Και γι αυτους που εχουν ξεχασει τα χρονια του Κλιντον, δινω πιο κατω μια βινιετα για τους συμβουλους του απο το 1000-σελιδο κλασσικο βιβλιο του Ρομπερτ Φισκ για τη Μεση Ανατολη. Το παιχνιδι με τους Παλαιστινιους ειναι ευθης εξαρχης στημενο, παιδια..."All the while, U.S. "peace envoys" continued to visit Netanyahu and Arafat as part of America's "impartial" stewardship of the Middle East "peace". Every Palestinian knew that the four principal members of this team were Jewish. There was no public discussion in the Western press of the ethnic makeup of the American team. Nor, in principle, should there have been. American foreign service officers or appointees- like any other citizens of a democracy- should hold their posts regardless of their ethnic or racial origins. But Dennis Ross, the lead negotiator, was a former and prominent staff member of the most powerful Israeli lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. This was rarely mentioned in the American press, but was surely a matter of vital importance. If the chief negotiator had been the ex-staffer member of an Arab lobby group, Israel would have made its views known at once. And if all four main negotiators had been Muslims, be sure that this would be a matter of legitimate discussion in the world's press. In the Israeli press, however, the membership of the American team was a matter of comment. When the Ross delegation came to Jerusalem, the Israeli newspaper Maariv called it " the mission of four Jews " and talked about the Israeli connections of the men. Israeli journalists noted that one of them had a son undergoing military training in Israel. It was the Israeli writer and activist Meron Benvenisti who highlighted this in Haaretz. The ethnic origin of U.S. diplomats to the Middle East to promote peace, he wrote, may be irrelevant, but it is hard to ignore the fact that manipulation of the peace process was entrusted by the U.S.. in the first place to American Jews, and that at least one member of the State Department team was selected for the task because he represented the view of the American Jewish Establishment. The tremendous influence of the Jewish establishment on the Clinton administration found its clearest manifestation in redefining the "occupied territories" as " territories in dispute." The Palestinians are understandably angry. But lest they be accused of anti-Semitism, they cannot, God forbid, talk about Clinton's " Jewish connection"...Nor did we as journalists dare to raise this issue. To do so would have brought the inevitable charges of anti-Semitism, racism, bias. It was quite acceptable for Israel's supporters to raise issues of family or national origin if others criticised its actions. When, for example, the UN Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali instructed his military adviser, Dutch Major General Franklin van Kappen, to conduct an investigation into the Israeli massacre of 106 Lebanese refugees at the UN base at Qana in southern Lebanon in 1996, a pro-Israeli newspaper condemned the decision on the grounds that van Kappen came from a country which had surrendered its Jews to the Nazis in the Second World War. Yet when a former AIPAC staff member ( D. Ross ) was appointed America's top peace negotiator, no questions were asked. Thank God, I often remark, for Israeli journalism."Πηγη : (Fisk 2005 : σελιδες 438,439 )
