In his most recent NRO “Impromptus” column, Jay Nordlinger reminds us again of the disconnect between Israel’s pluralistic political culture, and the culture of the Palestinian Authority:

We all read the other day that, in his speech to the Knesset, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was heckled by Arab — Arab-Israeli — legislators.

Can we just pause for a second, to let the momentousness of that fact sink in? It is a rather humdrum fact, in Israeli life. But on reading that news item, I had the craziest thought: of Yasser Arafat giving a speech in some (mythical) Palestinian Authority parliament, and being heckled by Jewish legislators, elected by and representing the ethnic and religious minority. It was so absurd, I almost laughed.

Strange that the world doesn