The Palestine Issue: an Observer’s Reminiscences over the Past Twenty Years

Abstract

I am particularly grateful to Roger Owen for inviting me this afternoon, for one reason because I am very flattered to be able to speak under the auspices of the George Antonius lecture group. George Antonius is a man for whom I have very deep respect; I think his is one of the very first books I read when I started working at Le Monde, and he has had a great influence over all my thinking since. And the second reason is that he has given me a chance to try to remember the various episodes which I have lived through of the Palestinian issue. Why didn’t he invite me earlier? I think I have the answer: I was much too young to have any memories of the thing. Now I think I am at a respectable age and can speak of the past and what I have seen.