Derbyshire and Simon on How Palestinians Should View the Disengagement

John Derbyshire and Roger L. Simon write on why the Palestinian Arabs should be afraid, very afraid, of the responsibilities and consequences facing them as a result of the Disengagement.
According to Derbyshire, "Israel has fought wars against Jordan, Egypt, and Syria; but she has neverf fought a war against Palestine. What would an Israeli-Palestine war look like? If I were a Palestinian Arab, I think I'd hope never to find out."

Simon writes, "But if events continue without a major snafu, the ball will soon enough be in Mohammed Abbas' court. Gaza will be his playground and he will have Hamas and Islamic Jihad to deal with. I don't envy him.... As we used to say on our own playground, 'No backsies!'"

But why should the Palestinian Arabs be afraid? They have never had to take any responsibility for supposed agreements with Israel. They have always been able to count on the West to pressure Israel or to provide the PA with billions of dollars.

As far as Abbas handling Gaza, who should really be afraid of "no backsies"? The Gaza playground is in Israel's backyard, and they will bear the brunt of the Abbas' failure to deal with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Is there anything the West will not do in order to bolster Abbas at the expense of Israel--including preventing Israel from stepping in when Abbas cannot control them?

Rather than being concerned with how they should be thinking, we should be worried about how the Palestinian Arabs have been and will continue to think about the Middle East.