The Arabs are not political pragmatists

Submitted by JFJKAR (United Kingdom), Dec 18, 2012 at 04:07

You write about the Arabs as if they are pragmatists. They are not. They are ideologues, steeped in a culture of honour and shame that will never, ever allow them to make peace with Israel (or the West, for that matter). To do so would require them to admit some measure of military defeat, and they could never live with the shame that would impute to them, nor could they reconcile it with their religion of the always-greater Allah.

Given the Arab mind-set, Israel's "historically unprecedented willingness to compromise" is not a strength; it's one of its greatest weaknesses! Why? Because the Arabs have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted in any land-for-peace agreement, and all it has ever done is make Israel smaller, and the Arabs bolder.

After all the double-dealing, rewriting of history and falsifying of current events, inciting of terror, launching of attacks on civilians, Islamist brainwashing, and jihad mongering of the Arab leaders, and their obvious agenda of one Judenrhein state, Netanyahu STILL prattles on about negotiating for a two-state solution. Both Hamas and Abbas have clearly walked away from that idea now, if they every sencerely supported it (which only a naive ignoramus could believe), leaving Netanyahu looking like a feckless fool muttering to himself.

So you need to factor in another of Israel's main, probably lethal, weaknesses: its own, often clueless and usually spineless leadership!

The Arabs are cursed with fanatical criminals for leaders, and the Israelis are cursed with blind simpletons for leaders. There is no reason for optimism to anyone who sees clearly.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".