In trying to comprehend the world’s love fest and obsession with a Palestinian state, one must conclude that it is deluding itself into believing that such a state would greatly contribute to the wellbeing of the world. However, a reality check reveals that such a belief is wishful thinking and has no basis in fact. There are two ways to predict the future reality of such a state. If one looks at other Arab states as a guide, such a state will likely mirror totalitarian states. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states provide no liberties or human rights to their citizens. States like Syria and Libya, where there is civil war, use violence against its own citizens. States like Egypt, Lebanon and Yemen are influenced or controlled by Muslim extremists wishing to impose Sharia law. If one wishes to be more accurate in his prediction, one can look at the nature of the autonomous Palestinian entity in the West Bank and Gaza, created after the implementation of the 1993 Oslo agreement where the Palestinian Authority has been controlling the daily internal affairs of 98 percent of the Palestinian people. According to past evidence the Palestinian state will have the following characteristics. • Terrorist and militant — After the Israeli army left major Palestinian cities and many villages in 1999 and the PA took civil control of 98 percent of its people and responsibility for its internal affairs, Arafat and Abbas began their war of terror, by sending suicide bombers inside Israel on a daily basis, and murdering more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and injuring more than 5,000. Since the Israeli army and all Jewish settlers unilaterally left Gaza in September 2005, it has become a safe haven for terrorists and more than 6,000 rockets and mortar shells have been fired toward Israeli cities. • Undemocratic — President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian legislature have stayed in power for the last two years without new elections and there is no independent judiciary or rule of law. • Welfare state — The Palestinian Economy is artificially resuscitated by handouts from foreign donors. Economic studies show that 60 percent of its GNP comes from donations from the United States, Europe, U.N. and other nations. The Palestinian people receive the largest amount of per capita donations worldwide, which amounts to an average of $560 per family, per month. • Corrupt — Most donations go to the pockets of the ruling party bureaucrats and senior officials in the Palestinian government rather than to build an independent economic infrastructure or help the people. • Historical revisionist — The PA has repeatedly misrepresented history by claiming and acting as if a Palestinian Arab state existed before the establishment of Israel in1948 and that Jerusalem was its capital. They also deny any historical Jewish connection to the land. However, in reality, there was never an Arab or Muslim state called "Palestine" in the area west of the Jordan river and no state ever existed there except a Jewish state and Jerusalem was never the capital of any entity other than a Jewish one. • Indoctrinating and glorifying death and martyrdom — In the West Bank and Gaza, streets, schools, soccer teams, U.N.-sponsored summer camps and trading cards are named after suicide bombers. TV shows for school children and school text books extol hatred for Jews and praise suicide bombings. • Apartheid and racist — The Palestinian representative to Washington, Maen Areikat, told American reporters on Sept. 14 that a future "Palestine" would ban Jews and homosexuals. It would be the first state to officially prohibit Jews since Nazi Germany. • Rejectionist — Abbas refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and Hamas does not recognize the existence of Israel at all. Arafat and Abbas both rejected two Israeli government’s offers in 2000 and 2008 to end the conflict by establishing a Palestinian state within almost all disputed territories and a capital in Jerusalem. Now Abbas rejects direct negotiations. • Divisive — Hamas violently kicked out the PA from Gaza in June 2007 and since then any attempt to reunite has failed while both have been imprisoning and torturing each other’s supporters.
The world and the Palestinians Arabs should be careful of what they wish for since this hope for a Palestinian utopia will crash and burn like the Arab spring. S
houla Romano Horing was born and raised in Israel. She is an attorney in Kansas City and a national speaker. Visit her blog at www.shoularomanohoring.com.
