The NYT, the voice of U.S. capitalism and imperialism, is trying to batter down Palestinian resistance. The general strike in Gaza against the Bahrain conference is only part of the answer. Here is another answer to arrogant dictators from Shelley:

Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

FWIW I'm pretty sure* that Dannon's article (& Erekat's one that Dannon was responding to) only called for a Palestinian surrender NOT for their suicide. Is this a key distinction?

Dannon was specifically arguing by analogy using Japan & Germany post WWII and how their surrender enabled a massive change of culture followed by economic rebuilding that made them the nations they are today. I think its drawing a very long bow (really stretching the point) and perhaps, maybe, even disingenuous to say the same applies here but I don't think its quite the same as calling for the suicide of Palestinians which would be outright genocidal, racist and completely and utterly wrong.

If, for example, Hamas and Fatah surrendered to Israel or the UN and disarmed would it end the Palestinian people and culture? I don't think it would - although I don't think either are likely to do so anytime soon.** If the Palestinians all committed suicide OTOH - also NOT going to happen - it would be an unthinkable genocide which, obviously, would be totally unreasonable to ask of them. A government or armed force ending a conflict and giving up is very different from demanding a group of people literally kill themselves.

Maybe this is just semantics but I do think its important to be accurate, be fair and get things right please. Otherwise good article.

* I may be mistaken here and if so then my apologies.

** Palestinians all stating that terrorism & firing rockets are worse than useless; rejecting those tactics & disarming to adopt a strictly non-violent Gandhi / Martin Luther King type approach - even Hamas etc .. leaders turning themselves in and confessing to the killings they've done would be a remarkable and admirable idea which, I think, would gain Palestinians a huge amount of global respect and really help their cause.

It is a sin and shame against the entire world that the Zionist state of Israel has been allowed to brutally oppress the indigenous Palestinian Arab population for these many decades. Israel must be held to account for its land theft, its repression, oppression of the Palestinian people. The world stopped Nazism, the world stopped apartheid in South Africa and it is the duty and responsibility of the entire world to stop Zionist Israel! The highest favor that the world could do for Israel is to end the occupation of Palestine and to bring those responsible in Israel to justice for their crimes.

To be honest, you know all Israelis are settlers, you know all of Israel is occupied Palestine and every single Israeli city is a settlement.Israel looks like a strangely disconnected, self-serving echo-chamber. While the illegal government perceives its hasbara efforts to be helping the nation ride high on a wave of righteousness, the sad reality is that the country is increasingly isolated and adrift, cast away on a wave of its own delusion.