The ultra-left is not anti-Israel enough for Arabs

One of the most pervasive myths when dealing with the Middle East is that compromise on the Israeli side will inevitably bring flexibility on the Arab side. The main purveyors of this myth are the members of the radical, Israel-bashing left, people such as Norman Finkelstein and Uri Avnery.

But Finkelstein is not nearly radical enough for the Palestinian Arabs or the Free Gaza folks. Here is what one Free Gaza Arab blogger has to say about Finkelstein, who visited Gaza last month with Code Pink:

Norman Finkelstein did not show any support for the inalienable right of return for the six million refugees, the core of the... "conflict."

Norman Finkelstein did not admit to the fact that the two-prison solution is a... racist solution, a 19th century idea which does NOT support the INALIENABLE right of return.

Norman Finkelstein: Israel is an occupation; it is the longest occupation the 20th century has witnessed, of the WB and GS, it is a colonization, and is an Apartheid; against the 1948 indigenous population, not to mention its Bantustanization of the GS and WB.

Uri Avnery, Peace Now, patronizingly will reply back saying he accepts the return of only... 20,000 refugees. He is anti-BDS and anti-ROR [right of return]. He is... a "leftist" Zionist... from when does the "left" accept a ... religious state? [or state to begin with]. He is like the "master" who decides. "I" mean... am "I" stupid? How can a democratic state exist when it has a... religious identity?! I must be really stupid here Uri, I mean... for me not to understand your "democracy."

Hilariously, the blogger then calls the 1936-9 Arab riots that killed hundreds of people "civil resistance."

Norman... you completely neglect the Palestinian civil resistance that existed since... 1936. Yes, I assure you. We, Arabs did have that going on. But, will the White man ever challenge his standards of "us"?

Of course, this blogger who advocates a single, democratic, secular state in Palestine seems to have no problem with the fact that Hamas is religious, that the PA constitution explicitly says that its laws are based on Shari'a, and that every Arab state is explicitly Muslim (with the possible exception of Lebanon, for now.)

What do the Finkelsteins and Avnerys of the world think when confronted by people who have no desire for any sort of compromise, who will not be happy unless Israel and Jewish self-determination is utterly destroyed? My guess is that rather then learn that their methods only embolden the Arab obstructionists, they look at their criticism from the Arab side as somehow "proof" that they are really reasonable people, and being hated by both sides is evidence of their correct path. (Lots of newspaper editors use that exact illogic to pretend that they are evenhanded.)