I'm not sure where you're getting this. There's a vast difference between arraying chess pieces on the global board vs. trying to remake Rooks into Knights.

Right. Taking steps to counter China and trying to advance human rights and democracy are both arraying chess pieces on the global board. Neither is trying to remake Rooks into Knights.

Clinton was NOT a failure; Arafat was. And so is Hamas today. You could take BC's quote from back then and insert any Palestinian leader in there you'd care to name and it would still apply: they're all trapped in a past that never existed (some glorious Palestinian state free of Da Joos) and envision a future that never will be (From the River to the Sea and all that).

In other words, they're collectively delusional and it's time to stop humoring the delusion.

Now who's refusing to see the world as it is and instead applying their own cultural lens? Clinton never offered Arafat a deal he could agree to. The actual politics of the Palestinian people are different than what Clinton wanted them to be.

The problem is, was, and always will be the right of return mentioned in the article. The majority Palestinians have been at the point where they could live with the existence of Israel and the presence of Jews in the region - but being forever denied the same right to emigrate to Israel that Jews are given and that the UN said they had was a non-starter.

Arafat never had the ability to agree to a deal that didn't have a right of return in it. Because the Palestinian people don't have an actual government, there's no mechanism by which a Palestinian leader can gain the authority to agree to something that the population doesn't support. The leader of the PLO then - and even the leader of the PA now - doesn't have the authority to bind all the Palestinians. There's enough support among the Palestinian people to agree to nearly all of the elements a two-state solution would require (even if there's not majority support for any particular division of land or timing or terms). But not to give up the UN-authorized right of return.

Clinton may want to blame it on Arafat being "delusional" or "weak," but the reality is that Arafat knew what the deal space was and Clinton is the one deluding himself if he thinks otherwise.

US Policy FAQ

---

Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.