Wednesday, October 14, 2009

What, Me Pay?

In "Who is Responsible for Palestinian Suffering?", Jeffrey Goldberg is attacked:

In your post about the Naqba, you suggest that Palestinians today ought to suffer because of the bad decisions of their leaders. While it is true that Arab leaders in 1948 made some bad decisions, how could you possibly blame the descendants of the Arabs who lived in Palestine in 1948 for the mistakes of their former leaders? Do you not care about them?

and responds, in part:

Of course I care about them...but in the real world, a) we all suffer from the mistakes of our leaders, even leaders long-dead, and b) the Palestinians and their leaders today are not guilt-free, either. After all, you get the leaders you deserve...

...One day, maybe sooner, maybe later, Israel will have to evacuate most of its West Bank settlements, in particular the far-flung [how far are they flung actually?] settlements around Nablus...Israel might very well ask the United States (or Jewish donors abroad) to help pay for the massive cost of moving tens of thousands of settlers. [as was done during Begin's Sinai withdrawal] As an American taxpayer, my inclination would be to tell the Israelis to pick up the tab for their own mess.

...At a certain point, someone is going to have to assume responsibility for nearly one hundred years of self-defeating mistakes. The Arab states, and the Palestinian national movement, are responsible for a great deal of Palestinian suffering, and the lessons of the past, if properly learned, could bring an end to that suffering today.

No comments: