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Mon, Nov 21, 2011 | Rubin Reports | By Barry Rubin

Europe and the Palestinians: What’s the Difference Between Ordinary Insanity and Middle East Policy Insanity?

What is the definition of insanity? Repeating the same behavior and expecting different results.

What is the definition of Middle East policy insanity? Intensifying the same behavior that has already failed and expecting a better result.

Example: After 60 years of failure by radical Arab nationalism being intransigent, warring on the West, trying to destroy Israel, and seeking to create a utopian Arab society that turns into a nightmare, we are about to get six decades or so of revolutionary Islamism doing each of these things in an even more extreme way.

But here’s my favorite instance for today. For almost three years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has refused to negotiate with Israel. It has kept none of its commitments, rejected every U.S. initiative, and wasted an entire year playing with a unilateral independence bid at the UN to avoid making a compromise peace. It has made a unity agreement with the genocidal, antisemitic Hamas.

The PA has also been rife with corruption and there is a huge economic catastrophe facing Europe. Oh, and the PA also maintains a huge, well-paid security establishment that doesn’t do anything useful and has on its payroll antisemitic preachers who spew hate.

So how does Europe respond? Obviously by increasing aid to the PA by 20 percent, from 500 million to 600 million Euros for 2012.

That will teach them a lesson all right! But what lesson? Why the lesson that extremism, intransigence, refusal to make peace, inciting to violence and glorifying terrorism are rewarded.