The World's Most Dysfunctional Relationship

"A man whose partner stabbed him six times in a frenzied attack said he plans to marry his jailbird lover when she is released from prison... Belinda Van Krevel stabbed Marshall Gould... slashing him in the back of the neck, the leg and even severing an artery in his arm. Mr Gould did not immediately call an ambulance because he was fearful of getting the police involved and dragging up Van Krevel's criminal past... 'I laid down on the lounge to try and catch some of the football because it was Origin Night,' Mr Gould told A Current Affair. The attack almost cost Mr Gould an arm. But while it cost Van Krevel her freedom for three years, her partner... has carried on as though nothing has happened. 'I love seeing her every single time and it makes me happier every time I see her,' Mr Gould said about his partner with a dark and troubled past... 'Love is strange and you certainly don't choose love. Love is a feeling that comes over you,' he said. The couple are planning to get married when Van Krevel is released and already have each other's name tattooed on their ring fingers." (Man still loves jailed partner who stabbed him, ninemsn staff, 19/3/14)

Now that's a dysfunctional relationship by any standard. Unfortunately, these can also be found in the community of nations, that between the United States and Israel being the classic example.

Further confirmation of just how dysfunctional that particular relationship is came while reading Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea's Inside the talks' failure (ynetnews.com, 2/5/14), a must-read report on the failure of US Secretary of State John Kerry's recent effort to secure 'peace' between Israelis and Palestinians. 

One sentence of Barnea's in particular could have come straight out of the Gould/Van Krevel file.

But first, the context:

"The American version of why the current rounds of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians failed is fundamentally different to the one presented by Israeli officials. The list of those to blame for this failure is also very different. From the US perspective, the issue of the settlements was largely to blame.

"Senior American officials involved in Secretary of State's John Kerry's peace push this week agreed to share with me their take on the talks' failure. They had one condition, in line with instructions they had received - that I didn't name them. But what they told me is the closest thing to an American official version of what happened.

"The American team will be disbanded in the coming days - most of it, or all of it. Kerry has yet to decide what he is going to do - whether he will wait several months and then try to renew his effort, or release the principles of an agreement formulated by the Americans..."

"Using advanced software, the Americans drew a border outline in the West Bank that gives Israel sovereignty over some 80% of the settlers that live there today. The remaining 20% were meant to evacuate. In Jerusalem, the proposed border is based on Bill Clinton's plan - Jewish neighborhoods to Israel, Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinians. The Israeli government made no response to the American plan, and avoided drawing its own border outline."

Now here's the sentence that prompted this post:

"The criticism against the Israeli government is presented in terms of wounds inflicted by a friend who could still be trusted: Israel is very dear to them, but the wounds are deep."

I rest my case.