Jews good, Palestinians bad

Commenters on a post from MegArdle about Palestine engage in the Marty Peretz line, averring that Palestinians are simply inherently immoral, wicked, stupid, cruel, etc. If you ever want to witness the enormous power of cognitive dissonance, just watch people making claims that a group of people, as a function of their ethnicity, are fundamentally malign, and then strenuously deny that doing so is racist.

Megan's commenters cheerfully avoid the fact that, of course, the Palestinians have had every possible disadvantage, and the Israelis have had enormous advantages, the most important one being the unwavering support of the most powerful country in the history of the world. I am a supporter of Israeli peace and prosperity. But it baffles me when people speak as though Israel's success is the product of the virtues of Jewishness, that Israelis progress comes not from the enormous military, economic and diplomatic advantages of being blessed with the unwavering support of America, but because Jews are fundamentally more decent, smarter, harder working, etc. than other races. That kind of thinking is misleading and dangerous, and it empowers exactly the kind of "good race/bad race" thinking that has caused the Jewish people such enormous suffering throughout their history. It would be a cruel and terrible turn of events for the Jews to now become the beneficiaries of attitudes that have caused their oppression in the past.

Megan doubts that the Palestinians can achieve a meaningful state, anymore. I'm not sure what we're supposed to take away from that. What is the alternative? There is none. There's just destruction or survival. The Palestinians are a dispossessed, disenfranchised people. They can only proceed in the direction of self-determination. As much as many people secretly would like it to happen, the millions of Palestinians are not going to disappear overnight. We don't have the luxury of pessimism in the face of the Palestinian ordeal. Especially if you are, as I am, a supporter of a secure and righteous state of Israel.