Violence resumes in Northern Ireland as IRA radicals kill another policeman. How’s that relevant to Israel? Obama’s Mideast envoy George Mitchell bases his negotiator’s credentials on achieving peace in Northern Ireland. The problem is, Mitchell had nothing to do with it. London and the IRA genuinely sought an agreement but, despising each other, wanted mediation from a third party—the United States. Mitchell was merely a talking parrot in the negotiations, relaying to each side the other’s offers. Likewise, Carter took credit for the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, which Begin and Sadat had worked out between themselves from scratch.
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Of COURSE London and the IRA wanted an agreement — they hardly would have made one if they didn’t want one (duh!). Neither had much idea at the outset what shape that agreement would take. A crucial aspect was the formulation of the Mitchell Principles, and the signing up to them by the IRA, which caused consternation and some defections among Republicans. The idea that Mitchell was a talking a parrot in an already done deal could only be advanced by someone utterly ignorant of the history of the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the Republican movement there.
Thanks for listening on my first — and definitely last — time visiting your site.
Well, the principles were Mitchell’s in the name only