Or, as the kids would say, No shit, Sherlock. Menachem Begin told Ronald Reagan in 1980 — 1980! — that Israel would never agree to a Palestinian state west of the Jordan. How did the dolt of dolts, the god in the pantheon of Republican gods respond? Gosh; OK, then.
Forty-four years of illegal Israeli occupation and theft of Palestinian land later, not to mention the countless casual offings by unaccountable Israeli troops of Palestinian civilians — the post mortem toe-tags always read “Terrorist,” naturally — the mainstream press*** breathlessly reports as news what has been Israeli policy for a generation.
But what about the countless peace efforts over all those years? According to the standard narrative — the only one that deserves mention in the West is the Jewish one — it’s the Palestinians who always “rejected peace”. In reality, it’s Israelis who came up with every possible impediment to the two-state solution agreed in 1948.
The reason is easy to discern. The goal has always been all the land, in fulfillment of the religious zealots’ vision for the place. An independent Palestinian state (along with millions of Palestinians) would have got in the way, just as the one Israeli leader decent enough to agree to two states had to be assassinated to prevent that.
(The Jewish monopoly over the narrative continues with the current willful destruction of Gaza by Israel and the US. Unable to find “barbarism” or “crime” in press descriptions of what Israel and the US are doing? Because the Western press runs its coverage through Israeli censors [sic].) And because the US press, in particular, is beholden to advertisers whom coverage dare not offend. Suggestion of an alternative narrative, real reality, would bring out the usual pitchfork crowd.)
Drowning in superficiality as we are, that the press delivers as “news” something that is, for those who’ve long been paying attention, mere regurgitation of well-known facts, is hardly novel. Nor is the spice added to the left-overs in form of the personal: Netanyahu’s rejection of Biden’s reported “insistence” on the two-state solution.
What is news, but not reported, is the disconnect between what Biden spokespeople represent as his policy and what he, himself, says: “We’re not going to do a damn thing other than to protect Israel. Not a single thing.” His blindness is guaranteed to apply to the unfortunate American blown up in a café in Paris by a Gazan bent on revenge. That story would require someone other than parrots to present them.
*** Among many others: The Washington Posts, CBS News, NPR, Jerusalem Post, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Times of Israel, CNBC, AP News, CNN, BBC, Taipei Times.
