MAUREEN MINDERBENDER :

Makin' Us Dizzy (MAUREEN DOWD, June 30, 2002, NY Times)

Everywhere you look these days, you see situations that are absurdly contradictory and circular and self-defeating. Reality has turned into one huge, self-consuming loop. Call it Catch-2002. [...]

On Monday, the president declared that he would deal only with a democratic leader of Palestine--Abu Jefferson--even though he deals with the region's kings, autocrats, tyrants and military dictators stalling on democratic elections. Catch-2002.

That is, of course, not what the President said. What he actually said was the following :

Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born. I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror.

I call upon them to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty.

If the Palestinian people actively pursue these goals, America and the world will actively support their efforts. If the Palestinian people meet these goals, they will be able to reach agreement with Israel and Egypt and Jordan on security and other arrangements for independence.

And when the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and new security arrangements with their neighbors, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state, whose borders and certain aspects of its sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement in the Middle East.

In the work ahead, we all have responsibilities. The Palestinian people are gifted and capable and I'm confident they can achieve a new birth for their nation.

A Palestinian state will never be created by terror. It will be built through reform. And reform must be more than cosmetic change or a veiled attempt to preserve the status quo. True reform will require entirely new political and economic institutions based on democracy, market economics and action against terrorism.

Today the elected Palestinian legislature has no authority and power is concentrated in the hands of an unaccountable few. A Palestinian state can only serve its citizens with a new constitution which separates the powers of government.

The Palestinian parliament should have the full authority of a legislative body. Local officials and government ministers need authority of their own and the independence to govern effectively.

The United States, along with the European Union and Arab states, will work with Palestinian leaders to create a new constitutional framework and a working democracy for the Palestinian people. And the United States, along with others in the international community, will help the Palestinians organize and monitor fair, multiparty local elections by the end of the year with national elections to follow.

Today, the Palestinian people live in economic stagnation, made worse by official corruption. A Palestinian state will require a vibrant economy, where honest enterprise is encouraged by honest government.

The United States, the international donor community and the World Bank stand ready to work with Palestinians on a major project of economic reform and development. The United States, the EU, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are willing to oversee reforms in Palestinian finances, encouraging transparency and independent auditing. And the United States, along with our partners in the developed world, will increase our humanitarian assistance to relieve Palestinian suffering.

Today, the Palestinian people lack effective courts of law and have no means to defend and vindicate their rights. A Palestinian state will require a system of reliable justice to punish those who prey on the innocent. The United States and members of the international community stand ready to work with Palestinian leaders to establish, finance and monitor a truly independent judiciary.

Today, Palestinian authorities are encouraging, not opposing terrorism.

This is unacceptable.

That's quite different from Ms Dowd's airy version of the speech. For one thing, he's applying a different standard to Palestine because only it, among the Arab states, is currently at war with Israel. And there's nothing unusual about his calling for Palestine to become a democracy because democracies have a history of imposing regime change and democracy on their opponents before they'll sign peace agreements--for example, the North vs. the South in our Civil War and the U.S. vs. Germany and Japan in WWII. Would Ms Dowd have allowed Japan to retain its fascist government at the end of WWII because the other countries of Asia weren't democracies?

For another thing he's not even remotely saying that elections will suffice. He's laid out an entire range of reforms that Palestine will have to embrace before peace will be agreed to--from elections to institution building to a crackdown on terror to economic development. Most of these are actually better accomplished by a military dictatorship--witness Spain, Chile, etc.--but in the absence of a military capable of imposing order over Palestinian society it will be necessary for people to exercise some control over themselves and to take control over their own leadership. The prospect for this happening is fairly slim, but it is in no sense "absurdly contradictory and circular and self-defeating" to demand it.

Reality isn't a loop--it is a straight line. Palestine now is a corrupt and backwards society in love with death and murder. It must reform itself and renounce violence. Then it may have peace and economic development. Does that really seem as convoluted to you as it does to the dizzy Ms Dowd?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 30, 2002 7:16 AM