I have a confession. I love the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
website. I can, and often do, read it for hours. It is a treasure trove,
home to some of the best propaganda on the planet.
The MFA
website is also home to the three sacred words. Words, which when
uttered correctly, underpin decades of US-Israeli rejection of a
peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine. With reverence and
hushed tone, I will now utter them:
Concession. Intransigence. Precondition.
The
first two are usually used together with the correct qualifiers, and
become “Israeli concessions” and “Palestinian intransigence”. This is
the discursive framework we use to characterise the history of
“negotiations” in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Israel will bend over
backwards to try to find a solution but the stubborn Palestinians stick
to their guns.
“Preconditions” are what the Palestinians use to
avoid negotiations. Preconditions like insisting Israel gives up its
right to settle in Judea and Samaria. Preconditions like insisting that
negotiations be based upon international law.
These words are
important, as they represent textbook truth inversions; reality turned
on its head, or what Orwell would have termed doublespeak.
When
asked, Israel’s supporters are hard pressed to name an actual Israeli
concession since 1948. … >>>
