Hope

Ben Shapiro wrote an open letter to President Bush today, speaking of his love and admiration for President Bush, but also attacking his current course of action in regards to Israel.

You are losing your moral vision. Perhaps the State Department has finally convinced you that moral foreign policy is passe. Perhaps you have repeated the mantra "Islam is a religion of peace" so many times that you are willing to stake your entire administration on that dubious claim. But whatever happened, you have lost your way. . . .

You say that Israel's "occupation" has fostered despair in the "Palestinian people" and that Israel must foster hope in order to bring peace. This is backward. It is Palestinian hope, not despair, that causes terrorism. There were no suicide bombings before the Oslo Accords; only after Oslo did terror escalate to its present level. Concessions breed terrorism. In fact, you yourself have rejected the "despair causes terrorism" argument with respect to Al-Qaeda. Islamic terrorists are evil, and neither poverty nor despair causes them to hate us.

Let me repeat one phrase, I found particularly telling. It is Palestinian hope, not despair, that causes terrorism.

What a despairing statement. I wonder what sort of future Shapiro envisions for the Palestinian people, if they are, as he says, basically evil. Does he favor the plan that will end up with them abandoning the land entirely and moving to Lebanon? Or does he favor a mass grave? Like most writers on this subject, he fails to provide an outline.

I certainly condemn Palestinian Terrorists and their terrorist acts against Israel, but I personally believe the bulk of the Palestinian people are just that. They are people. They have kids and work jobs and want to provide a good life for themselves and their children. Removing all hope, as Mr. Shapiro seems to advocate, would make things worse, not better.