Why Haven’t They Turned Lead Into Gold Yet?
The Palestinians could have transformed the Strip into the Singapore of the Mediterranean; instead, it became Hamastan. ~The Jerusalem Post
This is what we might expect from the Post’s editors, but it seems to me that this statement has reached a new level of absurdity that is remarkable even for this lot. One could observe that Singapore would not have been the Singapore we know today had it not been for a number of exceptionally favorable conditions that prevailed after WWII, and that it would probably not have grown into the commercial and financial center that it became if it did not have the security and peace of being under British rule for decades after the war and then quickly establishing its own independence over forty years ago. The Palestinians have been under occupation for almost as long as Singaporeans have had their own country, but the Palestinians are somehow to blame for not having created a new Singapore overnight under far worse conditions.
Having occupied Palestinian territory for decades and ruled over them as a subject people, Israel is supposed to be credited with leaving an impoverished, overcrowded enclave to the inevitable domination of the faction that was bound to control it, after having created the conditions that prompted the formation of Hamas and tacitly permitting it to grow as a counterweight to the PLO. Then, after just four years, most of which have been defined by embargo and occasional military operations, the failure to create Singapore on the Med will be used as evidence that Israeli policy has already been too generous. Singapore’s rise was fueled in no small part by foreign investment. Who would put their money in Gaza under current conditions of embargo and lack of sovereignty?
16 Responses to “Why Haven’t They Turned Lead Into Gold Yet?”
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You are obviously anti-semitic because you point out the truth.
Daniel, Israel indeed contributes to the miserable lives the Palestinians lead. But even without Israel, the reality of Muslim Arab political and social culture points to an Egypt or a Jordan as an upper bound of progress.
When Arabs took to the streets to condemn the Danish cartoons of Mohammad, the first thing I thought was, “Why aren’t those guys at work?” Lebanon, the one formerly bright spot in the Middle East was that way because of the Christian merchant and banking class. Once they were driven out, Muslim Lebanon became another Syria.
Palestinians should have political autonomy. Unfortunately, given the pathology of retrograde Islam, they probably won’t fare a whole lot better in the end.
I’m not saying that the Palestinian territories would have otherwise become abundantly prosperous, but simply that it is wrong to describe the bad conditions in Gaza as if they were all self-inflicted by the inhabitants. The editorial conveyed the contempt of unrealistic expectations: if you do not turn your miserable decades-long occupied city into a model
democratic andcapitalist society in short order, you are abject failiures who deserve no consideration.Incidentally, Singapore was a strange choice as an example, since the Post seems to be saying that it would prefer an independent Palestine ruled by an authoritarian strongman with no tolerance for dissent.
“Palestinians should have political autonomy. Unfortunately, given the pathology of retrograde Islam, they probably won’t fare a whole lot better in the end.”
What pathology would that be? I’m looking through my copy of the DSM-IV here and I’m not seeing faith in Islam next to border-line personality disorder or schizophrenia. No, you’re just making up non-sense to give the imprimatur of fact to what is essentially racist hokum.
There’s alot of reasons why any political division in this world might be less than ideal, including a variety of internal and external dynamics working against a population. And establishing a democracy as it were with many of these competing things is exceptionally hard, and very, very fragile. People often don’t have the luxury of working in a vacuum.
As Daniel said, the idea that an occupied people are supposed to just magically whip something up is absurd, especially under the conditions that they face. It’s also impossible considering the geography, and the sources of water being cut in half by borders, that even a “two-state” solution would solve the crux of the matter; neither country would be anywhere near self-sufficient.
Just to hammer it home, Singapore is a major port city; IIRC, the Palestinians in Gaza can only take small boats out to fish when the IDF lets them. It’s a totally enclosed, open air prison.
One could turn this around and ask why Israel is not Singapore? Israel is a relatively prosperous state but it is till heavily subsidized by Germany, the US and a huge diaspora community. And unlike Israel, Singapore does not engage in massive shady arms deals/transfers as a pillar of their economy.
I have to agree with SteveM in that most Muslim societies are backward and disagreeable. The best of them are the monarchy’s such as Jordan and UAE states, where educated, relatively cosmopolitan elites manage things.
There is good reason to believe it would be even poorer had it not been for the occupation.
“I have to agree with SteveM in that most Muslim societies are backward and disagreeable.”
You have to? As in, you’d rather not spout offensive garbage, but you really just don’t have a choice?
“There is good reason to believe it would be even poorer had it not been for the occupation.”
Likewise, it seems the argument by Bernstein involves Israel being “forced” to place crippling economic sanctions on the Palestinians.
Wait a second. You guys are conflating two entirely different issues. 1. Israelis abuse Palestinians in one way or another. 2. Muslim-Arab culture does not work well. They both can be true. And 2 may swamp 1.
And typo, how is a calling a spade a spade (i.e., 2 above) “offensive garbage”? Christian Lebanese Arabs had been wildly successful. American game shows awarded trips to Beirut as prizes in the 60’s! What went wrong with that picture? Or better, who busted it up and why? Sean S calls an objective observation of Muslim Arab dysfunction “racistâ€. Racist in what way?
Palestinians? Arabs? Nothing against them. But romanticizing them because Israelis step on their necks is reactionary and stupid. It’s just that their way of life is nothing to write home about.
Sean S calls an objective observation of Muslim Arab dysfunction “racistâ€. Racist in what way?
Racist because it implies that there is some intrinsic quality about Islamic culture that leads it to ruin. Outside of some rejoinders about random people protesting in the street while they should be working (working where exactly, in many countries whose macroeconomics are disastrous), you have no proof to back up your assertion.
Pointing this out isn’t “romanticizing”, which I never did, but arguing that given a certain set of external circumstances just about everyone will end up the same way. The rare exceptions prove the rule. Or some extremely good luck.
Of course the Post’s critique of Palestine can be turned against Israel itself. Why is not Israel “Singapore of the Mediterranean”? Instead it is a macro version of Cabrini Green; a total welfare project financed by American taxpayers.
‘by the measure which you judge, so to you will be judged.’
As to the charge that most Muslim countries are backwards and disagreeable, remember, immediately prior to the European socialists who decided to settle in Palestine, that Muslim country had been a quiet yet productive part of the world. Palestinians were always more capitalistic than the Israeli socialists. Now with the occupation, that capitalistic tradition has been replaced with total war socialism.
Israel and Palestine’s hope for becoming a Singapore was shattered when the socialist Irgun blew up the King David Hotel, but I guess you wouldn’t find that kind of analysis in The Jerusalem Post.
Sean, and what exactly is the race that I am allegedly racist about?
Re: “(working where exactly, in many countries whose macroeconomics are disastrous), you have no proof to back up your assertion.”
Your circular illogic is breathtaking. Let’s see, you agree that the macroeconomics are disastrous. Well, all of those countries that practice macro economic disaster across the great arc of North Africa and Southwest Asia are Muslim. While their neighbors to the immediate north are prosperous. And the one prosperous Arab enclave (apart from the oil states who extract wealth, but don’t create it) was Lebanon when it had a significant Christian population.
See, you have this thing in front of your face called a “nose”…
Actually they seem to have found the sophist’s stone which can turn gold into lead.
And it appears to be spreading, as any thought of a golden age hear is now burdened by leaden debts.
Your circular illogic is breathtaking. Let’s see, you agree that the macroeconomics are disastrous. Well, all of those countries that practice macro economic disaster across the great arc of North Africa and Southwest Asia are Muslim.
And which you don’t seem to understand that the term macroeconomic refers to forces outside of the control of any given nation-state. Certainly I have seen no one blame the failure of Christianity for the loss of job’s resulting from NAFTA. Certainly one can’t blame a variety of majority-Muslim countries for a history of colonialism, proxy-wars, sanction’s, as well as a rigged commodities/trading regime that discriminates against almost all developing countries, of whatever stripe.
And these are things that affect a large swath of developing countries, including a number of majority Christian one’s. One’s GDP says little to nothing about the culture of a country, and even less about its religion. With little to nothing to say about other factors which have a far stronger causal link to poor political and economic performance, you zero right in on Islam as the clear source of all problems. If only things were only that simplistic.
See, you have this thing in front of your face called a “noseâ€â€¦
See, you have this thing that you sit on, called an ass