The Palestinian Arab game of using threats to accomplish their political goals is in full swing.
Member of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi warned Saturday against U.S. considering moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Plenty of Palestinian officials are saying the same thing. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas adviser Mahmoud Habash, in Abbas' presence, said "the world will pay the price" if the US moves the embassy.
Also head of Information and Culture Department, Ashrawi said "such a step would destabilize the whole region, destroy the peace process, disqualify the U.S. from its role in the region and generate a new wave of extremism."
"I hope that nobody would take such a step; this would be an extremely irresponsible and dangerous," she said, warning that it is "very dangerous and would transform into a religious issue."
Would recognizing East Jerusalem as capital of "Palestine" do the same? Funny how when the same Palestinian officials can demand that, no one seems to say that it would ignite a religious war, or that terror would ensue if such a move was taken.
Because Jews don't act irrationally. They don't threaten violence. They don't routinely engage in terror.
The US Embassy would be in part of Jerusalem that is inside the Green Line. There is no international law issue, no religious issue, no peace process issue, and no issue of stopping the US from brokering peace. All of the issues being brought up have nothing to do with reality. They are naked threats, pure and simple.
What Ashrawi and Habash and other Palestinian officials are really saying is the same thing that Arabs have told the West over the years: "Look, we Arabs are irrational, violent people. If you do something to upset us, we cannot be held responsible because, frankly, we are mentally unstable. Therefore, it is your responsibility to ensure that nothing happens that might upset us.
"Don't pretend that there is any rational basis for our threatening to burn half the world if you do something we don't like. There isn't. Treat us like we have severe psychological problems, like we have no free will or rational thought. Our violence is because of your actions.
"And, by the way, you must grant statehood to this group of mentally unstable, violent people. Because who knows what we can do to you if you don't?"
The way to react to threats is not to cave to them. The way to force people to act like adults is to force them to take responsibility for their own actions. Any violence is the fault of the people who do the violence and those who incite them.
It is a lesson that the West has a hard time swallowing, but it is the only way to stop tomorrow's threats.