Academic dupes

The moderate intellectuals who spend way too much of their time fighting for Palestinians and their cause are simply dupes of Islamic fundamentalists.

With the exception of a handful of us leftist do-gooders, no one really wants to see the Palestinians succeed. This is of course true of the Lebanese as I mentioned time and time before, but moreover this is even more true of the Iraqis and the bin Ladens of the world.

Why would I say that given the obvious fact that so much is being done supposedly on their behalf, from garnering international support to blowing up school busses?

The answer is simple. (It was clarified for me by a Foreign Affairs article by Michael Scott Doran, though I have no clue if he would endorse what I say here.) If the Palestinians succeed in getting a peace deal the only ones who win are the Palestinians. The people in charge of things loose. The Arab leaders loose. The disenfranchised Saudis, Lebanese, Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, and Egyptians (etc) all loose. They then have to Justify their terrorism and anti-western feeling independent of a pro-Arab cause. They have to say why they really hate the west. The big problem there is that there is no reason why they really hate the west. They really hate their leaders. Of course saying that is tantamount to suicide, so it is aimed at the west.

Now why would some disenfranchised Saudi (like 15 of the 9/11 hijackers) want to hurt the west? The answer lies in the fact that they see their leaders kissing up and selling out to the west. What they really want is a much more Islamic middle east. If the middle east had no oil and the leaders wouldn't have to kiss up to the west and the political situation was the way it was now, the same Saudis would be attacking Saudi targets. But Saudis see the west as the cause of the westernization of their leaders and their countries, so the west is a legitimate target for Islamic fundamentalists.

So lets get back to the Palestinians. How has the average American intellectual been duped in to supporting Islamic fundamentalism? Simply by not realizing that since the Palestinians are the only pan-Arab/pan-Islamic cause. This cause is then co-opted by every terrorist and suicide bomber from the average run of the miss Hezbolla person to bin Laden himself. They, who have a stake in the Palestinians staying oppressed know that they can get away with doing anything in the name of the Palestinians, so they kill 3000 people and invoke the poor Palestinians and suddenly everyone in the Arab world is forced to stand up and defend them. No one in the Arab world (or very few and only recently) has had the guts to come out publically and say that terrorism is bad because being anti-terrorism meant being anti-Palestinian. That is bad because being anti-Palestinian is dangerous to everyone. Without them dictators cannot oppress with impunity, and fundamentalist have little justification in the eyes of the liberals of the world to blow things up. Dictators are given power by their people simply because they have set themselves up as the champions of the Palestinian cause. Opposing them is opposing the Palestinians - and you cant do that. You can't even do that in Lebanon where Palestinians are clearly second-class humans. They are not allowed citizenship or even work permits.

So any sane human being with half a heart wants a peace settlement and political sovereignty for the Palestinians. But all those who petition so much while actually doing so little are supporting and playing right in to the hands of Islamic militants who really just care about overthrowing their oppressive dictators and replacing him with a more Islamically-acceptable oppressive dictator.