Alex Frantz, my fellow Slug over at Public Nuisance, has an even better response to Sawicky (although he was responding to Demosthenes)than mine. Go check it out, but heres the payoff:
Since the Palestinians still massively support terror bombings, I can only conclude that the payoff the bombings produce is, in their minds, worth the cost. And that payoff isn’t improved chances of statehood, or reduced oppression. In both areas, the payoff of terrorism has been negative.
The only payoff the bombings get is dead Jews. And for the Palestinians, dayenu. That is enough.
Demosthenes’ own example shows it:`Ahmed is twelve: “calm, together and determined to kill Israelis.”` Not ‘determined to gain independence.’ Not ‘determined to get an education and help build his country.’ Just determined to kill.
In game theory terms, the Palestinians aim only at the strategy which has the worst payoff for their opponents. That the payoff is even worse for themselves they have deemed irrelevant.
And that is why I and many others are reconsidering our past support for Palestinian statehood. It’s why Glenn feels they are becoming a psychotic death cult and I pretty much agree. It’s why bloggers are saying that the terrorism has to stop and aren’t interested in talking grievances until it does. Not because they made a bad choice – anybody can do that. Not even because their bad choice was also immoral. It’s because their bad choice has led them into catastrophe and they don’t appear to regret it. They have made the decision that the ruin of their current and future prospects as a people is a small price to pay for the joy of murdering Jews. It isn’t violence for the sake of their homeland but violence for the sake of violence.
Go slugs! Slime em!
Date: 06/26/2002 00:00:00 AM
A great work of literature for experiencing how everyone seems to succumb to doing the wrong thing when it’s the only way to survive is “The Good Person of Szechuan,” by Brecht. I think you’re being too harsh on the Palestinians. Lots of Palestinians are in desperate straits, and the people willing to help them out are Hamas, with social programs and guerrilla networks, and rich folks abroad, who set your family up for life if you become a suicide bomber. Why people in this situation are supposed to be so incredibly moral that they’re exempt from the “rational economic man” urge to feed their families is not clear to me. If the Palestinans had a local government that passed out some make-work, civil service positions that were of social benefit instead of “security-related”, you’d start getting a few more people trained in skills besides fighting.
Date: 06/22/2002 00:00:00 AM
I’ve been blog scanning closely(for me), the last few days, and the best observation I can make is this….”West Bank Palastinians are completely media deprived, and have no concept of how out of step they appear to the rest of the world.The fact that they persue societial “hari kari”, only emphasises the isolation the rest of the Muslim “culture” is foisting on them. Shame on them all for sacrificing the stepchild of Arabia for their own royal interests, and petrogain. The suicide bombers are outrageous in their actions and their ignorance. More heinous, however is the bounty paid to their families from afar. It is anathema, and sinful by any defininition.