Fateful Triangle

Preface29having “effectively legalized the use of torture” (with Supreme Courtapproval), determining that in pursuit of Israel’s perceived security needs“all international rules of conduct could be broken.” AI reports similarpractices on the part of the Palestinian Authority, including execution oftwo Palestinians for “incitement against the peace process.” The StateSecurity Courts that conduct such abuses have been endorsed by theU.S. State Department as demonstrating Arafat’s “commitment to thesecurity concerns of Israel,” with the support of Vice-President Al Gore.Clinton’s achievement in bringing the two parties together to agree onthe Wye Memorandum was hailed with the usual awe. He proved himselfto be the “Indispensable Man,” the New York Times headline read,praising him for the “Crucial Salvage Mission.” Clinton is “staking outthe moral high ground” by insisting on the terms of the WyeMemorandum. He “preached accommodation to immutable realities”—“immutable” because they are demanded by U.S. power. He crownedhis moral achievement with “an uplifting, optimistically Americanspeech,” while “tethering the vaunted U.S. idealism, which someIsraelis and some Palestinians believe to be diplomatic naiveté, is thepromise of a fat new American purse.” Nevertheless, the idealism andmoral high ground cast a radiant glow over the proceedings. 17Particular cases illustrate the reality of U.S. policy. When some atrocityoccurs, Palestinians are placed under harsh curfew, no matter who isresponsible. A striking illustration was the massacre of 29 Arabs prayingin a Mosque by the right-wing American religious settler BaruchGoldstein in February 1994, followed by severe curfew of Palestiniansand killing of many more Palestinians. Visitors to the Kiryat Arba suburbwhere Goldstein settled can walk to the shrine established for him,where they can worship in praise of the “martyr” who died “clean ofhands and pure of heart,” as the words on the gravestone read. In one ofthe innumerable other curfews, in September 1998, a day-old infantClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky