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As a former Director of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC) from 2004 to 2006, who coordinated CIA activities in Iraq from 2002 to 2004 as the Iraq Mission Manager, and was the CIA Chief of Station in Islamabad, Pakistan before and after the 9/11 attacks. Earlier, he was the deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, and also served as the CIA’s chief of operational training, Al Jazeera’s Robert Grenier, had this to say about the Palestine Papers…
All of us approach this record burdened with our own backgrounds and experiences. I assess them as an American, and as a former government practitioner. As an American, the reaction I draw, frankly, is one of shame. My government has consistently followed the path of least resistance and of short-term political expediency, at the cost of decency, justice, and our clear, long-term interests. More pointedly, The Palestine Papers reveal us to have alternatively demanded and encouraged the Palestinian participants to take disproportionate risks for a negotiated settlement, and then to have refused to extend ourselves to help them achieve it, leaving them exposed and vulnerable. The Palestine Papers, in my view, further document an American legacy of ignominy in Palestine.
As a government practitioner, my reaction is one of empathy for the Palestinian fellow-practitioners whose record and whose impressions these pages reflect. I know well that to achieve anything in public affairs, one will always in the end be compromised to some extent. It is easy for the observers, for the armchair analysts, to criticize; but my sympathies lie with those who enter the ring, who fight and who risk failure for what they believe.
The Palestinian leadership will surely face criticism for what The Palestine Papers reveal. Some will be merited; some not. The overwhelming conclusion one draws from this record is that the process for a two-state solution is essentially over, that the history of the peace process is one of abject failure for all concerned. The Palestinian participants, having lost the most, will likely suffer most. But I can only come away with the passionately-held belief that these people deserved better.
They do deserve so much better…!
The pizza pie analogy has been the most apt descriptor…
All the while the Israelis have been ‘negotiating’, they’ve been devouring the pie…! 8-(
I’ll have much more later on this bombshell, as I absorb the material…
Here’s the Guardian’s coverage, and, Al Jazeera’s…
Pass the popcorn…!
24 Comments
The Democratic Party is, and has been morally bankrupt, and criminally complicit in vast crimes against humanity, and that can no longer be the only freakin’ choice for people of decency of all colors, religious persuasions, or party affiliations.
If you fare from the left; it’s the Party or nothing, and where you gonna go? That is the philosophy of the PTB. Hence this is self elected Tyranny. The progressive liberal left is a wet limp schmatta.
Clearly, the CIA is spending more resources neutralizing the left within America than they are spending towards achieving any peaceful outcomes in the Middle East.
The left has self neutralized, Adam. It’s defunct!
“The Palestine Papers, in my view, further document an American legacy of ignominy in Palestine.”
When people make the lists of ‘Progressives’ they’d like to run for President, I wince at the ones like Weiner and Grayson who are avid Zionists.
Leaks will change the world of foreign policy; God Bless Leaks! Now; what are Arab nations going to do with all the anger over their betrayal? I’d think Turkey will play an ever larger role in the future of deal-making.
Thanks, CTuttle; I’d been poking around yesterday for reactions to the papers. Even Juan Cole had nothing up then.
I did find a few stories on the newest Mavi Marmara whitewash. They all mentioned that ‘serious people’ would agree with their conclusions. It depressed, but didn’t surprise, me.
There are no concessions the Palestinians can make that would alter Israel’s long range plan to annex the Palestinian territories (minus Gaza) into Greater Israel.
Barak couldn’t deliver in 2000 just as Olmert couldn’t deliver in 2008. As Barak admitted in 2005, not even a single member of his own party, Labor, as part of the Knesset, would have voted to withdraw from any settlements. Both of these efforts were public relations campaigns, with Netanyahu keeping up the pretensions more recently. Notably Barak finally came out of the closet as being part of the colonial right wing.
Ever since the Oslo Accords of the early 90s, when Israel accelerated its colonial movement into the Palestinian territories, we have been seeing a game played out by Israel to stall and avoid any final peace with the Palestinians that could add up to a two-states solution. Netanyahu has already made clear that a sovereign, continugous state will be impossible for “security” reasons, necessitating taking the entire Jordan Valley and large blocks of land surrounding the large cities and towns Israel has built on Palestinian land. Annexation is Israel’s next move, whichh may happen a few decades up the line.
The next stage of this conflict will revolve around language: are they bantustans (Apartheid) or are they cantons?
Henry Norr and Adam Horowitz of Mondoweiss give their take on these revelations:
Read on HERE: http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/al-jazeera-publishes-bombshell-leak-concerning-the-peace-process-ex-cia-official-the-overwhelming-conclusion-one-draws-from-this-record-is-that-the-process-for-a-two-state-solution-is-essentially-o.html
In short, the peace process is over.
More from Mondoweiss (by permission):
Abbas responds, carried by Haaretz:
‘Abbas: Concessions in Palestine papers came from Israel, not us’
Juan Cole’s coverage on Informed Comment
“that is impossible, we have the land and we cannot create the state!” This intent would appear to be the legacy of the Oslo Accords. And if Clinton would allow the number of settlers and settlements to double during the 90s, his administration, one must somehow believe that he understood Israel’s long-term plan, and went along with it. Camp David 2000 was a stage, nothing more. Cinton also went along with Dennis Ross’ plan to blame Arafat for the Camp David failure.
It is also not very hopeful when we learn that Obama rehired Dennis Ross as a Middle East advisor.
Richard Silverstein’s title on this story sums it up best:
Al Jazeera Blockbuster: PA Gave Away the Store, Israel Still Wasn’t Interested
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/01/23/al-jazeera-blockbuster-pa-gave-away-the-store-israel-still-wasnt-interested/
There is no compromise that Israel (Netanyahu besides the point) will accept. They have the guns and the bulldozers and the PR campaign along with the American press, that will say otherwise.
Glad Juan has this up this morning. This bit I had read elsewhere yesterday is jaw-dropping:
“Erekat’s enemies, the Hamas movement based mainly in Gaza, are using the revelations to paint him as a traitor to the Palestinian and indeed the Muslim cause. I saw him on Aljazeera, where he was very defensive. London-based journalist Abdel Bari Atwan let him have it with both barrels.
Erekat and other Fatah leaders are accusing Aljazeera of forging the documents and of attempting to scuttle the Palestine Authorities’ plan to go to the United Nations to get an international resolution against ever-expanding Israeli colonies.“
The Palestinians need to go to the General Assembly (since the US will dutifully veto it in the Security Council) and get international recognition for a Palestinian state. On the other hand, when has Israel ever respected a UN Resolution, going back to 1948.
The American working class does not even know that they are the working class. They think they are the middle class. Some working Americans answer to the name working poor. They know they are working and they know they are poor but they do not know they are working class.
The entire American working class, not a hand full of educated, middle class, liberal Democrats, is the “left”. The working class is not dead. It is merely sleeping. It is a sleeping giant.
Class consciousness is the antidote to Fascism. Awaken the workers to their own true political identity. Only the working class has the muscle to overthrow the Fascists.
MJ Rosenberg on what the relevations mean for the parties involved:
Middle East: Shlomo Ben Ami discusses the Palestine Papers
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/01/201112416533136853.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/01/201112416533136853.html
The site provides a video. The only important point is that Israel created a virtual reality about two states, that was never intended to be implemented.
“Middle East
Shlomo Ben Ami discusses the Palestine Papers
Al Jazeera’s David Foster talks to Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli foreign minister.
Last Modified: 24 Jan 2011 16:35 GMT
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In the largest leak in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Al Jazeera has obtained 1,676 classified documents in total.
The documents are derived from a decade of meetings, internal emails, reports and studies, notes, maps and draft agreements that detail talks between the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, and the US.
The most controversial revelation so far is the apparent willingness of the PA to give concessions on disputed areas of Jerusalem.
The PA dismissed Al Jazeera’s report as lies.
David Foster spoke to former Israeli foreign minister, Shlomo Ben Ami, about the Palestine Papers.”
Mondoweiss is keeping up with the story. This latest from Ramallah, West Bank.
‘Palestine Papers’ fallout: Fatah protesters attack Al Jazeera while in Gaza ‘anger and disbelief’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FFkhiMOcVs&feature=player_embedded
“The video above shows protesters breaking into al-Jazeera’s offices in Ramallah earlier today. They are chanting “Al Jazeera are traitors” and “don’t film.” Alan Fisher, an Al Jazeera English correspondent, tweeted the following earlier this morning:
“Angry crowd has appeared in front of the Al Jazeera office in Ramallah. There is some shouting but no violence
The crowd has managed to get into the office in Ramaallah. #aljazeera’s staff is ok. Some walls have graffiti
Just spoken to the team in Ramallah. Everyone is fine – crowd have gone. Police protecting building.”
Sources say the protesters are PA-loyalists affiliated with Fatah.”
The byword here for Fatah is, “humiliation.” But it also addresses the lies that were apparently propagated by Fatah to the Palestinian people, although Fatah is now claiming that the leaks were lies.
I guess we will have to wait further analysis on that point.
From The Heathlander last August: what insight!
On the resuscitation of the ‘peace process’
29Aug10“
“Ah, the ‘peace process’. Like Shimon Peres, Big Brother and Ernie the Giant Chicken, it just won’t fucking die already. What was particularly striking about the announcement of its latest iteration, due to kick-off next week, was how little anyone cared. In the stream of public and media consciousness, even in Israel, it barely caused a ripple. Apart from the real die-hards, no one can even muster the energy to pretend anymore. Whereas three years ago Bush officials were having to actively downplay hopes about the “Annapolis summit” – which was not a “peace conference”, you’ll recall, and which would not produce a “declaration of principles” but rather a “declaration of interests” – now US officials are having to make absurd promises, like claiming that a peace agreement will be reached within a year, just to get people to pay attention. Palestinians and Israelis are united in dismissing the talks as an irrelevency.If the ‘peace process’ is indeed redolent of a “soap opera”, it most resembles the relaunch of Crossroads, greeted with a collective shrug and an uneasy feeling that, looking back, the original wasn’t much cop either.”
As Mearshirmer recently indicated: It looks like Apartheid is it. Everyone interested in the rights of the Palestinian people to not be completed nihilated, get on the BDS (boycott) bandwagon.
On the matter of not giving a damn, may I ask: why isn’t this diary on the rec list? Don’t answer. I just did.
Here in the Isles, I just poured my first cup of java and powered up the computer, shergald…! It seems you’ve been busy…! ;-)
Because Carl Icahn is being turned into the savior of the investor class, which is a good thing?!
Enormous amount of material out there on these recent leaks. I hope that it turns the IP rights community more toward the BDS Movement, given that the political happenings now seem superfluous. Not of course the injustices that daily occur in the territories.
Thanks for this diary, by the way.