Palestine: Blowing up

 

He is a guy you’ve probably never heard of; Dr. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the U.N. He was on NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd on Sunday, for an interview. Recently Palestine, or rather the lack of the existence of Palestine, has been in the news, with the comments by Netanyahu, about the fact that he may not be behind a two state solution there.

The idea of a two state solution in the Israel Region, with one being for Jews, the other for Arabs, is a sticky situation. Americans are, according to Gallup earlier this year, pretty evenly split about it. Obama supports it, as do many others, but there are fears that it could become a Terror State if allowed to exist.

And this brings us to Dr. Riyad Mansour. Who, on Meet the Press proved why so many are concerned about giving people like him a state of their own. When Chuck Todd asked this man who is the permanent observer to the UN of the state that does not yet exist him why he was not pushing forward talks with Israel and America, but rather going to the International Criminal Court, and possibly after that the UN, to get what he wants, Mansour had this to say: “Listen, you know, people should appreciate what we are doing, we are refusing to seek violent ways to try to resolve this conflict.”

Completely unbelievable. We should respect the fact that he’s not blowing people up.

No, that is not how society works. Normal people don’t blow people up. I have never heard yet, in Western Culture, someone lauded because they don’t blow people up. “You know, that guy sure is a bad football player, but at least he doesn’t blow people up.” Or, “you really should marry him, honey, I know he can’t hold a job, can’t do anything, but at least he is not blowing people up.”

It is such a simple thing, such a basic thing, and somehow we are supposed to think that they have made a great accomplishment. “You know man, I don’t like that news anchor, but at least he finally learned how to speak, when he was in his 20s he was still all goo, goo gaga.”

This is almost a sort of inferiority complex from this man, that thinks his region has sunk so low, when they are not killing people, it deserves a party. A two state solution will probably be reached in years to come, although of course it will be very difficult. But no matter which side of this you are on, we can all agree that people like Dr. Riyad Mansour only make things worse. He is not helping anything. I am glad he is not blowing people up, but I’m glad like a mother is glad her high school graduate knows how to dress himself, we kind of expect it, and it doesn’t mean you’re a grown up now.

Until we can not only expect nonviolent solution coming from the Middle East, but can also expect that Arab and European can sit down and talk things out like European and European Nations talk things out, we have a long way to go. “The battle isn’t won yet, Mr. Frodo.”

Andrew C. Abbott