I believe... in the power of ideals.

The Leadership of the Palestinian people has been handed over to people most Israeli's see as enemies. The speculations as to who is to blame for this development among the English I have heard talking centers on Israel as the culprit. "They wanted this, you know." "They now have the excuse they need to continue their unilateral action." "If Sharron had given more concessions when Fatah was in power they could have proven to the Palestinian People that Fatah was a party that could get things done."
From my talk with a Palestinian Christian woman, leader of an art school in Bethlehem, I understood that the people were fed up with the corruption, that Hamas had built schools in the towns they ran, they had provided the people with public services. So maybe this is why they were elected, not because people believe in their platform, not because a majority of Palestinians think that Israel has no right to exist?
But I also spoke with an Arab-Israeli, a citizen of Israel, a lawyer, educated in England, a man who passed the bar in New York; and he struggled to respond positively to the assertion that Israel has a right to be there. He managed in the end to talk pragmatically about the current facts but really, he dodged the question.
I often wonder at the society around me here, so eager to absolve others of their responsibility, as long as they aren't European. Is this a hold over of the guilt experienced because of the British Empire? I affirm the desire to stand in the shoes of the other, to have compassion but in typical American fashion I ask about the consequences. Shouldn't we respect people as agents of their own destiny? Isn't affirming their moral culpability part of affirming their humanity? Are people really such hypocrites that their ideals can be bought off through large scale public funding, masses of economic aid, development of the economy? Are people's ideals so easily eradicated by consumerism and wealth? Isn't the fundamentalist response coming from the Islamic world a reaction against consumerism and the westernization of their identity? We think that people can be bought off, how insulting.