Britannia Radio

HAPPY NEW YEAR

TO ALL LOVERS OF ZION

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Dear ,

My latest J-Post column - Palestine: What Sherlock Holmes would say

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=251509

Responding to the response: Answers to questions raised by my ‘Notes to Newt.’

Several excerpts:

(a) The Basic Rationale

(b) Resisting Intellectual Surrender

(c) Why Palestinians Are Different

(a) The Basic Rationale

…when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

– Sherlock Holmes in This Sign of the Four

There has been much talk in Palestine about emigration, especially among the young people...in search of a better life abroad. Many are continuing to rush to the gates of the embassies and consulates... with requests for visas in order to reside permanently in those countries.

– the PA’s mufti of Jerusalem, 2007

Read more

(b) Resisting Intellectual Surrender

…as has been amply demonstrated recently, is there no basis for the claim of the Arabs of Palestine to genuine history of nationhood. But more important, and more policy-pertinent, the claim is as much a prevailing political pretext as it is a historical hoax.

Sadly, this has not been grasped by many, including several prominent pro-Israeli pundits such as Elliott Abrams, who recently stated: “There was no Jordan or Syria or Iraq... so perhaps [Gingrich] would say they are all invented people as well and also have no right to statehood. Whatever was true then, Palestinian nationalism has grown since 1948, and whether we like it or not, it exists.” With all due respect, I strongly disagree. There is no obligation to accept the fabrications of adversaries merely because they are insistent. Indeed, it is neither pragmatic nor progressive to acknowledge “Palestinian nationalism.” To the contrary, it reflects either inordinate credulity or complicity in undisguised duplicity. Acceptance of Palestinian nationality is a symptom of either intellectual fatigue or intellectual laziness that has sapped the will to resist this pernicious ruse.

As such, it reflects intellectual surrender and an abject admission of the inability to oppose political duplicity – openly conceded by the Arabs. Read more

(c) Why Palestinians Are Different

...The Palestinians are qualitatively different from other new “nations” that emerged from the breakup up of empire. There are the only collective whose manifest raison d’etre is the not the establishment of their own political independence but the denial of that of others. As such they can more appropriately deemed an “anti-nation” rather than a “nation. he fact that Palestinians have shown they are capable of cohesive action against another collective does not prove they are a nation. Virtually their entire collective effort has been directed at an attempt to annul the expression of Jewish sovereignty rather than assert their own. Indeed, were they to achieve that goal, the entire point of their distinct collective identity, which hitherto has only been maintained by exogenous factors – international naiveté and Arab coercion – would be obviated. This lack of endogenous national drive explains their monumental failure at statebuilding. For almost two decades after the Oslo Accords – despite massive financial aid and political support – they have produced nothing but a deeply divided entity, crippled by corruption and cronyism. The result is a dysfunctional polity unable to conduct even the semblance of timely elections, and a puny economy, comprising a minuscule private sector and a bloated public one, totally unsustainable without massive infusions of foreign funds. Read more

As always I look forward to your comments/critiques and talkbacks

Best wishes

MS

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Dr. Martin Sherman