“Gaza right now is feeling a lot of pain because of bad leadership and the sanctions that have been imposed on them because of it,” Kushner said. “So the question that (Hamas) leadership has to ask themselves is ... do they hate their neighbor in Israel more than they love their citizens and their people?”Does he have to ask? The entire reason Gaza is a hellhole is because of Hamas insisting on the right to attack Israel, and it regularly insults Fatah for allowing security coordination with the hated Zionists.
But the same can be said for the Palestinian Authority.
A telling incident happened yesterday:
Oman will open an embassy in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the sultanate's foreign ministry said.Palestinians only think in terms of zero-sum games. Gaining diplomatic recognition from Oman is great - but it is not worth it if Israel also benefits. Oman recognizing Israel, if it plans to, dos not affect Palestinian lives at all. But to their puerile way of thinking, if Israel gains anything, they lose.
The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday welcomed the decision.
“This is a positive development,” said an adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. “But we hope that this is not a first step toward establishing diplomatic relations between Oman and Israel.”
This little comment also shows how Palestinians only define themselves in terms of Israel.
That zero sum thinking is what makes Kushner's question unfortunately relevant to the "more liberal" West Bank Palestinians. Because since they think in terms of zero sum, they in fact do hate Israel more than they love their own people.
Their boycott of the Bahrain Conference, meant to bring a vision of prosperity to them, proves this as well as anything can.
Adults look for win-win results. Only severely emotionally stunted people cannot accept anything good if it also benefits their supposed "peace partner."
The difference between seeing Gulf Arab officials happily speaking to Israeli businesspeople and reporters and how Palestinians shun any public meetings with Israelis (who aren't BDSers) is striking. One wants to actually find a way to peace, the other wants to find ways to block it - because peace benefits Israel.
The Palestinians have no clue how much they hurt themselves by playing this game.