Everyone has known for years that Arafat was a murdering thief and Fatah was corrupt. But did they force him to clean up his act? Hell no. In fact when Bush failed to have the old degenerate act as a “partner in peace” people were outraged. I mean after all doesn’t Bush know that we are all supposed to kiss up to the Noble Prize winner?

Then Arafat dies and low and behold Fatah implodes as crime families often do when the Don passes.

If Fatah had been forced to clean up its act years ago maybe they would have won this election. But nope, time to move on.

re: your response to Ray – As all clear-thinkers know, you are correct. But this leads down the “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” argument.

The difference is in the democratic elections that the Pali’s held. Now we know (If “know” is possible in this state of Media affairs) that this is not a snapshot of the latest Pali thug for the western-world approval. This is their election, what do we say about it? Give them time to adjust to the 20th Century? (No, that wasn’t a mistake) I suspect kicking the can down the road is what we will see from our leaders in the West (and I include GW). I have no problem with kicking the can – as long as you have a plan for shooting it when it clears your foot….if it comes back at you.

Lee Harris pointed out in his book, _Civilization and Its Enemies_, that historically all states did rest on the use of force against other states. Force determined all the physical boundaries, at the very least.
In this sense, the “Palestinian state” is purely honorary. In contrast to thousands of years of warring humans deciding who owned which piece of land, in this particular case, statehood was been granted by “international consensus” as a feel-good gesture.

It was not earned.

I don’t think the EU have been dupes. They don’t care about being bombed per se, they care about oil. They’re trying to buy goodwill among Arabs because they need the oil. They don’t really care at all what the Palestinians do with it. Think of it as an extra Arab tax for the oil. It’s cheap at twice the price.

Ray,

I don’t particularly see why any state is legitimate. The British nobility rules Britain because their ancestors killed the natives’ ancestors. Why does that make it legitimate? Every state ultimately rests on the use of thuggish force. The Palestinians have had their election and they’ve voted for the thugs they want. Just like the Germans did in the Thirties. It’s only because we don’t want to believe it that we continue to avert our eyes.

Haven’t we learned anything from our own welfare fiascos about the futility of trying to buy people out of poverty? It just does not work that way.

In my line of work the relationship of the “Palestinians” to their EU supporters (and to us, inexplicably) is called “hostile dependency.”

Like that of the teenager pushing forty who still lives at home, and spouts Chomsky at the dinner table, berates his captive audience (parents) for their work “for the man” (which pays for his dinner), all the while complaining about his mother’s cooking.

Jamie Irons