PIJ.ORG: Incompetence or Accomplice?

U.S. President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are moderating the Wye River (1998) talks between Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat.

The international community, coerced by America, never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity to bring peace to the Middle East. A logical explanation is that they are accomplices to Israeli crimes against humanity.

This edition of the Palestine-Israel Journal presents a fascinating exchange-dare I term it a debate-between two acclaimed analysts, Dr Noam Chomsky and Dr Tony Klug. Dr Klug and I co-authored opinion editorials in the past, among other interactions. Sparked by an article by Dr Klug about former President Trump’s “vision” for Palestinian-Israeli peace, the two entered into an exchange for over one year. As is always the case when engaging with either of these analysts, one always walks away learning something new. This was the case in this exchange as well.

Their conversation dealt with many aspects of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence but can be summarized as addressing the history, politics, and what needs to be done moving forward.

Although not always agreeing on the details, they highlighted the key elements to understand where we are today. With every exchange I found myself oscillating between supporting both of their views.

On history, Dr Chomsky is right that Israel chose “expansion over security” long ago,” and Dr Klug is right in noting that in politics one has a duty, regardless of either side’s poor choices, to find the openings, no matter how slight, to leverage to create new realities.

Likewise, on what needs to be done, Dr Chomsky is right in noting that without a Palestinian-led global solidarity movement that is political in nature, the U.S. scene, where he believes will be the source of any serious shift in reality, will not happen. Dr Klug is equally spot on when he argues that the international community, to date, has been a huge part of the problem in acquiescing to the Israeli military occupation, while simultaneously being the body that has the power to move Israel out of its self-defeating and illegal intransigence.

While much of their conversation focused on what Israel did or did not do, below I contribute to what the Palestinians did and how the international community, led — or should I say hijacked — by the United States reacted to Palestinians’ never-ending “generous…