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Home » What I wrote back in 2005, when Israel first withdrew from Gaza

What I wrote back in 2005, when Israel first withdrew from Gaza

The New Neo Posted on by

I knew I must have written about the withdrawal at the time. But I didn’t have a clue what I had said or what I predicted, if anything. So I went back to look and here it is (the comments transferred backwards from the old blog site to the new, by the way, so if you want to read them in the proper order you must go to the bottom and work upwards).

I now reproduce the entire post verbatim. The following was originally published in September of 2005; I’ve updated the links whenever possible, because some of them are dead and some were to my old site:

The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (which I supported, by the way, as the best alternative among all the lousy choices available to the Israelis at the time) has had some disheartening results.

First we had the inevitable but sorrowful spectacle of Israeli soldiers forcing weeping Israeli settlers from their homes. And now we have another inevitable spectacle [dead link from The Scotsman], this one of destructive fury: a Palestinian wilding that is annihilating what’s left of the settlements, including the synagogues and the greenhouses.

The article from The Scotsman that I linked describes the festivities. It’s an example of what I called the Martin Higby phenomenon (see here for an explanation) run amok. Imagine a society that nurtures rage in its children, feeding it and watering it like a precious crop. This is the harvest: a society in which those who would be moderates, those who would just like to get on with the sober and hopeful business of building a just and decent society, are overwhelmed by the explosion of carefully fostered rage.

It’s not surprising, of course, that people are helping themselves to what’s there, a sort of recycling. What should be surprising, however, is that they are even destroying their own potential livelihood, [dead link here] the flourishing greenhouses the Israelis had built, and which the Palestinians themselves had hoped to make the basis of their post-withdrawal economy.

But somehow it’s not surprising. Why? In certain situations, rageful crowds can be as hard to contain as the force of a ferocious hurricane spilling water over and through inadequate levees. Not only has Palestinian culture long been in the business of whipping up destructive rage for its own propaganda purposes (not to mention keeping its citizens in weakened economic conditions the better to further those very same purposes), but it’s a society in which the restraints on violence are not at all strong. Among the Palestinians, their sheepdog protectors–both of the herding and the guard variety – are extremely weak or even non-existent. In many cases the sheepdogs are probably even wolves in sheep’s clothing. Without police as effective brakes on the impulse to destroy, and without the will to apply these brakes, that impulse can expand unchecked and, in the end, feed on the society itself.

I have no doubt that moderates – or at least would-be moderates – exist among Palestinians. How many there are I cannot tell. Are they rare? Or are they numerous but silenced into invisibility by the fact that speaking out would get them killed in short order? I do not know. But I don’t think that they have a chance right now.

Part of the terrible calculus of the Israeli withdrawal was a hope that the world might finally see the Israelis as doing the right thing this time, and see that the resultant Palestinian response would either be to finally make a decent society for themselves or to show themselves to be hopelessly at war with each other. The latter – a vicious civil war – is the one I’d bet on at the moment, I’m afraid.

As for how the world sees the Israelis, articles such as this one from Reuters [another dead link] are not exactly what you’d call sympathetic to them. Reuters continues to subtly – and sometimes not so subtly – present what amounts to the Palestinian point of view.

The Reuters article, as well on another from the London Times discussed here by Wretchard of Belmont Club, uncritically present the Palestinian accusation that the Israelis left the synagogues intact as a way to make the Palestinians look bad when they destroyed them.

Well, of course – the Israelis are the evil puppeteers, as usual. The Palestinians have been raised on the idea that they themselves are responsible for nothing and that their endless victimhood entitles them to endless revenge, and much of the world has reinforced them in that perception. So this blaming of the Israelis for the acts of Palestinian crowds in destroying the synagogues comes as no surprise, either, although it bodes ill not only for the Israelis, but for the Palestinians, too – and for the world.

Comments

What I wrote back in 2005, when Israel first withdrew from Gaza — 33 Comments

  1. So while neo was writing that, Middle East expert and NYT columnist Tom Friedman was writing this about Gaza, It has great potential in terms of beachfront tourism.

    I tried to look up his editorials from 2005, but all behind a paywall. I did, however, find a Q&A blog of some sort he had going, which is where the quote above comes from. Enjoy!

    Jed Appelman, Berkeley, Calif., asks: “Your suggestion that Israel would respond more positively to a Gaza that was like Singapore [‘Still Eating Our Lunch’] was thought-provoking enough to prompt me to write. I hope you will expand on that comment. There are so many cultural and geographical differences between Gaza and the multi-cultural, Chinese-dominated society of Singapore. What are some of the factors that could help Gaza residents to direct development toward the Singapore — or Dubai — model?”

    Tom Friedman responds: I guess, Jed, my short answer is that I don’t think this is about culture. I think it is about institutions. That is, Gaza actually has quite a decent sized and talented merchant class, with strong ties to Egypt, as well as the West Bank, and indirectly, Israel. These merchants are as entrepreneurial as any Chinese if you give them access to capital, outlets to local and global markets and basic rule of law. Indeed, the last time I was in Gaza, which was in July, before the withdrawal, I attended a joint session of Egyptian and Gazan business leaders. One of the points that one of them made to me was how important it was that Gaza have economic openings to the world and that it have a free market not the corrupt system of monopolies that the Palestinian Authority maintained under Yasser Arafat. One of them said to me: Do you know why Hamas is so strong in Gaza and not in the West Bank? It’s because Gaza has been so closed to the world. There is really only one university in Gaza and it is an Islamic-based and -funded university. Whereas the West Bank was much more open to Israel and to Jordan and had secular universities. So I don’t worry about the culture in Gaza holding it back from being a Palestinian Singapore or Dubai. I worry about the lack of institutions and basic openness to the world. It is important that the Palestinians persuade Israel that they can be trusted, in terms of security, to maintain that openness and that Israel be open to such persuasion. It is in their mutual interest. It is also important that the Arab entrepreneurs forget about the Arab governments take an interest in Gaza. It has a huge housing shortage. It has a huge infrastructure shortage. It has great potential in terms of beachfront tourism, and, as Israeli farmers proved, it has great potential to be a center for the export of flowers to Europe. In sum, there is money to be made there, and the merchant instinct is to make it. The question is whether there will be the institutions and the security to allow it flourish.

  2. neo,

    OT but I noticed yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Ace Of Spades blog.

    What is the date of the start of this blog?

  3. First we had the inevitable but sorrowful spectacle of Israeli soldiers forcing weeping Israeli settlers from their homes. And now we have another inevitable spectacle [dead link from The Scotsman], this one of destructive fury: a Palestinian wilding that is annihilating what’s left of the settlements, including the synagogues and the greenhouses.
    Thanks to the webarchive’s wayback machine, we have a link. Gaza synagogues burn as Israel goes

  4. I write this in utter disgust. I really have to put in writing the mass slaughter of Jews is wrong. Now, tor coin a phrase and I politely welcome you to the phrase, please forgive me, I sh*t you not, the USAF is contemplating “reactivatinng” Tinian.

    Will the Air Force remember all the lost souls!

  5. If you want to have a glimpse of America’s future if the current status is maintained, take a look at Gaza today. The traitors who control Biden have enabled, facilitated and encouraged the influx of millions of foreigners who have nothing but their self-interest to motivate their invasion while simultaneously encouraging hatred of and scorn for everything that is American, most particularly that group of citizens who have the temerity to oppose their extinction. There is no longer much hope of maintaining peace, but it is undeniably time to para bellum.

  12. It is also important that the Arab entrepreneurs forget about the Arab governments take an interest in Gaza. It has a huge housing shortage. It has a huge infrastructure shortage. It has great potential in terms of beachfront tourism, and, as Israeli farmers proved, it has great potential to be a center for the export of flowers to Europe. In sum, there is money to be made there, and the merchant instinct is to make it. The question is whether there will be the institutions and the security to allow it flourish.

    –Tom Friedman linked by Mike Plaiss

    Mike Plaiss:

    Y’er killing me! Boffo stuff.

    All the points Tom Friedman made were potentially correct — except the Palestinians are flat insane in their Jew hatred.

  13. Yes, they are. But why did our fine host know that and the eminent columnist not? Why I bet neo never “attended a joint session of Egyptian and Gazan business leaders”, not even one!

  14. Neo, I also supported the Gaza withdrawal, thinking that if the Gazans misbehaved, the Israelis would have every right and not delay in punishing such.

    Back when Caroline Glick posted her email on her website, I emailed her this thought prior to the withdrawal. She responded by email strongly against the move, correctly predicting this would not appease the Palestinians and simply cause more trouble down the road.

    If I could tell her so now, I’d say, “Mea culpa” She was right and I was wrong.

  15. And I might add, despite her coming down rather strongly against me, I’ve come to respect Caroline Glick for speaking fearlessly and having the right instincts.

  16. Bill, im for the brutal destruction of the so-called Palestinians. We can’t afford these fictions

  19. This is a perfect example of power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It can’t be any clearer.

  20. Friedman has been wrong since 1982 when the Sabra massacre made his reputation which was a fraternal bloodbath carried over from an earlier event in the lebanese civil war

  22. I hate to say it but I can be as ugly as they want to be. I’ve had a lot of time to think. And practice. The mind is the weapon.

  23. Knowledge gnosos is not the same as hate the problem is foggy bottom and whitehall are full of ignoramus or worse same for the company and the firm

  24. Michael Kelly wrote an article (which I can’t find) years ago describing the Palestinians taking control in the West Bank & essentially describing them as nothing less than thugs & gangsters–and this was the more moderate Palestinian Authority (PA) he was describing.

  25. I think hate is the opposite of knowledge. It clouds the mind. I was rereading Saburo Sakai’s “Samurai!” They underestimated the Americans. It cost them.

    May our enemies always be stupid.

  26. I’ve seen people spouting off lately about shotguns in response to the recent Hamas atrocity. While the 12ga shotgun isn’t to be despised they’re not magic. I trained with them in the Navy. The issue weapon was the Mossberg M590. We, in the ship’s security reaction team, trained with a mix of weapons

    I love that shotgun. Ditch that plastic safety. If you get the civilian version. It will fail you. Convert to the MILSPEC metal safety. It won’t freeze

  28. “The question is whether there will be the institutions and the security to allow it flourish.”

    Actually, the question is when Tom Friedman will get his head out of his arse….(if ever….)
    – – – – – – – – – – – –
    Meanwhile, back at the suk….
    “‘Dark Money Nightmare’: How Qatar Bought the Ivy League”—
    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20265/qatar-bought-ivy-league
    Cute graf:
    “…Qatar makes it possible for Ivy League universities to claim that they receive no funds from the Qatari state, because the donations are funneled through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a not-for-profit organization established in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar. This ensures that the foundation can identify itself as a private organization, which enables Qatar to conceal its state funding as private donations….”

    Hire education, indeed.

    File under: Passing the khat…

    To be fair, the Qataris, real collectors they, are buying up all kinds of kewl stuff…
    “Leaked Report Puts Belgian MEP Maria Arena in Middle of Qatargate”—
    https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/leaked-report-puts-belgian-mep-maria-arena-in-middle-of-qatargate/
    https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/belgian-qatargate-suspect-keeps-immunity-for-now/

  32. Barry Meislin:

    Thanks for the link to the commander’s story, devotion to duty and to his fellow soldiers.

    May God continue to preserve and protect Israel.

  33. I’ll drink to that!
    (You’re very welcome… There are some incredible people out there. Simply extraordinary…)

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