Letter

In response to Trump's peace plan shows Netanyahu has outmanoeuvred another American president

Lyons misreads the room

Lyons argues the absence of Arab leaders in the White House for the announcement of the Trump Plan “says everything”. Does it really? Arab leaders have publicly supported the plan. But they in no way represent the sentiment of the Arab public, so why make their support central? What about a Palestinian presence in the room? Does the Palestinian voice not count? Non-Palestinian Arab leaders have no greater right to determine Palestine’s future than Israel or the US.

Lyons’ use of the word “outmanoeuvred” is also problematic. It suggests an intellectual chess battle between Netanyahu and Trump, with Trump acting as a bulwark against Israeli designs. I submit that Trump is a willing participant in the genocide and this neocolonial plan.

Lyons quotes John Howard when suggesting that the Israel-Palestine “conflict” is central to instability and conflicts across the Middle East. But is it central? It was Howard himself who propagandised for, and committed, Australian forces to an illegal and deeply destabilising war in Iraq. That had nothing to do with Palestine. Was Palestine the reason for the long Iran-Iraq War? The Iranian Revolution? The first Iraq War? The second Iraq War? The Syrian civil war? The Arab Spring?

— Jaron Sutton from Melbourne