The Palestinians who supported Jewish groups had their own reasons
Reader comment on item: Palestinians Who Helped Create Israel

Submitted by Ken Besig (Israel), Mar 27, 2009 at 06:51

I actually work and talk with Palestinians of the 1960's era and they explain that some of the Arabs of that time, who definitely did not call themselves Palestinians, had their own family, clan, and tribal reasons for supporting the Jews and not out of some desire to advance Jewish statehood but rather because they saw that the Jews were stronger and better organized than the Arabs and it would be better to be on their side.

Nowadays, many of these Palestinians mourn for those days, again, not because of their desire for friendship or alliances with the Jews, but rather because the corrupt Arab politics and the especially corrupt PLO has almost destroyed the sense of family, clan, and tribal loyalty and replaced it with what they characterize as a selfish, greedy, and violent Mafia style gang organization.

These older men really do see the younger Palestinian generations as being destroyed by the materialism, cynicism, and violence that the PLO has brought to their people, but by now it is too late to either rein in the PLO and it's influence or reeducate and reacculturate Palestinian youth to the old values.

While Israel is an important factor in Arab Moslem life, there really are other currents in that milieu as well, and many of them are of far greater concern and importance than just the Arab Israeli problem.

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