Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Economist and far left wishful thinking

For years the extreme left in Israel and elsewhere have been desperate, longing to actually see moral Palestinian fighters, preferably nonviolent ones. And when supporting Palestinians became trendy, so did the mainstream left, the longer the wait – the bigger the desperation. This piece in the Economist from April 15 is a good example:
Just look at the headlines:
An alternative to violence?
A debate about the point of firing rockets at Israel may intensify

The debate haven’t intensified but they already see nonviolant resistance, few things can be more desperate than this.

The piece is building its hopes on two unrelated stories. A palestinian joke about their terrorists misfiring rockets and killing their own, something, which tragically is not unusual; and a handful of supposedly peaceful demonstrations against Israel along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. What the author does not understand is that it is safer to do nonviolant demonstrations near israeli army positions then inside Gaza city, and these demonstratores are doing what hamas allows them to do. And it does not allow them to demonstrate against Hamas, sidelining their protest into coffee shop talks, but even there they do not make a stand, so where is the alternative to Hamas?

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