February 10, 2005
The majority speaks?
In his latest, "Calling All Democrats", Thomas makes some good points. He also writes:
The war on terrorism is a war of ideas. The greatest restraint on human behavior is not a police officer or a fence - it's a community and a culture. Palestinian suicide bombing has stopped not because of the Israeli fence or because Palestinians are no longer "desperate." It has stopped because the Palestinians had an election, and a majority voted to get behind a diplomatic approach. They told the violent minority that suicide bombing - for now - is shameful.
I hope that Thomas is right about this, but I'm not convinced that the state of the Iraqis is comparable to that of the Palestinians. The elections in 1996 came before an increase in terror. That's because Palestinian nationalism is predicated on the destruction of Israel. Iraqi nationalism doesn't have a similar destructive element to its ideology.
I can believe that the Iraqi election marks a turning point in the war against the terrorists, because those voting defied the terrorists. In the case of the PA the voters and terrorists are on the same side. Posted by SoccerDad at February 10, 2005 04:37 AM
Comments
I share your disbelief. What exactly have they actually done to earn our trust? And what are they being called upon to do. Yet Israel is being goaded into making more and more "good will gestures"