visagrunt wrote:
I am not persuaded that the Palestinians have yet demonstrated the capacity to be self-governing. I will grant that there is a bit of a chicken and an egg scenario, where it's hard to know whether that capacity exists without putting it to the test, but the internecine struggle between Hamas and Fatah is not encouraging.
To what degree could any Palestinian administration of any political stripe hope to exercise control over their territory? Would sovereignty be anything other than a poisoned chalice? (pardon the religiously inappropriate metaphor).
I don't for a moment suggest that this should prevent a two state solution--but I do think it is essential to consider the consequences for the Palestinians of achieving sovereignty without the means to sustain it. How soon would it be before the Palestinians were calling in the Iranians for help, advice and support?
A stand alone Palestinian state does not worry me. A Palestinian State that is a puppet for Tehran worries me considerably more.
In 1920 Palestine was given provisional independence according to the Covenant of the League of Nations... that they'd be subject to a short tutelage by one of the major powers before certain independence. It's in the Covenant. Surely they believed then that they were nearly ready. What has changed?
Uh for starters the League of Nations no longer exists, second of all World War II and the Holocaust happened.
13 Apr 2011, 10:40 pm
