Comments on: “We” speak Hebrew, “them” Arabic. Why negotiate in English?

By: Henry Weinstein

Henry Weinstein — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:25:59 +0000

I don’t think language is a key barrier: solving a conflict is a matter of good will vs bad will.
Don’t you know evil’s favourite method of propagation is deception through (any) language?
Tag: the Serpent who speaks to each of us in our brain.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:47:23 +0000

What seduces Americans is how smooth Netanyahu sounds in his native, idiomatic, accentless English. We tolerate all kinds of nonsense as long as it sounds like we do.

Arafat, by contrast, sounded horrible when he gave interviews in English. The American Palestinian community used to tell him, “Abu ‘Ammar, for Pete’s sake, *shave*. And use an interpreter. You’ll sound better that way.”

By: Janet Hulstrand

Janet Hulstrand — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:41:31 +0000

I think you may be onto something here…the misunderstandings that can result in mistranslation can be hilarious, or could in other instances be tragic. If nothing else, moving toward a position where the native language on each side of the table was given more weight/relevance would be I think a very smart/progressive thing to do…Of course I am sure there are world-class translators and interpreters involved in all these negotiations. But the central question you pose: Why the need to pass it all through English? is an interesting one, and one that I think bears consideration.

After all. How well have we done, really, having them negotiate in English all these years? Perhaps it’s time to try something new!!!

By: Vickie

Vickie — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:20:32 +0000

Good catch, Roee. Language is probably a key barrier.
I’ve always wondered why Israelis and Palestinians would use Western negotiators. You have two groups that have been consistently and deeply hated by the West for…oh, a couple of millenia. Why would you trust your worst enemy to broker peace? It’s a bad move.
If Israelis and Palestinians sat down, palms on the table, and worked things out mano y mano, without interlopers, that actually might bring about a relative peace.

By: Harry

Harry — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:01:55 +0000

The “gag”/roof joke reminds me of a real-life incident: An Arab teenager told me his buddy had a “rimon” with my name on it. I misinterpreted it as a threat. Fortunately, it was a pomegranate — not a hand grenade — and we all had a good laugh afterward!

By: Henry Weinstein

Henry Weinstein — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:26:43 +0000

“In Belgium, the Flemish and Wallonians speak each other’s native tongues”: not at all, only a tiny minority.
And the Flemish separatists (i.e the majority of Flemish) totally refuse bilingual signs.
Near death experience: go there and try to speak French with them!

By: Ben Israel

Ben Israel — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:19:56 +0000

I agree completely that all Jewish students in Israel should be required to learn Arabic. The fact that this isn’t the case is due to the love-hate Israelis have with Europe—they drove us out or killed us, but we still have longings for them and their culture.

As an indication of the mentality of the ruling elite in Israel, it should be noted that the speech given by winners of the Nobel Prize give it in their native language. When the Rabin-Peres-Arafat trio received theres, Arafat indeed gave his in Arabic. Peres and Rabin gave theirs in English which indicates to me that Peres and Rabin didn’t want to be considered “Israelis” (and even more so didn’t want to be considered Jews). However, their sad attempt at being “cosmpolitans” didn’t help them get through in the end to their “peace partner” who didn’t seem to appreciate their jettisoning their Jewish/Israeli identities.