Fateful Triangle

Aftermath591its single standard of service to the state.On April 10, 1983, Jordan announced that it had not received theauthorization it has requested from the PLO, and that “we leave it to theP.L.O. and to the Palestinian people to choose the ways and means forthe salvation of themselves and their land, and for the realization of theirdeclared aims in the manner they see fit.” The New York Times pronouncedthe Reagan plan “a worthy but tragic failure.” “King Husseinrejected coexistence not with Israel but with the P.L.O.”; he “provedYasir Arafat incapable of compromise.” Israel, which had “predictedfailure for Mr. Reagan’s plan from the start,” now “feels vindicated for itsresistance to a West Bank deal.” In the news columns, whereeditorializing is more effective since it is slightly concealed under a maskof objectivity, David Shipler explained that “no tangible alternative existsto the [Israeli] Government’s determination to hold the West Bankforever.” Various Labor Party spokesmen are quoted as saying that“There’s no one to yield the West Bank to,” “Jordan still hasn’tsucceeded in disconnecting herself from the extremist Arab world,” etc.The “moderate noises” in the Arab world have been shown to bemeaningless, Shipler concludes, and in Israeli Government circles “therewas a strange irony of bitter satisfaction in having known all along, moreclearly than the Americans could ever understand, that the Arabs weretoo hateful to negotiate with and recognize Israel.” Begin is vindicated:“there is nothing now to challenge him. lie stands surrounded by avacuum.”Obviously, in New York Times news reports, it cannot be observedthat there is in fact someone “to yield the West Bank to” (and also theGaza strip, long tacitly conceded to Israel by the Times), namely, thepopulation, which has clearly indicated that its political representative isthe PLO. Similarly, it cannot be reported that the Reagan plan, whichaccording to Shipler was “torpedoed” by “Arab intransigence,” was inClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky