Monday, August 10, 2009

the Palestinian image problem

"Last night I saw a friend who reads history all the time and studies international politics from afar. He’s a businessman, very well off, non-Jewish. He follows our issue the same way he follows health care reform. He said the following:

He’s now frankly anti-Zionist, based on the fact that it hasn’t worked out well. He is in the Tony Judt camp: he does not believe that ethnic/religious states ought to exist, of any sort. When the Kurds say they want a state, screw them. This is not the way the world is heading. The era of the nation-state has lasted 200 years and is coming to an end. Can’t happen too soon. This goes for the Palestinians too. He doesn’t think they should have a state. The likelihood is that it would be an Islamist state anyway. I/P should be one state. The Israelis have lost their claim to a Jewish state through their actions, and the force of history."
Mondoweiss

23 comments:

  1. "A nation is a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours."
                                                               Ernest Renan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ernest Renan was a big Orientalist!  

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gasp! Is he a good Orientalist or bad Orientalist?

    ReplyDelete
  4. "...a Palestinian friend I met last week in NY who said, We screwed ourselves with suicide bombing, our image is awful in the world, everyone thinks we’re terrorists, no one knows about Bi’lin."

    I think he is absolutely correct. The use of suicide bombers and the dressing of some babies with suicide belts and parading them before the world, the use of young boys and  desperate women to carry out missions, and then the people cheering them on and holding them up as martyrs....all of that just created an image that will not go away for a long time. If any of those groups start using suicide bombers again, the Palestinians' aspirations are doomed.  Attitudes are changing in America, people are asking questions but all of that will come to a screeching halt if that crazy religious martyr stuff starts up again. 

    ReplyDelete
  5. Driving the Palestinians to utter despair and desperate measures was a  deliberate Israeli measure... They reaped (and still do) reap the rewards..

    ReplyDelete
  6. If that is true, then why give them what they want? Why do what was obviously playing into their hands? That is what I do not understand....the self-destructive nature of it all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, I would prefer this over suicide bombing any day...see the high tech sophistication?


    http://www.youtube.com/v/AOu-NT0W2eg

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unfortunately, sometimes things are understood in retrospective, I'm sorry to say!...

    ReplyDelete
  9. TGIA, this isn't good enough. It was obvious to anyone with a brain that the suicide bombers were the biggest and most dangerous enemies of Palestine. I think most Palestinians understood this and opposed the suicide bombers attacking civilians. However, Palestinians didn't consistently and regularly have large demonstrations concemning the suicide bombers. This was their mistake.

    Let me ask you a question. Why do 52% of Palestinians have a favorable view of Osama Bin Laden in June of 2009? No other muslim country in the world is remotely close. Even in Pakistan only 18% do have a favorable view of Osama Bin Laden.

    Is it negative IQs? Is it mental illness? What is the problem? Do Palestinians understand how much polls like this hurt them with fellow muslims, let alone nonmuslims?

    TGIA, you probably know how much Indonesian and Malaysian muslims dislike Arabs (which they unfairly associate with Saudis.) You probably also know how negatively Indian and Bangladeshi muslims view Arabs (again thanks to the Saudis.) The Palestinians are up against an uphill struggle to get support from the muslim world to begin with.

    Having muslims hate both Israelis and Palestinians has resulted in the situation where Palestine is in now.

    ReplyDelete
  10. <span>Is it negative IQs? Is it mental illness? What is the problem?</span>
    ------------------
    Cut it off anand!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. TGIA, anyone who supports OBL is a nutcase, an anti Shia bigot, an anti Sufi bigot, or some bigot of anther kind.

    How could the Palestinians support OBL? Remember how many civilian Shia he killed in Gilgit Kashmir in 1988? Remember his massacre of the Hazara Shia in Mazar e Sharif in 1998?

    Remember 9/11. Remember the attempted bombing of the Indian parliament building on 12.13.09? Remember all the attempted terrorist attacks against China? Remember his many massacres of Pakistani Shia?

    How could anyone support this wacko? In June 2009? How could Palestinians expect to back Osama Bin Laden and expect any help from the rest of the world? Why should anyone do crap for them?

    TGIA, why the Palestinians have such an image problem among Iraqis. Neurotica, an Iraqi blogger who is very pro Palestinian wrote about how all the aunties in an Iraqi party argued with her. All the elder woman were furious with the Palestinians because of percieved Palestinian support for Zarkawi, Al Qaeda and Saddam. A common refrain from Iraqis during the Gaza war, is why whould Iraq give a damn about Palestinians. Neurotica was shocked by this attitude and argued with her fellow Iraqis about it.

    The Palestinians have a major image problem with the Turks. The Gulf Arabs hate them and treat them like crap. Yasmin mentioned how Egyptians didn't love Palestinians. Lebanese don't like Palestinians and mistreat the perhaps 10% of Lebanese who are Palestinians. Persians don't like Palestinians (in part out of spite for Khamenei and Ahmenijad . . . hopefully they will turn pro Palestinian again after Khamenei is removed.)

    TGIA, how could Palestinians support Osama Bin Laden in spite of all their other problems, knowing how this will turn the Ummah against them. I don't get it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. <span style="">Fake Jewish Tolerance vs Vile Israeli Aggression
    </span>By <span style="color: #c00000;">Gilad Atzmon
    </span>Aug 3rd, 2009

    <span style="color: #0068cf;">http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/08/03/gilad-atzmon-fake-jewish-tolerance-vs-vile-israeli-aggression/</span>

    ReplyDelete
  13. It should not be about whether we like Palestinians or nopt,  it should be about believing in justice for all people and doing what is right.  There are good Palestinins and there are not so good Palestinians, just like there are good Indians and not so good Indians anand.  Personally, I don't believe that the poll you keep referring to is accurate anand...I do not believe that 52% of Palestinians support Bin Laden who I happen to believe works for American and Israeli interests in the region, not the people'e interests... 

    ReplyDelete
  14. 67% of dung beetles prefer horse-shit to bullshit. Where do find your statistics, Nandoo, in the red book of Lal Bhujhakar? Or are they just the products of a fevered imagination?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Bin Laden works for American interests?  Yea, killing 3,000 of our citizens and knocking down two iconic buildings really was a huge boon for our "interests".....LOL

    Hilarious stuff Guest. Most here in the US prefer common sense reality, but please keep on believing whatever you like.   

    ReplyDelete
  16. Duufus, I have posted this poll result many times. See here:
    http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/264.pdf
    pages 4 and 5.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It isn't just this poll. Osama Bin Laden use to be much more popular among Palestinians before 2009.

    It isn't just Osama. Top Palestinian officials backed Zarkawi and Baba Saddam Hussein. What is the deal with this craziness?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Marion, Nasralah was wrong when he said that the US backed Al Qaeda.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I might add to the anand polling bullshit below, it tells you everything except - who are the pollsters in Palestine? They are Israelis - hey good job Pew, that will really show us the goods on the Palestinians, eh?

    POLLSTER.COM

    CAN I TRUST THIS POLL?

    http://www.pollster.com/blogs/can_i_trust_this_poll_part_ii.php

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hey Anand, DUFUS -

    <span>I might add to the anand polling bullshit below, it tells you everything except - who are the pollsters in Palestine? They are Israelis - hey good job Pew, that will really show us the goods on the Palestinians, eh? 
     
    POLLSTER.COM 
     
    CAN I TRUST THIS POLL? 
     
    http://www.pollster.com/blogs/can_i_trust_this_poll_part_ii.php</span>

    ReplyDelete
  21. Zionists use these poll all the time, like Ros-ass and the JP

    http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/rosner/entry/pew_survey_almost_70_of

    Pew also has roots in Christian religious organization, pretty far to the right - a lot of Messianic Christians, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  22. "...polling 35,000 Americans for its U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, finds that worship is strong in this country, with more than half of those surveyed saying that they attend services regularly and pray daily." Pew Religious Polling

    hehehe - come soon Jesus, and destroy them Muslims

    ReplyDelete