re: #105 Prononymous, rogue demon hunter

How far do you take your argument? Are you willing to recognize that there are actually more radical and less radical elements within the palestinian populace? Or are they just one huge group to be stereotyped?

The ‘populace’ has extraordinarily limited control over what actually happens, which is why I get frustrated when asked to ‘recognize’ various things about them. Whether Mr al-Misri, my hypothetical average Palestinian is a moderate or not is about as important as whether I am a moderate or not—neither of us has a lot of influence. If Mr. al-Misri lives in Gaza, even less so. What I know is that polls indicate that most West Bank Palestinians consider economic considerations to be their primary concern, which is good news. There’s also bad news, but the consistent economic focus strikes me as something with potential for the future. If the future ever gets here.

I have no problem with the use of the word ‘moderate’, although it’s a highly relative term in this case. But for a counterexample, I would ask what kind of reception I would get if I described a Republican politician who’s not a raving maniac, who believes contraception should be freely available to of-age women who pay for it out of pocket, who supports exceptions for rape and incest, but who strongly feels that abortion should be illegal outside those reasonable exceptions, as a pro-life moderate. Would I get firmly corrected on that? Why? He IS a moderate. He’s a lot more moderate than a lot of other Republicans, that’s for sure.

With the issues of the Right of Return and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state still essentially intractable, that’s the way a lot of people feel. Moderate schmoderate.

I don’t necessarily agree. I think the distinctions between Hamas and Fatah are real, and politically significant. But that’s why you’ll see some pushback against the ‘moderate’ label.

And, as I say, I’m not sure, at least without seeing a lot more of his research, that I buy Chamberlin’s perceptions of ‘who is a moderate’. His apparent inclusion of Hamas and Hezbollah, maybe, in that category…eh, I think I’ll have to read the book.