Meryl has called my attention to this paragraph in an otherwise equally problematic post by Aziz Poonawalla.There were Ghandis and MLKs among the Palestinians, such as Sari Nusseibeh and Dr. Mustapha Barghoutibut they have been arrested, detained, and beaten repeatedly by the IDF. Marwan Barghouti, a popular moderate elected to the Fatah leadership (whom Arafat greatly dislikes as a challenger to his authority) has been arrested and is being tried by Israel for murder, accused of being a terrorist. Eventually, there won't be any moderates left to beat, exile, or jail.
The depth of my disagreement with Aziz on just about every level imaginable makes it difficult to address this statement at all. Nevertheless, I'll give it a go.
The equation of either Sari Nusseibeh or Mustapha Barghouti in any way, shape or form with Dr. Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi is a stretch that requires an unacceptable elasticity of perception. Dr. King and Gandhi were pacifists. They were neither terrorists nor apologists for terrorism. They spoke with the same voice when addressing their opponents as they did when addressing their followers. They were honest, upright men who stated their guiding principles clearly and lived by them consistently. None of the above can be said about the two individuals whom Aziz has tried to bathe in their light.
I've written some about Nusseibeh in the past. Rather than repeat all of it here, I'd ask that you click over briefly to this post and this one. Nusseibeh is a "moderate" only in the sense that his role in the drama being broadcast by the Palestinian Authority is to play the moderate to the Western cameras. It's a very important and effective role, and he's very good at it.
Musatapha Barghouti's "moderation," on the other hand, seems to consist in his use of the pen rather than the bomb to defend every despicable act of murder and mayhem committed by palestinian terrorists while placing the blame for the "violence" squarely and solely on the shoulders of Israel. A long list of such diatribes can be found here, another here.
As for Marwan Bargouthi's being a "moderate," the record, as reflected in the indictment against him, proves otherwise.
The problem, I guess, lies within one's definition of "moderate." But that is, indeed, the essence of the failure of meaningful dialogue between the two sides of this issue. A "moderate" palestinian is one who doesn't actively call for mass murder as a means to the end of palestinian independence, but it's no blot on his "moderation" that he continues to support "violent resistance" and to justify mass murder incited by his companions as "provoked by the occupation." A "moderate" Israeli is one who derogates the defense of his own people, who sympathizes with the "plight" of the enemy, who in fact refuses to acknowledge that the enemy is an enemy. A "moderate" Israeli is one who advocates total dismantling of "settlements," unconditional surrender of all land captured during Israel's defense against the massive aggression launched against it in 1967 and the establishment of an armed, hostile, sovereign state dedicated to Israel's ultimate destruction at its eastern and southwestern borders.
Until the expectations of "moderates" on both sides of this issue begin to reach some facsimile of equivalence, this dialogue will continue going nowhere. In the meantime, let's not defame the memory of those who lived and breathed for the goal of establishing peace, justice and equality in the world by daring to compare them to abettors of and apologists for mass murder, terrorism and the rule of thug.
Shabbat Shalom.
