can’t be the fault of one’s own society or culture or political structures. Peace and prosperity requires constructive engagement with external forces, a sober analysis of what makes those other countries more successful, and an emulation of those attributes where apt.

It’s easier to toss rockets.

But they get the money either way, they don't have to work harder to spend it on food than on rockets.

kedavis (View Comment):

Actually, I support their re-integrating with Jordan etc, where they originally came from. Which they also have to become non-murderous before that happens, but it would be even better than a “two-state solution” since there is no need for a second state for “Palestinians” that didn’t exist until they were created by Jordan etc, as a cudgel against Israel. Those other countries should undo that, and stop isolating their brothers and sisters and calling them something else.

Jordan annexed the West Bank in '48, and for some odd reason did not set it up as an independent Palestinian state. I don't think Jordan would want the West Bank now; what's in it for them? And they certainly don't want Gaza as some sort of Kaliningrad exclave.

I am not sure many of the protestors on campuses could pick out Jordon on a map or describe how the modern state came to be. It doesn't seem to be play any role in their understand of the region. In their minds, there was a country called Palestine complete with flags and a national anthem and such, and then a whole bunch of Polish Jews showed up and muscled everyone off because boo-hoo we were Holocausted, like that had anything to do with anything. Everything else is bothersome and irrelevant.