According to Richard Fernandez, there are consequences to the nearly universal insistance on a solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict as a prerequisite for solving any other crisis in the Middle East.
Political movements often need a narrative to justify acts which would otherwise plainly be seen to be driven by expediency and self interest. The "linkage" with Israel provides an admirable pretext to excuse misgovernance, terrorism and outright thievery. "God's Army to Combat Zionism and Free Al-Quds" sounds a heck of a lot more noble than Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. (With apologies to Ali Baba, who really wasn't part of the Forty Thieves, but I digress) Without "linkage" perfume to deodorize his despicable deeds, the late and unlamented Yasser Arafat would have graced the FBI Most Wanted Poster rather than the cover Time Magazine's 1993 Person of the Year issue. Tom Gross called Yasser Araft "the great con man of modern politics". Even while Araft was still alive, CBS News reported that "Jim Prince and a team of American accountants - hired by Arafat's own finance ministry" found he had probably stolen a billion dollars for his own use.
So far, Prince's team has determined that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion -- with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands.
Although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people; it was all controlled by Arafat. And, Prince says, none of these dealings were made public.
What ultimately prevented the detection of Arafat's obvious knavery, what made it feasible for Arafat to become the "great con man of modern politics" was the "linkage" myth. As long as he could convince people that he was "struggling" against Israel, Arafat would be given a pass -- and more than a pass -- he would be accorded adulation.
The linkage myth also provides the pretext for the terrorist organization Hezbollah to maintain a standing army in Lebanon, acting as a state within a state.
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