The Legitimacy of the Palestinians is the Issue

Submitted by Alan Nitikman (United States), Jun 30, 2006 at 13:42

I agree with Prodos that the legitimacy of Israel is in its essentially Western recognition of the rights of the peaceful Individuals within it. In protecting the rights of its citizens, regardless of ethnic, religious, or political stripe, it is a legitimate government, by definition. There is nothing "legitimate" about a dictatorship: It is merely a prison in which the dictator holds the keys. Dictators expropriate the wealth and freedom of others as would a gang lord and are no more legitimate than would a Mafia Don be were he to declare a borough of New York his own personal property. With the conditioned exceptions of Turkey and Egypt, Israel is currently the only legitimate nation in the Middle East.

I disagree with Dr. Pipes on the necessity for Israel to be recognized by the Paletinian Authority. The Palestinians, and the rest of the Arab nations, certainly recognize that there is an entity there that they despise and wish to eliminate. The recognition that Israel needs is not the Palestinian pawns, but the West, itself. The U.S. and Europe, by their moral equivocation, have asked Israel to commit suicide and have pressured it on every destructive decision it has made since the 6-day war.

The ultimate goal of Israel's war should be the defeat of those who have announced their intent to destroy it -- self-defense -- eliminating their ability to threaten its continued existence. Their acquiescense would be trivial and pro-forma. As long as the Palestinians see any movement at all by the Israelis toward accomodation of demands for sacrifice of values, they will continue to hope for the removal of the State of Israel. When they have seen that the result of their efforts have become the cause of their own destruction, when the loudest Islamist voices have been removed from the face of the Earth, when peaceful coexistence replaces violent domination as their fondest dream, then Israel will have achieved its goal and everyone can get back to civilized, productive lives and we can put this medieval insanity behind us.

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