Palestinians: Back Policies Not People
The Jerusalem Post points out the failure of the West in general and the US in particular in the PA territories:
Some observers have noted that in the context of the current fighting, the US State Department is blaming Hamas’s “military wing,” thereby for the first time implicitly distinguishing between “good” and “bad” parts of Hamas. It may be that even the US is poised to treat the “good” Hamas as a legitimate Palestinian address, following the collapse of the “good” Mahmoud Abbas, and before him, the “good” Yasser Arafat.If so, it would mean that the US has learned nothing from the serial failures born of backing particular people rather than policies. In each case, the international community failed to hold its favorite Palestinian leaders accountable for fear that worse ones would take over.
This approach has led precisely to the outcome it sought to avoid. The alternative is a policy that does not support the search for a Palestinian ally to support at all costs, but holds all factions, on behalf of Palestinians and Israelis alike, to basic standards of legitimacy, governance and movement toward peace.
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