Fateful Triangle

Washington’s “Peace Process”918establishment of Washington’s rejectionist stand in Oslo I, and itsaffirmation in Oslo II, is an impressive achievement. 34The character of the triumph is revealed in a different way when wecompare the reaction to the Rabin assassination with other cases, themost obvious one being the assassination of Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir)by Israeli commandos in Tunis in April 1988. This act of internationalterrorism was probably intended mostly for morale-building in Israel atthe height of the popular uprising (Intifada), which Israel was thenunable to suppress, despite considerable brutality. On little credibleevidence, Abu Jihad was charged with directing the Intifada, a claimreported as fact in the U.S. media, which did, however, recognize thatAbu Jihad was known “as one of the more moderate and thoughtfulofficials in the PLO hierarchy” (Washington Post). The Post alsoreported that “many Israelis celebrated his killing as evidence of Israel’swillingness and ability to strike back at alleged terrorist leaders” and thatthe assassination evoked “widespread applause from Israelis, rangingfrom the liberal left to the far right.” The State Department condemned“this act of political assassination,” but that was the end of the matter.There were no regrets, flags at half-mast, laments about the fate of thepeace process, or other moving commentary. Abu Jihad was not a“martyr for peace.” 35Why not? One possible reason is that he was a terrorist; true, butplainly irrelevant. His terrorist career, while bloody enough, did not evenbring him close to those honored as “men of peace,” including Rabinand Peres, or still more obviously, the statesmen who praise them.Another possible reason is that he opposed the “peace process.” Thattoo is true, at least in a technical sense. He did oppose U.S.-Israelirejectionism, joining most of the rest of the world in advocating a twostatesettlement to be achieved by negotiations leading to mutualrecognition. If we adopt the usage of doctrinal convention, he opposedClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky