{"id":1286,"date":"2006-12-14T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2006-12-14T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-12-14T17:57:13","modified_gmt":"2006-12-14T17:57:13","slug":"the_affirmation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=1286","title":{"rendered":"The Affirmation Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Blair<\/a> leads Harry’s Place<\/a> to a Swiss interview<\/a> with the Editor-In-Chief of Al-Jazeera, Ahmed Sheikh.<\/p>\n

It’s been commented on before, but note in particular this exchange:<\/p>\n

Who is responsible for the situation?<\/b><\/p>\n

\nThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.<\/p>\n

\nDo you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?<\/b><\/p>\n

\nI think so.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?<\/b><\/p>\n

\nThe Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.<\/p>\n

\nIn the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?<\/b><\/p>\n

\nExactly. It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West’s problem is that it does not understand this.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s impossible – or very damn close to it – to negotiate with someone who is interested more in his self-image than in any objective thing that may be achieved in the negotiation. Because no matter how the matter is settled, each party to a good settlement feels somewhat wronged.<\/p>\n

And if that feeling of wronged-ness is the driver…well, getting to a negotiated settlement is going to be damn difficult.<\/p>\n

There are a few difficulties there, not the least of which is that the Israelis may decline to be sacrificed on the altar of Arab male self-esteem, and may do so in a way that leaves quite a mess.<\/p>\n

At that point, self-esteem may be the last thing Arab males have to worry about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a self-esteem problem…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}