The Quartet versus the Truth

What does “the Quartet” demand of a Palestinian government? It demands that it lie three different ways:

-It is to state that it will honour what Israel itself has failed to honour - previously concluded agreements. It is being asked to pretend that Israel is the upright nation here just waiting for the Palestinian government to honour what, in fact, Israel has failed to honour. It need not honour what has been violated by Israel itself. What an absurd demand.

-It is to state that it will renounce violence while Israel continues to act violently in its occupation, settlement and theft of Palestinian land. Israel’s land and resource theft would hardly be slowed by a lack of resistance to it. No wonder they’d wish to invent such a fairy tale of one-sided victimization. What an absurd demand.

-It is to state that Israel has a moral right to exist at the expense of the Palestinians. Israel does not have a right to exist. It exists immorally but that does not mean it does not exist. It simply means it has established a militant presence and a particularly disgusting one in the occupied territories. This is not a question of right but of might. Better that we all correctly acknowledge this distinction. What an absurd demand.

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