Fateful Triangle

Aftermath589land.” In fact, Peres regards any proposal that entails loss of suchcontrol as “threaten[ing] Israel’s very existence” (see p. 148*), amongmany other statements to the same effect, a position from which he hasnever deviated. Thus Peres “welcomed” the plan in a rather specialsense: with an interpretation that is quite inconsistent with its meaning,at least as Lewis understands it.Comment elsewhere was similar. Reagan’s peace proposals, whateverthey meant exactly (“Never mind the details,” as the Times editorsput it), were taken as the basis for further discussion among rightthinkingpeople. The general response served to eliminate theinternational consensus with its intolerable assumption that Palestinianshave the same human rights as Jews, while removing from sight theactual diplomatic history with its record of the extreme rejectioniststance of both Labor and Likud, and crucially, the United States. Butthat, by now, is familiar fare.The PLO National Council met in February and gave its officialresponse to the Reagan plan, and in April Jordan announced that it hadnot received PLO authorization to represent the Palestinians and thereforewould not enter the negotiations. These events gave the media afurther opportunity to display their assumptions and insights. After theFebruary PLO National Council meetings, the New York Times deliveredan editorial reprimand under the heading “The P.L.O. Versus the Palestinians,”declaring that what the PLO “really rejects is reality, diplomacyand, as always, Israel.” It has once again “betrayed” the cause of thePalestinians. A Palestinian state in the occupied territories, “if ever attainable,is certainly not attainable now... By demanding the impossible,the P.L.O. continues to obstruct the plausible: self-government for amillion Palestinians”—what the term may mean, the Times does not say(“never mind the details,” especially when it is someone else’s life thatis at stake). The international consensus is thus dismissed asClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky