When It Comes to Palestine and Israel, the US Simply Doesn't Get It

Biden and Palin hid like rabbits from the centre of the Middle East earthquake

by Robert Fisk

Palestinians ceased to exist in the United States on Thursday night. Both Joe Biden and Sarah Palin managed to avoid the use of that poisonous word. "Palestine" and "Palestinians" - that most cancerous, slippery, dangerous concept - simply did not exist in the vice-presidential debate. The phrase "Israeli occupation" was mercifully left unused. Neither the words "Jewish colony" nor "Jewish settlement" - not even that cowardly old get-out clause of American journalism, "Jewish neighbourhood" - got a look-in. Nope.

Those bold contenders of the US vice-presidency, so keen to prove their mettle when it comes to "defence", hid like rabbits from the epicentre of the Middle East earthquake: the existence of a Palestinian people. Sure, there was talk of a "two-state" solution, but it would have mystified anyone who didn't understand the region.