Misplaced Schadenfreude

The secret illiberal in me, the one that occasionally sucks on a juicy morsel of schadenfreude like a delicious sweet, has looked on with a certain grim satisfaction as, in recent weeks, Hamas and Fatah trained their gunsights, not on Israeli schoolchildren and ordinary felafel eaters, but on one another.

Hah, let them decimate each other's ranks - then maybe at last the way might be cleared for rational Palestinian leadership. Maybe if the cowboys all kill each other, then reasonable people such as Sari Nusseibeh will be able to step forward and make a genuine peace deal with Israel and start focusing on nation-building alongside and in concert with Israel, which has, whether you like it or no, clearly demonstrated its own abilities in the nation-building sphere.

But that, of course, presumes that the Palestinian people would follow a Sari Nusseibeh. And the fact is, when given the choice, and understanding all the ramifications of that choice, they elected - Hamas.

I saw the movie Gandhi again the other night on HBO, and recalled my thoughts upon seeing it the first time, back in the 1980s, at a cinema in Jerusalem. I thought then, as an Israeli citizen, that it was a dangerous film, that the Palestinians would go see it and realize how they could win. Organize a mass peaceful march on the Knesset. Lie down in the streets of Jerusalem. No guns, no rock throwing. Men, women and children. They'd have their state so fast it would make your head spin.

That was 20 or more years ago, and not a heck of a lot has improved since then. Whatever you think of Israel and its actions (and I'm not defending much of what has been done), you still must grapple with the basic fact that Israel hasn't had lots of good choices here, that the Palestinians have never once demonstrated any real willingness to coexist or abandon violence.

And don't tell me their violent campaign against Israel started as a reaction to the Israeli occupation, because a cursory glance at history pre-1967 will expose that as utter nonsense.

But, anent my schadenfreude, here's Danny Rubinstein of Haaretz:

"The situation in which Israel is not obliged to take responsibility, and the assumption that anarchy in Gaza creates a convenient political reality for Israel, are in fact short-term illusions. Nothing good for us can come out of what is now happening in the Gaza Strip, and it could easily spill over into the West Bank. Anarchy among our neighbors, turmoil in the security situation, economic crisis, fear of civil war and perhaps famine, anger and bitterness - all of these will eventually affect not only the Palestinians but us also, directly or in a roundabout way. No walls or separation fences will stop missiles and attacks that will cause us security and economic damage. The truth, therefore, remains as always: what is good for, and needed by, Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from all points of view are quiet and stability, a flourishing economy and a regime with which we can reach an agreement - and not the opposite of these."

From his mouth to the Palestinians' ears. Or God's. For clearly the Palestinians seem incapable of making this leap unaided.