me: >> since they lack a state, it's very difficult -- if not impossible -- for >> Palestinians to articulate in practice what their collective interests, >> strategy, and tactics are.<<
David B. Shemano wrote: > This truly makes no logical sense. If the Palestinians don't know where they > want to go, how are they going to get there? < You may have missed the phrase "in practice." It's quite possible for the Palestinians to have and articulate lots of ideas about collective interests, strategy, and tactics _in theory_, but without a state it's very difficult to put them _into practice_. Instead, we see such events as the civil war between Hamas and the PA/Fatah after Hamas won the election or the total lack of coordination between Hamas and the nuts who launch rockets into Israel from Gaza (sometimes hitting civilians). > I suppose the fact that they have made very lttle progress over the past 100 > years achieving articulated goals kind of supports your statement. However > many other nationalistic movements were able to articulate interests, > strategies and tactics without a state. One example would be the Zionists, > so it certainly is not impossible to achieve, let alone articulate, > interests, strategies and tactics.< Until the Israeli state was created, there were all sorts of different factions within Zionism; the Zionists' situation was like that of the Palestinians today in some ways. It wasn't just Menachem Begin and the Irgun or Yitzhak Shamir and the Stern Gang and other terrorists. It was also the Labor Party and other less militaristic forces. These groups had their little wars against each other. With the establishment of the Israeli state, they were able to articulate collective goals, strategy, and tactics in practice, uniting against the natives (ethnic cleansing and all that). > Again, you may be right in characterizing Palestinian political action, < "action" -- exactly! > because they have made little political progress for 100 years... < One reason for the Palestinians' lack of "political progress" is of course their lack of unity (as with most ethnic groups), while another is Israel's success in conquering them (backed by the US, natch). -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
