The fateful triangle

What Hacker News says

1. burnt-resistorMar 2026
   Even post Epstein revelations, Chomsky's core thesis in The Fateful Triangle from 1983 still holds. A minority of hateful, brutish war hawks and crazy people on all 3 sides perpetuate a never-ending cycle of violence. The challenge is removing them from power and holding them accountable.
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2. ok123456Apr 2025
   > Y’all have gotta give up the TikTok bullshit and read some books.

   I have a book for you that predates the "TikTok bullshit." It's called "The Fateful Triangle" by Noam Chomsky. He portrays internal Isreali thought and political currents in the early '80s, which are more or less unchanged 40+ years later. In particular, the dichotomy between the "doves" of the left who want an apartheid state with a pacified Palestinian population to live in townships whose purpose is to provide cheap labor, and the "hawks" who outright called for the Lebensraum policies that we're seeing today in the illegally occupied territories of the, as Menachem Begin called them, "beasts walking on two legs," remains unchanged.

   As for Medicare for All, I don't know of anyone who has had a positive experience using the American for-profit, multi-payer healthcare system. What is the alternative bumper sticker for keeping the status quo? "I <3 Getting my claims denied" or maybe "I DON'T want to shoot the CEO"?

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3. hi-v-rocknrollJun 2024
   Without a doubt. Manufacturing Consent and The Fateful Triangle* should be assigned reading to US high school students.

   * Today is in more-or-less the same predicament as 40 years ago

   Ralph Nader is also still out there at 90 producing content regularly.

   https://www.youtube.com/@RalphNaderRadioHour

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4. 1letterunixnameNov 2023
   AJP founded by Noam Chomsky was muzzled by Columbia for daring not to celebrate the Likud narrative enthusiastically enough. It's moral cowardice when institutions and platforms fold to the demands of extremists who don't want free expression or demand blind allegiance.

   PS: I recommend The Fateful Triangle (1999 edition) as prescient reading.

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5. SynaesthesiaMay 2021
   Great intellectual. It must be noted that he and a number of Palestinian nationalists criticised the Oslo agreement as a sell-out, which it essentially was. It legalized the occcupation and promised nothing for the Palestinians, benefiting mainly the corrupt leadership.

   In the article I see Arafat compared to Ben-Gurion. One of the best books on the Israel/Palestine conflict is Noam Chomsky's book "The Fateful Triangle: Israel, the USA and the Palestinians. (Intro by Edward Said)".

   At one point he compares the struggle of the Palestinians for their state to the struggle of the early Zionists for their state, and notes they had a lot of similarities, including the use of terrorism.

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6. SynaesthesiaJun 2016
   Gaza and Palestine are one, historically, and as the Oslo accords designate. They are artificially separated at present. Yes Egypt is hostile to Gaza, there was a brief period during the revolt when it wasn't but now it is, under Egyptian military dictatorship. Jordan is hostile, it's in a military alliance with Israel. Palestinian nationalism is against all of these countries' interests, that's why they have always countered it. For example Jordan in 1971 with Israel's aid put down a Palestianian revolt.

   Ok I live in Pretoria, South Africa, where do you stay? Sderot?

   Chomsky is a very fine scholar on Israel, one of the greatest. Very much worth reading, particularly "The Fateful Triangle" He was a Zionist, lived there.

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