"Our reaction to repeated defeats over the past two centuries [unlike the Japanese and the Germans] was as follows: After every defeat, we became less courageous in asking [ourselves] painful questions, and more deeply mired in the culture of finding excuses, placing responsibility for our defeats on the unknown and settling for complaining about the trap laid by the West and its 'stepdaughter' Israel, who have targeted our land and skies."

"All this [has happened] without us asking [ourselves] the embarrassing question of whether internal factors have made us, unlike all other nations, easy prey to all. The [Arab] elites have opted for ... denying their overwhelming responsibility for these defeats."

The Palestinian 'Failure Neurosis'
"What caused these leaders, primarily the Palestinians among them, to lead their peoples to perdition?"

"[I believe] it is the 'Failure Neurosis' that compelled them to do everything within their power to punish themselves and their peoples with failure where success was certain. Their 'Failure Neurosis' has several symptoms:"

"Conceptual Stagnation, making them incapable - at every stage of the struggle - of reading the regional and international balance of powers, and incapable of drawing the necessary conclusions, so as to make a political and military decision in keeping with the situation."

"Political Backwardness, preventing them from changing their means of struggle, way of thought, and goals which are not compatible with the political changes. [This political backwardness] makes them resist the changeover of the generations, in both the government and the opposition, and made them prefer yes-men over knowledgeable people."

"The Mania of the Armed Struggle, with all its terrible ramifications - transforming the armed struggle from a means serving the ultimate goal of a viable Palestinian state into a goal in and of itself. This is the cause for the missing of historical opportunities since 1937 to 2000, with ... pristine excuses such as 'we have the right[s] on our side' and 'time, geography, and demography are working in our favor.'"

"Finally, a [last] symptom of the 'Failure Neurosis,' which forces these Arab leaders to act without knowing what their enemies want from them, is the Prohibition on Free Internal Discussion and Moderate Discourse - which usually arise from a serious analysis of the data. The verbal radicalism sweeping our culture and the emotionally charged words ... fills the vacuum created by the lack of analysis and the vacuity of thought."

"Words packed with content such as 'rationalism,' 'moderation,' and 'concessions' arouse horror. What meaning could concessions and interim solutions have when compared to 'the sacred rights' - which exist, of course, only on paper?..."

—liberal Tunisian columnist Al-'Afif Al-Akhdhar, Al-Hayat (London), July 21, 2002.