I'm Stumped

I'm trying so hard to avoid becoming one of those bloggers who rant and rave about anything that displeases them. It's easy to write angry but it takes a lot of effort to think things through.

What worries me is that people who read the angry blasts tend to believe what they read because “it's on the internet” or in the newspaper. Question the source, I always say.

I refer you, specifically, to Mahmoud Abbas' fairy tale op-ed piece in today's New York Times. Here's a guy who, following in the footsteps of his predecessors as head of the PLO, has rejected every opportunity to negotiate a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

And now he's rewriting history by claiming seven Arab armies attacked Israel because the Israelis expelled their Arab citizens when Israel declared independence. Of course, just the opposite is true.

The Arabs attacked because they hated the idea of an Israeli state, which they still do. And the Arabs living in Israel at the time, including Mr. Abbas and his family, fled into the arms of their “brothers” who have kept them in squalid “refugee camps” ever since.

Not one of the warring countries embraced the Palestinians and welcomed them into their communities. The refugee camps made for better anti-Israel propaganda.

I don't want to be pessimistic but I just can't see a negotiated settlement between Israel and a formative Palestinian state which continues to preach hatred and vows the destruction of Israel.