A thoughtful review of The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process.
“State of play,” by David Pryce-Jones, New Criterion, April 2020:
A review of The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process by Robert Spencer
The Palestinian Delusion is a discussion of one of the more troubling issues of international politics, and that is the refusal of the Palestinians to make peace with Israel. Two relatively small populations are at different stages of nation-building, and they quarrel over territory and sovereignty, the factors on which their futures depend.
European nations have long been accustomed to a procedure for settling contested territories and sovereignties. Warfare is of course a human failure, but, fairly or unfairly, it may bring about the end of a dispute. Victor and vanquished then meet in some neutral city, each party proposing rewards and punishments to the other in pursuit of their interests. A stark example would be the willingness of the French government to assent to the Germans occupying the country after the national collapse of 1940.
Ahead for the time being in the process of nation-building, Israel has had its way on the battlefield. Following European precedent, Israel has then met Palestinian spokesmen in places of good will such as Camp David and Oslo. On one occasion after another, the state of Israel since its foundation has made six separate proposals for settling territory and sovereignty, all of which have been rejected. In this respect, President Trump’s recently touted “deal of the century” is merely a repeat. The Palestinians have made no counter-proposals.
There is an obvious bargain that would lay to rest this whole long-running drama. Israelis are in a position to give land to the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are in a position to give peace to the Israelis. Robert Spencer makes the forceful point that the bargain always fails to materialize because land is tangible, a real asset, whereas peace is abstract, a matter of promises that might or might not be kept. Trust is impossible when there are no means of guaranteeing the delivery of peace and also no means of holding back those who prefer war.
There is much more. Read the rest here.
A7E.Pilgrim says
Neville Chamberlain learned how effective trading land for peace is.
mortimer says
Yes, A7EPilgrim, that is because a totalitarian wants the ‘totality’ … he does not want to compromise on that. The Pallies are totalitarians, thus they will not compromise.
James says
Land for peace would only work when the Palestinians got all the land. Then they would make peace, assuming the Israelis disappeared.
mortimer says
Egg-zactly … ‘disappear’. Israeli territory would be annexed by Jordan in minutes.
mortimer says
David Pryce-Jones’s book review is superb. So is Robert Spencer’s important, must-read book.
Tony Naim says
Abolish Dhimmitude as an ideology based on discrimination and prejudice , a crime against humanity no different than apartheid, will legitimize Israel in the ME.
mortimer says
Yes, Tony, but no Muslim will agree with you. Dhimmitude is a core part of Islam. The only solution is for Muslims to leave Islam. Islam cannot be reformed. Islam is codified in a way that has no ‘amendment formula’.
Mr. Cohen says
Mortimer is trying to explain that Islam cannot be fixed;
it can only be fought, and that is a very unpopular
message with Europeans and North Americans
who do not want to fight, because fighting
interferes with the pursuit of pleasures and profits.
Europeans and North Americans must understand
that freedom is not free; we must fight or our freedom,
or else it will be taken away from us
by Radical Muslims and Leftists who hate freedom.
===================================
New York Times Backs Cellphones
to Fight Virus Everywhere Except Israel
by Ira Stoll, 2020 March 24
http://www.algemeiner.com/2020/03/24/new-york-times-backs-cellphones-to-fight-virus-everywhere-except-israel/
Jerry says
The real problem is not the Palestinians or Arabs but Islam. In order to fully understand it please read carefully the last major sub-paragraph to Article Seven of the Hamas Covenant
English translation can be found at avalon dot law dot yale dot edu.
All strains of Islam have the identical genocidal agenda but for pr reasons do not usually articulate it in writing.
The message to all Jews is simple.
If you are not a Jew, but a Christian or Hindu or Athesit you may naturally want ask: what the heck it has to do with me, since I am not Jewish?
The answer to that is again very simple:
Not much. The Jews are Islam’s first priority. Your turn is only next.
Once you understand that, you can easily understand fairly recent attacks on Christians and the most recent attack in Kabul on the Sikhs.
Jews are the first target. When they run out of Jews they will attack and attempt to commit genocide of Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and all other non-Muslims.
You might imagine that when they run-out of non-Muslims would bring about some peace and quiet, but this is not so.
When they run out of non-Muslims they will kill other Muslims who are somewhat different from themselves, starting with Ahmadis and Suffies until it remains a matter of Sunis killing Shiites and Shiites killing Sunis.
No, you can, at last understand what drive the incessant ongoing mutual genocides in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
gravenimage says
“The Palestinian Delusion” explains why the land-for-peace “bargain always fails to materialize”
…………..
This is an excellent book. I would recommend it to everyone here.
Steve Edelman says
I have read the book and purchased a large number of copies that I have given away. I obviously like what it has to say. However, I have never read “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. I ordered a copy. Does anyone think that it is worthwhile? I feel that it probably is.