I do not think the U.S. should assist in mediating negotiations toward a resolution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I do think that there should be a mediator, I just don’t think the U.S. is best suited to do it. This is because I believe in two opposite types of mediators. The first is a mediator with no “skin in the game” or conflicting biases, and the second is a mediator with deep knowledge and understanding of both sides of the issue. The U.S. is neither of those types of mediators. I think that the U.S. would ultimately be ineffective in mediation because they have “skin in the game”/conflicting biases and because they don’t know or understand the issues as a strong mediator should. As the lecture talks about, there is still this belief that Americans can just take American values and systems and create more democracies, as if the Americans are the source of wisdom, and that belief can especially be an obstacle to the negotiation of a resolution.
