The upcoming “direct talks” in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process are in the news. Some stories reference “mediators”, some “negotiators”, some “diplomats”. So what’s in a name? Does it matter what the people are called?
In these high profile situations, it seems at times that the connotation of a word can mean as much as the denotation — a strict dictionary definition isn’t enough. Ultimately, the parties’ perceptions are essential, including the perceptions of the representatives in a direct talk and those representatives’ constituencies, however that might be defined.
Most important is that the neutral, whatever that person is called, is exactly that: neutral.
