Soccer Dad

Yoel's Confusion

Yoel Marcus wonders what took so long for the New York Times to call on Yasser Arafat to resign. But even as he realizes how pathetic the Times' belated attempt to come to grips with Arafat's duplicity, Marcus himself has some problems with context.

"Occupation" is not some kind of magic word that makes everything okay. Once Israel was under occupation, too - British occupation. Our leaders fought the British, and the British hit back hard: They arrested, deported, shot and hung. But the struggle did not keep our leaders from building infrastructure for the day the state was born. Not only has Arafat built nothing, but he has turned the Israeli right into the majority. It's hard to say which is worse.

He is correct in the first part of the paragraph. Imagine if the Palestinians had used their resourcefulness to build electronics factories instead weapons' lathes and were more interested in trading with Israel than in killing Israelis. If that had been the case do you doubt that there would today be a Palestinian state? Of course there would have been.
But to blame Arafat for turning the "Israeli right into the majority?" And to consider whether that was worse than his failure to build a state? Marcus here is too blinded by his ideology. The Israeli right, to the degree that it has been ascendant has been fueled by being correct in its assessment of Arafat and the PLO. They are thugs with no interest in peace. One wishes that Marcus could see his own shortcomings in this area.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at August 1, 2004 07:39 AM | TrackBack