There is nothing new about Arab leaders and the journalists who work for them scapegoating Israel. If water prices rise in Damascus, it is a Zionist plot. If the unemployment rate increases in Libya, it is because of how Israel treats the Palestinians. If a tourist is killed by a shark off of the Egyptian Sinai, it is because Mossad has trained sharks to destroy the tourist industry. However, of all the Arab scapegoating of Israel, the sheer scale of that engaged in by the Palestinians is breathtaking. Playing the role of the eternal victim, the Palestinians steadfastly refuse to take responsibility for anything. Generations of Palestinians have been raised by their parents and by organizations such as UNRWA to blame Israel for every problem that afflicts their lives.
This morning we have yet another example. As you may not know, the Palestinians have their own version of Wikileaks. Papers stolen from the Palestinian Negotiations Department have been published by Al-Jazeera–which is based in Qatar. The published papers reveal that Palestinians negotiators have (in the past) negotiated some of the sacred cows of the Palestinians such as territory, refugees, and Jerusalem. Because Palestinian leaders never told the Palestinian in the street that such negotiations were taking place and continually repeated that they would never negotiate such items, the publication of the papers has fatally undermined the current Palestinian government (the leading Palestinian negotiator Erekat has already resigned)–and made future negotiations with Israel virtually impossible. But who is to blame? Who should take responsibility? Israel! It turns out that according to the Palestinian press and various officials of Fatah, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani–the ruler of Qatar– is a Zionist! This is the same Zionist by the way who has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the West Bank and Gaza in an attempt to help improve Palestinian life. Unbelievable and pathetic.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.