By SALEM NASSER*

It's hard not to believe the US lies; So many people, including politicians, journalists, analysts, seem to take what they say so seriously and, if we feel something different, we start to doubt our own intelligence

More than once, I wanted to write a text that opened with this phrase: “They say, and they lie…”. There is a lot that can be said starting with this statement. Many, in fact, say a lot and lie a lot.

The phrase has perhaps accompanied me since childhood, since the first time I heard the story, told as if it were true, which ends with it.

The story goes that, in one of the small villages in Lebanon – and I can see that it could be the one where my family comes from – there was a woman whose years had passed and who had not yet married.

When people gathered together in the early evening, villages being places where proximity between inhabitants is combined with constant provocation and instances of small or large cruelty, someone would inevitably try to make others laugh by provoking the village spinster and saying, 'You know, so-and-so, people are saying that someone is coming and is going to ask for your hand in marriage.”

Being wiser than others were ready to admit and having, perhaps, surrendered to the passage of time, she always replied: “They say, and they lie…”

This time, the phrase occurred to me again when I heard from Joe Biden and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, about the great hopes they had of reaching an agreement that would end the Gaza war.

It is very difficult not to believe the lies of the United States; So many people, including politicians, journalists, analysts, seem to take what they say so seriously and, if we feel something different, we start to doubt our own intelligence.

Something tells us, because we have already learned something from the past and from previous experiences, that no one will come to propose marriage to us... but, hearing so many knowledgeable people repeat the lie, perhaps a small flame of hope will rise again...

Our wise heroine, however, would not be fooled.

First, she would notice that one of the parties to the conflict is not negotiating. On Thursday, the 15th, in Doha, there were the Americans, the Israelis, the Egyptians and the Qataris. The Palestinian resistance, represented by Hamas, did not attend because it had already accepted two proposals presented by the United States, one of which was included in a UN Security Council resolution and the other which would be, according to Joe Biden, the proposal that Israel had presented to it. Those who retreated were Israel and, with them, the United States.

Our heroine would also see with interest the fact that the United States, Egypt and Qatar present themselves as mediators between Israel and Hamas. This despite the fact that the Americans, while expressing their confidence in the “negotiating” process, approved 20 billion dollars in military aid to Israel, in the protection of whom they are definitively committed, they say. Under normal conditions, where reason prevailed, one could not be a party and a neutral third party at the same time.

The Arab countries, Egypt and Qatar, were there, as someone said, as witnesses and a stamp, an Arab stamp for what the United States and Israel want to impose on the Palestinians.

And, because it is only about genocide, the Americans and the Israelis, as partners and allies who discussed among themselves what they would impose on others, did not see any urgency in presenting a detailed proposal; They decided to schedule a new round of “negotiations” for a week from now, enough time for a few more massacres.

Unless something miraculous happens in the next two days, there will be no agreement and war will ensue.

Why the act then? our wise bachelorette would ask. A clear reason is the intention to delay the strong military response expected from Iran and Hezbollah against Israel. And then, when the answer came, Israel and the United States could blame the resistance for the failure to achieve peace, which would have been so close.

Because people will continue to say, and lie, we will return to the exercise of doubting over and over again…

* Salem Nasser He is a professor at the Faculty of Law at FGV-SP. Author of, among other books, Global law: norms and their relationships (Alamedina)[https://amzn.to/3s3s64E]

Originally posted on the author's social media.

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