I have to start a thread on All the People Who say that I/P is the Big Enchilada. Brent Scowcroft/Brzezinski. Iraqi Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie. Well here's a video I've never seen before of Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state, speaking in July, a few months after leaving gov't employment, saying that justice for the Palestinians is essential. And he basically takes the Palestinian side in the I/P debate.
Of course he says that it's the fundamental obligation of the U.S. to protect Israel's security, but "it is also to help create a Palestinian state and to achieve some measure of justice for the Palestinians who have received very little over the last 60 years."
Burns seems to choke up just a little when describing 1948 as the date when "the Palestinians were dispersed." Since then, a lack of justice, a lack of a state. And a "major problem" for the United States. At the end Burns says that the division of the Palestinians is an Israeli achievement. "I think it's correct for this discussion to place responsibility where it lies most." The Israelis. Then he moves on.
Couple comments. The west has said again and again that the Jewish homeland must not conflict with the rights of the indigenes. The Balfour Declaration said this, too. So did Partition. What is there to show for these promises? Nuttin. And Erica Jong said that Arabs are animals, and she represented a more powerful constituency than the U.N. That is why I say that the prime responsibility for Palestinian statelessness, which is the core of the problem here, is a Jewish achievement. The Israel lobby in the U.S. has again and again argued that these people don't deserve a state, and persuaded our government.
Yesterday I caught Henry Kissinger on Charlie Rose saying, the virus of non-state entities committing terrorist acts has moved from western Asia to south Asia. I.e., from the Arab world to Mumbai. And yes, the world is fighting this. But who helped to create non-state actors? We did. At least since '88, when the Arab world has stood behind a Palestinian state, and we've imposed all sorts of conditions. And without a state: apartheid, frustration, violence.
