To live by cause-and-effect would dramatically improve the lives of Palestinians.
I. The minor examples
“Consequence” is a word and a reality that do not exist in the Gaza Strip, at the very least among its leaders.
First, the minor examples:
If Gazans launch terrorist attacks against Israel, then the consequence is that Israel strikes back.
If Gazans commandeer concrete intended for housing and use it for terrorist tunnels instead, then housing in Gaza is not built.
If Gazans destroy greenhouses built by Israelis and gifted to Gazans, then Gazans will lack the fruits and vegetables grown in these greenhouses.
If Gazans station weapons of war in schools, then, in a war, children will get hurt.
If Gazan “demonstrators” show up at a demonstration armed with firebombs, then they will be treated as soldiers, not as protesters.
If a Gazan tries to plant a lethal explosive device at the foot of an Israeli soldier, then the soldier will shoot to kill.
If the government in Gaza does not function as a government by, for example, developing an electrical grid, then Gaza will be dependent on others for electricity.
If Gazans pledge to destroy Israel, then Israel will not make peace with Gaza.
If Israel withdraws from Gaza, then the fate of Gaza will rest with its own Arab government, not with Israel’s.
Consequences. If . . . then. In reality, this suffuses every aspect of Gazan life, but no aspect of Gazan thinking. In Gaza, cause-and-effect is suspended. In the Gazan perspective, when Israel strikes Gaza, Israel acts utterly without reason and is evil. It makes no difference what Gazan steps preceded an Israeli attack.
When Gazans lack housing, the fault is Israel’s for not supplying the necessary raw materials, even though, when Israel does supply the necessary raw materials, they are not used for housing.
When Gazans lacks fresh fruits and vegetables, the fault is Israel’s, even though, when Israel provided the necessary frames in this desert climate, Gazans destroyed them.
When Gazans chafe under outside control of their electricity or water, the cause is conceived as outside Gaza — even when the government in Gaza takes no steps to provide electricity or water.
When Israel develops anti-missile batteries to intercept missiles fired from Gaza at Israeli civilian centers, then to Gaza Israel is against peace. The idea that the missiles fired from Gaza into Israel bespeak war, not peace, does not register, because there is no cause-and-effect in Gazan thinking.
Which leads us to the violent events last week along the Gaza-Israel border.
II. The major examples
Israel is about to celebrate its 70th anniversary. To greet this event, Hamas, the ruling Palestinian party in Gaza, planned to stage massive demonstrations at the Gaza- Israel border in order to erase the border — a first step toward the erasure of Israel. There will be no 70th anniversary celebrations in Israel because there will be no Israel.
Now, the major examples of the Gazan suspension of cause-and-effect:
If Gazans mount massive demonstrations against Israel, then the Arab nations will come rushing to the Palestinians’ aid.
If Gazans either kill Israelis or Israelis kill Gazans, then the world will prioritize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, once and for all, put an end to Israel.
If Gazans raise the specter of the end of Israel, then Israel will end — because that is what Egypt and the rest of the Arab states want above all.
These examples of Palestinian cause-and-effect are imaginary. The consequences of their massive demonstrations have no more basis in reality than the “minor” examples of Gaza’s suspension of cause-and-effect cited above.
Reality check:
• The real pool of Arab refugees today is to be found in Syria and in the European and North American countries to which they have escaped. Palestinian “refugees” are an artificial construct of third- or fourth- or fifth-generation descendants of Palestinian refugees who long ago could have been resettled if Arab governments wanted to, just like millions of Syrian refugees today are being resettled.
• The same Arab governments who artificially kept the Palestinian refugee issue alive are no longer interested in focusing on this. They have a more pressing problem.
• It is Iran. Shiite Iran threatens the stability of the Sunni Arab world. Lo and behold, Israel is now seen more of a bulwark against Iran than as a symbolic enemy in the eyes of the most powerful Arab governments (Egypt and Saudi Arabia) and the smaller Arab governments (Jordan, Qatar, UAE).
No Israeli wants to strike against Palestinian demonstrators. But when at least some of the demonstrators come with violent intent and weapons of violence, Israel strikes back. It is elementary cause-and-effect. When the wider Arab world implicitly tells the Palestinians, “forget your imaginary disappearance of Israel, and make peace already,” it is time for the Palestinian leaders to wake up to elementary cause-and-effect — to under- stand the consequences of their own actions, and to act on them.
When, at the time of the violent Palestinian “demonstrations,” Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Moham-med bin Salan declares — a first for an Arab Gulf leader in 70 years! — that the Jewish people has the right to its own state, it is no coincidence.
As Israel turns 70, let the Palestinians finally make peace with Israel. The biggest winners — another cause-and-effect — will be the Palestinians themselves.
Copyright © 2018 by the Intermountain Jewish News
