Okay, seriously
Maybe the reason that the rest of the Islamic world is so willing to hang the Palestinians out to dry, while shedding crocodile tears over their plight in Israel, is because the Palestinians (at least the ones I can put a name to or have paid a dollar to) appear to be secularized, martyr-moms notwithstanding.

Hanan Ashrawi is a Christian, an educated woman.

Edward Said is Christian.

I recall a videotape of a Palestinian wedding in Israel, offered as an alibi for someone accused of being one of the September hijackers. The tape shows women dancing (provocatively) with men, with their faces, hair, hands, even (scandal!) their legs showing. There might have been intoxicating liquors at that party. Looked like a pretty good time, in fact.

In the Palestinian restaurants I've enjoyed in the Detroit suburbs, I was waited on by attractive young women, wearing tight jeans and clingy tops, heels, makeup, all of that.

I admit that the foregoing is not an adequate sampling, but gimme a break here, this isn't my day job. My post on the sleep-suggestion dolls demonstrated that.

If the Wahhabists look down their pointed noses at the Palestinians (and secularism is ample cause for that; Christianity and teaching their women to write are mere penalty enhancers), it becomes vastly easier for them to use the Palestinians as a rank of pawns. Throw money at them to earn their loyalty, distract the West, occupy a convenient external enemy, direct attention away from their own brutal regimes, and forge some kind of pathetic "unity" among the rest of the Arab world, who already have nation-states.

There's something in here that must be exploited for us to succeed in the present conflict.