Israelis want to find solutions to problems. Ideally, the solutions are win-win – both sides get what they want and everyone is ahead of where they were previously.
Israel had vaccines that were coming close to expiration. Palestinians were way behind in vaccinating their population, and their vaccines – which they ordered many months ago – were delayed.
I don't know who came up with the solution – Israel or Pfizer – but Israel had a chance to not waste the vaccines while allowing the Palestinians to get a head start on over half a million jabs.
However, Palestinians do not have a win/win mindset. They have a zero-sum mentality.
The two cannot mix.
From the Palestinian perspective, “if my enemy wins, I lose.” Israel cannot be allowed to win – whether it is in PR, or in not losing millions of dollars of vaccines. If Israel wins, then Palestinians lose, in this bizarre mindset.
Even if Israel's win can also save the lives of hundreds of Palestinians
A lose/lose is preferable to a win/win, when you hate your enemy enough.
And Palestinians are taught to hate Israelis from birth.
The zero-sum mindset is tied with the honor/shame mentality. If your enemy wins, it is shameful for you.
How can anyone make peace with people whose top priority is for their opponents to lose and be humiliated – more than they care about their own people?
The answer is – you cannot. Until the Palestinians grow up and think like adults, they will never get anywhere.
There is a glimmer of hope. The vaccine agreement was hammered out over months, and as late as Friday morning it was being praised from both sides.
But then other Palestinians - probably political opponents to the PA - started making a stink about how dare the Palestinians make an agreement with the hated Israelis.
Since the PA cannot allow itself to look like a collaborator with Israel, it made up a story about the expiration date of the vaccines, even though that had been spelled out in the agreement.
For a brief moment, the Palestinians acted like adults, like people who actually care about their own. But that way of thinking is fragile and easily smashed when a political opponent accuses the other of being weak or being too conciliatory towards the enemy.
That's what happened. And unless a Palestinian leadership can emerge that cares about its own people more than ridiculous notions of "honor," we cannot expect any fundamental change.
