this is brilliant.

2008-01-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

this is brilliant.

A few comments:(1) Bernie's statement that no Pal...

2008-01-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

A few comments:

(1) Bernie's statement that no Palestinians "like the separation between Judea/Samaria and the Gaza Strip" is incorrect. The Palestinians of Judea/Samaria (i.e.. "the West Bank") view the Gazans as aliens. When Barak opened the "free passage" between the two regions, this caused great resentment in Judea/Samaria. Deborah Sontag reported this in the New York Times. She witnessed Arabs in Ramallah yelling at a grup visiting from Gaza to "go back where they came from". When she asked why, they replied that the Gazans will work for lower wages and thus they would drive salaries down in Judea/Samaria and push locals out of work, if Gazans had free access. Thus, the current situation of the two being disconnected is fine, at least for the Judea/Samaria Arabs.

(2) I really believe that Abbas and his FATAH cronies in the Palestinian Authority (PA) are secretly relieved that HAMAS took over the Gaza Strip. Before that, Abbas, as President of the PA Palestinian had a HAMAS majority gov't under him with Ismail Haniyeh as Prime Minister. International aid dried up and pressure was place on the PA. When fighting broke out in Gaza between FATAH and HAMAS, news reports indicated how surprised everyone was at how little resistance FATAH put up in spite of the fact that they heavily outgunned HAMAS forces. Top FATAH leaders in Gaza like Muhammed Dahalan were absent during the fighting.
As soon as HAMAS took over, Abbas became the daring "Palestinian moderate" of the international community and the money taps were opened. Abbas recently got $7 Billion in committments, basically without strings. Sure, there are conditions placed about watching were the cash is going, but once Abbas and his FATAH cronies resume sending good amounts of it to their Swiss bank accounts, the international community will not really be in a position to complain about it or to threaten to cut it off, because if they do, Abbas can say "if you cut me off, HAMAS will take over" and the donors will clam up.
Why should Abbas endanger his life and reputation making concessions to Israel in return for a peace agreement when he is sitting pretty now, laden with cash for him and his friends?

(3) Bernie is frequently lamenting that the children of Israel's "elite" are supposedly leaving in large numbers. I find it odd that people like Bernie, who come from a socialist-Labor Zionist background which supposedly believes in equality and oppose "aristocracy", view themselves as an entitled elite and those who are not part of this "elite" are viewed as a threat. A good example was in a previous thread of Bernie's where he referred to SHAS as being "Israel's HIZBULLAH". This is totally ridiculous-SHAS does not have an armed militia or paramilitary organzation. Bernie, and his fellow members of the "elite" fear that some day, SHAS, the rest of the religious, the "settlers" and others from the "periphery" will actually take power democratically in Israel and insist that the national pie be distrubuted more fairly, instead of being largely reserved for Bernies secular, Ashkenazic "elite" who justify grabbing everything because their great-grandparents drained the swamps and their grandparents and parents served in combat units, while they themselves make do with serving at Galei ZAHAL, the IDF legal units, the PR department, etc. (today's combat units are largely religious, Russian and Ethiopian immigrant children and others from the "periphery").
I am not worried about Israel's future, there are plenty of educated, ambitious young people from these peripheral groups who can take over in the future.

Comments on Bernard Avishai Dot Com: W. in Jerusalem: The PowerPoint

this is brilliant.

A few comments:(1) Bernie's statement that no Pal...