Chomsky on the Gaza Invasion

January 27, 2009

Chomsky on the Gaza Invasion

Chomsky has a series of insightful (if not painfully dry) speech segments on the Israeli invasion of Gaza posted onZmag.

True to form, a written summary of them reveals a couple gems:

Obama provided the usual reasons for ignoring the elected government led by Hamas. "To be a genuine party to peace," Obama declared, "the quartet [US, EU, Russia, UN] has made it clear that Hamas must meet clear conditions: recognize Israel's right to exist; renounce violence; and abide by past agreements."

Unmentioned, also as usual, is the inconvenient fact that the US and Israel firmly reject all three conditions.

In international isolation, they bar a two-state settlement including a Palestinian state; they of course do not renounce violence; and they reject the quartet's central proposal, the "road map." Israel formally accepted it, but with 14 reservations that effectively eliminate its contents (tacitly backed by the US).