The Arab World's Dirty Little Secret

Palestine becomes stronger and stronger as a national identity in the hearts and minds of its own citizens, but also more and more fragmented and disjointed politically on the ground. Several different Palestinian leaderships share legitimacy with some of their own people, but none has been able to achieve the more important international legitimacy or credibility and respect in the eyes of Israeli leaders and society.
Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star

Actually, the Palestinian Arabs have a bigger problem than credibility and respect in the eyes of Israel. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal exposes The Arab world's dirty secret:

The dirty little secret of the Arab world is that it has consistently treated Palestinians living in its midst with contempt and often violence. In 1970, Jordan expelled thousands of Palestinian militants after Yasser Arafat attempted a coup against King Hussein. In 1991, Kuwait expelled some 400,000 Palestinians working in the country as punishment for Arafat's support for Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War.

For six decades, Palestinians have been forced by Arab governments to live in often squalid conditions so that they could serve as propaganda tools against Israel, even as millions of refugees elsewhere have been repatriated and absorbed by their host countries. This month's vote still falls short of giving Palestinian Lebanese the rights they deserve [see here and here], including citizenship. But it's a reminder of the cynicism of so much Arab pro-Palestinian propaganda, and the credulity of those who fall for it.

While Obama and others may claim that creating a second Palestinian state will cure the region's ills, no one has yet to step forward claiming that such a state would give the Palestinian Arabs credibility in the Arab world.

If anything, such a state would be likely to be a second Lebanon, targeted by the dictators of Syria and Iran to expand their control and influence.

But no one talks about that.
That may very well be the West's dirty little secret.

Technorati Tag: Palestinians and Arab World.