Blind Faith in Middle East “Peace Process”
In an excellent post on those intellectuals who ape Jimmy Carter in favoring more Israeli concessions as a solution to the crisis in Gaza, Jonathan Tobin finds them blind to reality:
Matthew Yglesias . . . takes up the familiar theme that the outline of a peace settlement is well known (back to Taba) and that all it will take to get back there is “ruffling†some Israeli feathers and giving Israel some of the “tough love†that Jimmy Carter dished out.
Missing from this analysis is, as usual, any connection with the reality of the other side of the equation: the Palestinians who stand by Hamas and their terror campaign. This blind faith in the peace process is almost religious in nature. All objective facts that might disprove its thesis are ignored.
if we continue to follow the peace process these intellectuals so consistently and assiduously espouse, we’ll only see, to borrow one of their favorite expressions, an ever-increasing “cycle of violence.”
Emphasis added.
UPDATE:Â In another post, Tobin continues his excellent critique of the blame-Israel-first crowd of intellectuals: “. . . long before 1967 and ever since, ‘Palestinian self-determination’ has been defined solely by the urge to extinguish Israel’s existence.“Â Read the whole thing.
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Side question: Why are human beings this stupid? Why, why, why? If it’s wishful thinking, well, I can understand a few human beings giving into that. But why do so many?
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — January 9, 2009 @ 2:27 pm - January 9, 2009
Not human beings, ILC, liberal elitists. Why are liberal elitists this stupid?
For an answer, look at the classy people who run leftist academic institutions (universities), who educated the liberal elites, and how the elite of academia respond to the Presence of a Conservative Critic.
Bear in mind, the audience in question was made up of elite liberal university professors.
Comment by V the K — January 9, 2009 @ 3:27 pm - January 9, 2009
Unfortunately for the pointed haired elites, Aggressive deterrence seems to be working better than happy bunny fuzzy warm kum-ba-yah diplomacy.
The media may have a liberal bias, but reality is still conservative.
Comment by V the K — January 9, 2009 @ 4:48 pm - January 9, 2009
I’ve been accused of being pro-torture, so I went to Joe.My.God proving apparently they were right. I cannot believe I saw people actually trying to defend the anti-gay, anti-semitic hate group Hamas. Reading the anti-Israel bile by the idiot commenters was torture.
My dad told me recently, “I consider myself reasonably liberal, but I am sick and tired of the tolerance for anti-semitism on the far left.”
Tell me again why gay conservatives are self-hating?
Comment by Attmay — January 9, 2009 @ 5:38 pm - January 9, 2009
To the Left, the important word isn’t ‘Peace’… it’s ‘Process’. As long as you’re talking aobut peace, it doesn’t matter how many mass graves are filled: you’re TALKING about PEACE! Witness Zimbabwe…
Comment by DaveP. — January 9, 2009 @ 5:48 pm - January 9, 2009
ILC, thanks for highlighting the passage I had meant to bold!
Comment by GayPatriotWest — January 9, 2009 @ 5:51 pm - January 9, 2009
Blind faith. I’d say delusional. How do you negotiate with a people possessed with a single-minded mission to martyr themselves in service to their god?
The idea of a peace process is ridiculous - as if there’s a fixed set of action items to be done. There will be no peace until all sides want it.
Jonah cites an article with this passage:
When Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan was assassinated in an IAF strike last week, his four wives and 11 of his children died with him. According to his surviving children, the death of the Rayyan family children was not an accident: Rayyan had trained his wives and children to die with him as “martyrs.”… Another son died years earlier when Rayyan sent him to carry out a suicide bombing in Gaza. Two Israelis were murdered in that attack.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTg5OTE2YjBmMDQzMjI4NDBiMWIyOWJiMzhlNDJkZWQ=
Comment by SoCalRobert — January 9, 2009 @ 8:14 pm - January 9, 2009
The Palestinians and their willing allies in the MSM have always insisted that Israel retreat to the pre-1967 boundaries established under the UN mandate.
What I want to know is - if those boundaries are so sacred to the Arabs, why did they launch the Six-Day War in 1967 to obliterate them?
Answer me that, Hamas and Hezbollah. And you too CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — January 12, 2009 @ 3:57 pm - January 12, 2009
Spam filter again…
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — January 12, 2009 @ 3:58 pm - January 12, 2009
Thanks, Dan!
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — January 13, 2009 @ 12:09 pm - January 13, 2009