Fateful Triangle

The Palestinian Uprising845National Convention, should pass a resolution praising Israel forcontinuing ‘to extend basic democratic rights to all its citizens,” despitethe “sea of violence” in which it survives, including “the PLOinspired…Palestinianintifada and the violence it has inspired.”The easy acceptance of the idea that what is important is the securityof Israeli Jews alone, and that far-reaching legal and administrativediscrimination against Arab citizens does not affect Israel’s status as astellar democracy, is a standard feature of left-liberal commentary in theUnited States. This fact, once again, tells us a good deal about our ownpolitical and intellectual culture.The differences between Labor and Likud should not be ignored. Oneis unlikely to hear Shimon Peres publicly referring to the Palestinians as“brutal, wild, alien invaders in the Land of Israel” (Prime MinisterShamir) 85 and Labor’s Allon Plan is not identical with Likud’s concept ofextending sovereignty over the territories. Peace Now positions differfrom both. It is only beyond those limits, however, that one finds groupsthat have a clear and definite commitment to a settlement based on theprinciple that Palestinians and Jews are human beings with equal rights,and that act courageously in defense of this principle.By late 1988, it was becoming impossible for the U.S. governmentand the media to suppress PLO peace initiatives, and Washington wasbecoming an object of international ridicule for its increasingly desperateefforts—to evade the obvious. In December, the U.S. decided that thewisest move would be to declare victory, accepting the PLO position ineffect, while pretending that the PLO had at last capitulated. In returnfor this good behavior, the U.S. agreed to enter into a low-level dialoguewith the PLO. The farce played perfectly. 86At the first session of the dialogue, the U.S. presented its position:first, there can be no international conference; second, the PLO mustcall off the “riots” in the occupied territories (the Intifada), “which weClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky