The Ungrateful, Insulting Palestinians

The late Palestinian activist Nizar Banat uploaded scathing videos about the corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA), and especially that in which Mahmoud Abbas was implicated; for his pains, Abbas had his goons beat Banat to death, giving new meaning to the phrase about “silencing your critics.” Many Palestinians have been up in arms about recent high-profile appointments of close relatives of senior PA officials to positions in the government for which they were distinctly unqualified.

How long has this been going on? As long as the PA has been in power. Jobs in the government have been handed out like confetti to the relatives of the powerful. The best way Mahmoud Abbas can keep a coterie of supporters loyal to him is to make sure their relatives are also taken care of; they know that if they dare to cross the rais in Ramallah, not just they, but a host of their relatives can lose their jobs. This keeps them loyal.

Of the 22 members of the Arab League, all but one – Algeria – have ceased to make any payments to the PA. Unemployment has reached 26% in the PA-run parts of the West Bank, and 47% in Gaza. The rates are even higher for those under the age of 30. Yet every week, some unqualified relative of a PA big shot gets appointed to a cushy post, and Palestinian spirits are full of wormwood and gall. And it gets worse: “Why Arabs Are Fed up With the Palestinians,” by Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, July 12, 2022:

The Palestinian leadership, however, chose to spit in the well it has drawn from for many years, and now it is drinking the bitter waters of its decisions.

The Palestinians have never been satisfied with the support their fellow Arabs have given them. They have not only been ungrateful, but positively insulting to any Arab leader who shows the slightest inclination to put his own nation’s interest ahead of that of the Palestinians, as was shown in their murderous rage against Anwar Sadat for signing a deal with Israel that recovered the entire Sinai for Egypt but, they inaccurately claimed, did nothing for the Palestinian cause.

The Arab countries have more urgent issues to deal with than the corrupt, thankless Palestinian leaders do. You can start with the welfare of their own people. The Palestinian leadership, by contrast, is happy to fail its people by indoctrinating generation after generation with bloodlust for Jews. When Palestinian society finds itself left in the global dust of progress, it can thank its leaders for bringing them to that sorry pass.

The Arab countries have a lot — “more urgent issues” — to worry about. There is the threat from Iran, and from its network of proxies and allies that make up a “Shia crescent,” that extends from the Houthis in Yemen to the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia in Iraq, to the Alawite-led army in Syria, to Hezbollah in Lebanon. They have to worry about Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles, its enormous number of drones (even the Russians are now buying drones from Iran), and about its attempt to export its revolutionary Islamic fervor to the Sunni lands.

There are the present and future economic problems that bedevil the Arabs. The oil-rich Arab states know that the writing is on the wall, and that they have to prepare for the day, within a decade or two, when climate change will force countries to stop using fossil fuels. How will their countries, now almost totally dependent on oil revenues, transition smoothly to a different economy? The poorer Arab countries right now must worry about mass unemployment among the young, about underfunded educational systems that in places consist not of schools, but rather, of glorified madrassas with some secular teaching also on offer. Gender inequality, widespread political violence, extremists using social media to whip up the masses who remain in thrall to Islam, all contribute to the civilizational malaise. The faith of Islam teaches Believers to avoid bid’a, or innovation; such an attitude promotes paralysis rather than progress. Islam teaches too, the habit of mental submission; this stultifies bot the collective and the individual intellect.

It is too late for the Palestinians to win back the financial support of the Arabs. The Arab states are now immersed in their own problems and threats – political, economic, social – to their wellbeing. After so many years of Palestinian ingratitude and outrageous personal attacks on their leaders, the Arabs will neither forgive nor forget. From now on, the Palestinians will have to depend on the kindness, not of strangers, but — horribile dictu – of Infidels.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here