Fateful Triangle

Aftermath585advanced by those with real power in the region: primarily, the U.S. andIsrael. Given the objective constraints established by U.S. power, a casecan perhaps be made that the wisest course for the Palestinians wouldhave been to accept the Reagan proposals, thus committing nationalsuicide but at least raising some obstacles to the U.S. backed Israelitakeover of what remains outside Israel’s complete control in theoccupied territories.Reagan’s proposals were rejected angrily by the Begin government,which announced that it would have absolutely nothing to do with them.The Reagan plan was therefore stone dead from the first moment,unless the U.S. would have chosen to put some pressure on Israel, ormore accurately, to withdraw its material support for Israel’s settlementprograms in the occupied territories. The U.S. at once made clear that itwould not limit this support, and in fact extended it shortly after,increasing aid to new heights while maintaining the uniquearrangements that permit U.S. aid to be used without supervision, hencefor settlements in the occupied territories (in violation of the aidlegislation). In short, the U.S. and Israel immediately killed the Reaganplan.Obviously the actual facts do not constitute an acceptable version ofhistory. Rather, it must be—whatever the facts—that it was the fault ofthe Arabs, particularly the PLO, that this noble American endeavorfailed, though it is also permissible, within the doctrinal system, toassign a portion of the blame to the boorish Begin with his OrientalJewish constituency. Crucially, no blame may be attached to the UnitedStates or to the western-oriented Labor Party, which is preserving thelegacy of the “beautiful Israel.” These tasks were carried out withcustomary dispatch and elegance. In the subsequent months, theburden of discussion in the U.S. was shifted to the PLO and Hussein, onthe assumption that the fate of the Reagan plan rested on PLOClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky