Israel Matzav

Rice redux

Last night, I noted an interview (which has not even been fully published yet) that Cal Thomas conducted with US Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice, which indicates that Rice is far from President Bush's stated positions on Israel. A number of bloggers have weighed in on the interview, and I'd like to point a couple of them out to you.

At The Augean Stables, Richard Landes says that Condi is a master of what he calls cognitive egocentrism:

At some point in the interview, Thomas needed to ask the key question that we must pose to all such astonishingly egocentric observers: “What if you’re wrong? What if we’re dealing with that rare phenomenon (by your reckoning), a culture that’s in the grip of a genocidal death cult, one in which mothers urge their children to become suicide martyrs?” And when they refuse to consider this possibility, we need to point out gently that every bit of policy they develop based on their fantasies (ultimately products of the Politically Correct Paradigm), will not only fail but backfire. Gently but firmly.

Rice must resign? Why, because her replacement will understand better? No, Rice needs to wake up and smell the sulphuric hatreds emanating from the allegedly robust “civil society.” She needs to spend some time visiting Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI. And so do most other Americans, right, left, center, and been-down-so-long-it’s-beginning-to-look-like-up.

At Kesher Talk, Judith Weiss thinks Condi is confusing cause and effect:

But Condi is putting the cart before the horse. The Soviet State didn't crumble because we tried to create a new Soviet state in the same location, with the same cast of characters, expecting to change their spots. It crumbled because we forced it to intensify its internal contradictions, tempting it into an accelerated arms race and continually showing its people the contrast between their lives and the ones they could have in a freer society.

That is the way to destroy jihadism, by not allowing it to expand its empire, not allowing it any military victories, starving it of legitimacy and financial support, until its internal contradictions force it to collapse, while at the same time demonstrating an alternative.

Therefore the solution is the opposite of what Condi proposes. The Palestinians must not be given any rewards for choosing jihadism. They must not be given even more money for their corrupt murderous leaders to buy arms with and sock away in Swiss bank accounts. The Palestinian state must not be allowed to happen unless it is unambiguously on record in Arabic and Hebrew and English that it will co-exist with Israel, and unambiguously repudiate terrorism and the groups which promote and conduct it. As long as the "70% of Palestinians who just want a normal life" continue to vote for and support the terrorists, they are complicit, and what they "really" want is moot. If they are truly 70%, they should have been able to make it happen by now. If they didn't, simply pronouncing a "state" is not going to empower them.

Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet system, Russia is still struggling to transition from a command and control economy, and is not succeeding. Does it matter whether most Russians believe in international communism? Does it matter whether 70% of Palestinians are educated and just want a normal life?

I think Judith's view of the 'Palestinians' - she accepts that 70% of them would actually rather live in peace with Israel - is too optimistic. If left to their own means for the last thirteen years, they might have come to that conclusion. But I believe that a lot more than 30% of the 'Palestinians' have no desire to live in peace with Israel. Yes, they may have been brainwashed by the 'Palestinian' media. But I think Judith will agree with me that for our purposes it doesn't matter why they don't want to live in peace with Israel - what matters is that they don't want peace. I believe that many of the 'Palestinians' who would have lived in peace with Israel are those who have emigrated (or are trying to emigrate) in the last six years.

Soccer Dad sums it up nicely:

The problem is that the Palestinian vision of a better world does not include Israel. And the failure of the West to insist on change is what encourages them to persist in that belief.

And there is no indication that the West is going to insist on change anytime soon either.

For those who have not yet seen the excerpt of the interview (the full interview will be published later this week), you can find it here.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:52 PM