(UPDATE: Jeebus, y’all…before all you Conservative Twitterati get your knickers in a twist…relax, willya?? Or do you just not grasp satire when it comes to writing headlines??)
SCHUMER: The Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Jewish state, in a two-state solution. More do than before, but a majority still do not. Their fundamental view is, the Europeans treated the Jews badly and gave them our land — this is Palestinian thinking […] They don’t believe in the Torah, in David […] You have to force them to say Israel is here to stay. The boycott of Gaza to me has another purpose — obviously the first purpose is to prevent Hamas from getting weapons by which they will use to hurt Israel — but the second is actually to show the Palestinians that when there’s some moderation and cooperation, they can have an economic advancement. When there’s total war against Israel, which Hamas wages, they’re going to get nowhere. And to me, since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go, makes sense.
I understand that Chuck Schumer has a huge Jewish constituency in New York that he needs to keep happy. Remaining in their good graces means votes and large amounts of campaign cash. Of course he’s going to come down on the side of Israel; I just never realized that he would do so while completely and utterly ignoring both facts AND reality. Schumer’s diatribe is just about the most inaccurate, off-base lunacy imaginable. Then again, what better way to appear to be pro-Israel than to paint all of Gaza as a monolithic, one-dimensional threat, a bloc of zealots who all think the same way and who all hate Israel and spend 26 hours a day praying for its destruction?
Claiming that Palestinians “still don’t believe…in a two state solution” is just plain wrong…unless the 26% of Palestinians who feel this way represent a majority in Schumer’s world. Fully 74% of Palestinians, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, support a two-state solution. Even Hamas may be compelled in the end to support a two-state solution. Yes, three of four Palestinians are pragmatic enough to recognize to recognize that Jews and Arabs must evenutally find a way to co-exist (though that doesn’t constitute a majority to Schumer’s way of thinking). They may not like it…and you can bet that Israel’s Jews don’t…but they recognize that reality is what it is, and Israel is not going to fall into the Mediterranean, no matter how fervently they might hope for that result.
As for the rest of Schumer’s ad hominem attack, I suppose we should consider his audience. Still, is it too much to expect that Schumer could traffic in something resembling truth and reality? Of course Palestinians don’t believe in the Torah. Hello?? THEY’RE MUSLIM! They’re not going to wholeheartedly support Israel’s cause…especially when Gaza is being choked off by Israel’s blockade. There’s a legitimate humanitarian crisis in Gaza that’s been created by the Israeli blockade. Schumer can’t reasonably expect that Palestinians are going to support Israel until the Jewish state demonstrates a measure of humanity and lifts the blockade.
Of course, Palestinians have a role to play as well. They can demand that the blockade of Gaza be lifted, but they should take it upon themselves to stop hiding weapons in shipments of humanitarian aid. Once both sides demonstrate a willingness to operate in good faith, perhaps then the peace process will be able to move forward and a legitimate two-state solution be agreed upon.
Palestinians will not act in good faith until Israel eases or eliminates the blockade of Gaza. Israel will not act in good faith until it can determine to its satisfaction that Palestinians are not using humanitarian aide to surreptitiously ship arms to Gaza. Sen. Schumer, however, can and should act in good faith immediately by not engaging in inflammatory rhetoric and trafficking in one-sided accusations before a heavily-biased audience.
We should be able to expect better from Schumer, but then we know who’s buttering his bread, don’t we??
WE DESERVE BETTER.
