Getting It

Richard Fernandez:

One of the most powerful political weapons in the world today was — is —  self-hostaging.  A party threatens to harm itself unless demands are granted. “Then it will be your fault.” This tactic was on full display in the Middle East.

BREAKING: Palestinians Threaten to Dismantle the Palestinian Authority.

Will the crisis in the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations soon lead to the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority? Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave a veiled threat stressing that he will dismantle the Palestinian Authority in his meeting with Israeli Knesset members in Ramallah, but now it seems that the implicit threat might soon become an official position in peace negotiations….

In recent times, the Palestinian Authority has examined how they can dissolve themselves in the event that the talks fail with Israel. In this case, the Palestinians state that the burden will fall on Israel. As of today, the Palestinian Authority receives over $2 billion per year in donations from other countries across the globe.

Refugee ships headed for Europe are sometimes admitted on an analogous threat.

Almost 1,000 illegal immigrants landed in Italy yesterday after threatening to throw babies into the sea if their rusting ship was turned back.

The 240ft Monica had been spotted in international waters during the night.

When Italian coastguard boats drew alongside, the crews were shocked to see men and women on board begin dangling the infants over the side.

The refugees – mostly Kurds and many said to be heading for Britain – calmed down only when they were assured they would not be turned away from Italy.

“If you don’t let me kill you I’ll kill myself and then it will be your fault.” This used to work real good.  Who knows how many victims admitted their killers on that basis?

The Boston Bombers, for example, were granted permission to enter America on asylum. “The Tsarnaev brothers reportedly were granted asylum by “derivative” status through their parents. After entering on short-term tourist visas, the mother and father (an ethnic Chechen Muslim) won asylum and acquired U.S. citizenship. Next, younger son Dzhokhar obtained U.S. citizenship. Older son Tamerlan, whose naturalization application was pending, traveled freely between the U.S. and the jihad recruitment zone of Dagestan, Russia.” The West admitted people because they pitied them, even though the objects of sympathy neither pitied the West nor even themselves.

The biggest virtuoso of self-hostaging was North Korea. For decades it starved its people to build nuclear weapons and rockets to target America, which is ironically one of North Korea’s biggest providers of food aid. Talk about biting the hand that fed you. This was a case of preparing to nuke the country which kept you from starvation.

This bordered on the absurd. However few American officials dared cut food aid to Pyongyang because the Left would accuse it of “using food as a weapon”. The absurdity was never obvious to the left. Aid had in fact been recently restarted to Pyongyang when it began new missile tests, causing it to be suspended again. The Los Angeles Times wrote in April 2012:

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