No Palestinian Day is Coming
Reader comment on item: [UNRWA:] The Refugee Curse

Submitted by Peter J. Herz (Taiwan), Sep 8, 2003 at 04:36

If Arafat's dream of a river-to-sea Arab Falastin is achieved, no freedom and dignity will come to the Falastin Arabs. Arafat's dream can be accomplished only by the total devastation of the land his people now share with the Israeli Jews (I doubt the Israelis will give it up without a very destructive struggle). Also, once the professional agonized consciences of the West (the same who are so vociferous in support of the Falastin Arabs) sees the surviving Israelis herded into refugee camps on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, they will start howling about how the new Falastin (in which groups like Hamas and Hizbollah will doubtlessly have a say) is a barbarous bastion of "UGH!--fundamentalism!" where gay marriage and radical feminism don't stand a chance. The same agonized consciences will wonder how they had so miscalculated and failed to foresee that yet another regime whose leadership has been trained in nothing but shedding blood ends up doing nothing but shed more blood. Aid will not be forthcoming save from a few of the Gulf countries, and their aid usually supports some judiciously chosen members of the local elite and Wahabbi medressas.

In such a scenario, long after the descendants of the re-dispersed Israelis are productive citizens of their resettlement countries, "liberated and proud" Palestine will be just another miserable place mired in interminable squabbles between the heirs of Nasser versus those of Seiyyid Qutb (after all, Yasir Arafat was also born in Egypt), productive of nothing but emigrants.

---

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 for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.