The "peace process" which John Kerry has continued on his previous four trips to the region, is best understood in Orwellian terms as a "euphemism." In this case the euphemism refers to a series of meetings which have been held for several decades, meetings which were never intended to produce peace, nor to move forward a process.
Instead, the "peace process" charade has provided Israel with a smokescreen behind which succeeding Israeli governments claimed "security" as justification for their expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land
Rashid Khalidi's book, Brokers of Deceit, which should be in the Kerry backpack on his flight to Tel Aviv, traces the history of Israel's dominance over Palestine, a dominance aided and abetted by the US.
Khalidi (above) finds a three-part pattern in this history: "An almost total lack of pressure from the Arab Gulf monarchies; the impact of US domestic politics, driven by the Israel lobby, and an unconcern about Palestinian rights."
The central theme Khalidi develops is that "the United States has never really operated as an honest broker between the Palestinians and Israel." This is exactly what secretary Kerry should be reading as he flies to Tel Aviv.
In his book, Khalidi writes that rather than serve as an honest broker in decades of negotiations, the US...
"...has ended up operating as 'Israel's lawyer.' These are the apt words of Aaron David Miller, who as one of the lead [US] negotiators with the Palestinians for many years, was a key participant in this charade.
"Together with senior colleagues like Dennis Ross and Daniel Kurtzer, he features repeatedly in the pages that follow. From Camp David in 1978 onward, the United States posed as an unbiased intermediary between Israel and the Palestinians, but in fact it operated increasingly in defense of Israel's interests, and to the systematic detriment of those of the Palestinians. All of this dissembling was cloaked in high-sounding but dishonest language."
As a result, Israel consistently got what it wanted. However, "a peaceful and just resolution of the conflict between the two peoples was certainly not the result."
Khalidi's book is especially timely this summer as Barack Obama moves forward into his second term, taking steps as an empire builder more than as a change agent. The president who promised change has been revealed as running a White House that veers dangerously close to becoming a Bush III administration.
It is still too early to determine if the Obama-Kerry team will break with past administrations and stand up to Israel's domineering role not only in the Middle East but also in US domestic politics. In this regard, US actions following the Syrian strategy sessions will be revealing. Will Israel be allowed to push the US into greater involvement with the Syrian rebels? Or will Obama cautiously continue to provide only limited help to the rebels?
In Khalidi's Brokers of Deceit, he writes:
"Orwell tells us ... that 'political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.'
"If I have succeeded [in this book] I have shown how in American political discourse, lies about Palestine are made to sound truthful; how crimes -- against a people and against humanity -- are made respectable; and how the pure wind of terms like 'peace process' are given the appearance of solidity."
If Secretary Kerry will read George Orwell's 1946 essay on political language, along with Rashid Khalidi's book on this nation's history of deceit as a so-called "honest broker," the Secretary will find that the Orwell-Khalidi duo will bring him greater wisdom, and just maybe more peace of mind, than all those State Department briefing papers his staff will have crammed into his carry-on.
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