Palestinians Bravely Resist Threat of Peace

A "Peace Match" was scheduled in Barcelona yesterday, with Palestinian players playing alongside Israelis--but Palestinian officials were able to nip it in the bud:

The Palestinian FA plans to punish players under its jurisdiction for participating alongside Israelis in a "Peace Match" in Barcelona, an official said on Wednesday.

A 'Peace Team' of Israeli and Palestinian players lost 2-1 to Barcelona at the Nou Camp last week in front of 31,820 spectators, including many dignitaries.

"The Palestinian FA will form a committee to investigate the players who participated in the match ... everyone involved will be punished," senior FA official Jamal Zaqout told Reuters.

Obviously no attempts at comraderie are going to be made on Mr. Zaqout's watch. At least the players won't be tried as collaborators and executed--we hope.

The reason given for forbidding anything that might make the path to peace easier?

"We act in accordance with the attitude of our people who are against normalisation (of relations with Israel) before the end of the occupation," Zaqout said, referring to Israel's hold over lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

It's not clear what Mr. Zaqout would consider 'normal relations' between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs who are still trying to blow them up. Probably something along the lines of total surrender--Which seems to have been echoed by another Palestinian Authority official earlier this year:

In June of this year, [Nasser] Al-Kidwa told Reuters News Agency that the PA would not disarm "militants" until Israel totally withdraws to the pre-1967 borders. At the time, Al-Kidwa said his position "is based on international law and on a deep understanding of our responsibilities according to the Road Map, and I will not retract my words." PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, has never distanced himself from Al-Kidwa's remarks.

Thus far, Mr. Al-Kidwa has not clarified his deep understanding of Phase I of the Road Map:

Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons and consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption.

Ahhhh, no doubt the PA is still working on the "free of...corruption" part. This might take a while.

So the rule is:

For playing soccer with Israelis, Palestinians get punished.
For blowing up Israelis, Palestinians are made into heros:

...only this week he named the Rafah border crossing after the terrorist Al-Moayed Bihokmillah Al-Agha, who was killed in December 2004 carrying out a terrorist attack that killed five Israelis. [ZOA]

This is the sort of thing you find in Abbas' statements as well. As ZOA points out:

At the time of the Amman bombings, Abbas expressed "his deep condolences" to Jordan, his "solidarity with the brotherly Jordanian people" and condemned the bombings as "a crime against humanity." However, after yesterday's suicide bombing in Netanya, Abbas simply condemned the attack on tactical grounds as "damaging to Palestinian interests."

No doubt the Palestinian children are taking notes.

Actually, they probably don't have to, since everywhere they turn, Palestinian children are taught to hate...and kill.

In their article, "Will the Next Generation of Palestinians Make Peace with Israel?"
Justus Reid Weiner and Michael Sussman write:

The idea of the shahid (martyr) has become so ingrained in Palestinian culture that it is a major theme in formal education, family values, religious practices, television broadcasting, posters, pre-suicide eulogies, trading cards, family celebrations, movies, music, games, and summer camps. A study done by psychiatrist and Middle Eastern expert Dr. Daphne Burdman has correlated this dysfunctional form of childrearing with a personality disorder known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder - considered to be an antecedent to terrorist behavior. According to Dr. Burdman, as a result of these "strongly-held cultural belief systems and variety of deep-seated psychological mechanisms…there will be considerable difficulty reversing it [their propensity towards terrorism]."

I wish President Bush well in Iraq, but just how does he expect that a democratic Iraq is going to stablilize the region while a terrorist state is created with his blessing?

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