January 01, 2004

--- Oy vey. I hate

--- Oy vey. I hate that wall the Israelis are building.

And now it seems even those pesky peace promotong Jordanians don't think it's such a hot idea.

"We are afraid that the day might come when Israeli leaders might
argue 'Jordan is Palestine,' " Muasher said. "Why are we worried?" he
went on. "The wall will effectively divide the West Bank into three
parts. It will make life impossible for Palestinians: dividing them
from their work, their schools, their lands. If that happens, what
options do Palestinians have? They will leave, voluntarily or by force,
for Jordan."

Vodkapundit seems mildly surprised at the notion that even the Jordanians don't want the Palestinians to come flooding over the border.

"Duh," was my next thought.
Jordan is a Hashemite kingdom ruling over a majority Palestinian
population. Having a bunch of angry, unemployed, Arafat-"educated"
neighbors crossing to their side of the river would just make an
unstable situation worse. (The last time Arafat and his people were big
in Jordan, they put the country through a mini civil war.)
In other words -- not even other Arabs want the Palestinians around.

SHOCKER! Now, this should not be news to anyone. The Gulf Arabs,
in particular, and some Muslim countries, in general, seem to have no
issues repressing their people while playing a game of sleight of hand
when they call attention to the suffering of the Palestinian People.
How evil Israel is. How America is the Great Repressor! Yadda, yadda,
yadda.
Do you see the Saudis giving money to set up a nice retreat for the
Palestinian people? I mean, are there any gold plated toilets in Gaza?
No. While a few bags of wheat might make it into a refugee camp,
courtesy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the Saudis, on the
whole, would rather funnel money into terrorism. It's the same with
Iran. It used to be the same with Iraq. It's the same with Egypt. And
so on. As long as they keep their people's eyes on how poorly the
Palestinians are being treated, they reason, perhaps their own people
will think themselves lucky.
I still do not get why people seem to think that an Muslim Arab is
automatically best friends with the Palestinians. Why do people think
this? Is this something the media has perpetrated? That all Muslims and
all Arabs are best friends because they rally under a common flag?
Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. The Gulf Arabs despise
the Palestinians; they're not good enough to carry their camel's water.
And they certainly won't let the Palestinians into their countries,
because they're afraid they won't leave. The Palestinians have a bad
track record at leaving, you know. They'd rather have Indians and
Pakistanis and Filipinos---they're acceptable, if not as perfect as
they are. It's NIMBY wrought large. Think of it this way: the Saudis
are that liberal college professor who constantly talks about the
plight of the homeless, decries their treatment, yet lives in a gated
community, you know, to keep out the riff-raff.
But in this case, Jordan was doing just fine, thank you very much,
without the fence; they're afraid of the backlash of the fence; they're
afraid they're going to get a HUGE number of people fleeing over their
borders whom they will be obligated to feed, clothe, and educate lest
the crime numbers go up. Jordan doesn't have Shari'a you know: no one
there gets beheaded if they're caught smoking dope, and I don't think
they've got adequate jail housing. It's a humanitarian crisis waiting
in the wings. And they've got good reason to fight the wall; they've
been in this situation before. I still don't get why Israel thinks this
is the best solution to their problem. A wall? Come on. This
is the best solution to the problem of suicide bombers? I don't think
so. Granted, the Israelis, for all intents and purposes, are besieged.
I'm not denying this. Enemies on all sides, and their castle walls were
breached years ago. But the current atmosphere of wall building isn't
going to solve the problem. And honestly, no matter how bad this
sounds, you'd think they'd know what resolve they're creating in the
Palestinians living behind the wall. Because, what they're creating,
essentially is a ghetto. A Palestinian ghetto, but a ghetto
nonetheless.
Do you think they even realize what they're doing? Is this wall some
sort of karmic payback? Can they not see the parallels? Throwing people
behind a wall with the stated purpose of monitoring their movements;
requiring them to have all sorts of paper work to get to their daily
routines; turning them away at a whim? Does this not sound familiar?
Now, I'm no big fan of the Palestinians and how they've let Hizbullah
and Hamas take adavantage of their plight. Nor do I think Arafat should
be running the show. He's a terrorist; no be's, by's or buts about it.
But don't you think, in your rational mind, this is only going to give
the Palestinians one more reason to kill Israelis? Not like they need a
reason beyond sheer hate, but where there's a will, there's a way; the
suicide bombers will just get around the wall, and they'll be even more
determined, what with the wall as a common rallying cry. Do we really
want to push these people, who the majority of which would just like a
separate state thank you very much, over the edge? Does Israel really
want to turn Jerusalem into a Beirut circa 1985? This wall needs to
come down. It needs to come down soon. I can understand why Israelis
want it there. I wouldn't want to get on a bus in Jerusalem, either.
But there is a time for fighting and there is a time for talking. The
fighting, in Israel's case, hasn't gotten them anywhere. Neither has it
gotten the Palestinians where they claim they would like to be. Why not
get to talking. Naive, I know. And not that simple, but for God's sake,
people. It's time to end this thing. It's time for peace. I don't think
that's too much to ask for anyone on either side of the fence.

--- Just in case you needed a reason to think that the 9th Circuit needs to put down the pipe, here you are.

I have no words.

--- And now, time for bed.

Posted by Kathy at January 1, 2004 12:50 AM | TrackBack
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