For GBBW, this is ripe for discussion. The trouble is, I never feel like I know enough to comment on this. So forgive me for this incoherent babble, but it's the only way that I know to start this conversation without completely alienating people.
Am I completely wrong, or have these people lost all sense of the value of human life (other than of their own people - which is meaningless without recognising the humanity of all others).
I have so many questions on this:
* is this a "double siege", like Northern Ireland was for so long - two sides each feeling "besieged" by the other?
* Is there no longer any truth, just two realities crashing into each other?
It seems that each side is just so ANGRY with the other! But they have so much - so much - in common. Why can no-one turn to the hard work of conciliation? There are many ways that this can be worked on, for the sake of the civilians involved. I know a number of practitioners in dispute resolution and group facilitation. I've seen it work on a small scale. Where are our international practitioners? This stuff works - why is violence not a last resort? Surely both peoples know the tragedy of suffering from violence?
We continue to make specious excuses for all sides:
"they don't know any better" - this is rubbish, these are often highly educated people
"They fear the other" - this is only getting worse right now
"They suffer insufferable provocation" - this seems to be something both sides have in common as well.
Where are our armies of humanitarians? Of stern, fair, loving mothers and fathers?
And - let me put this on the line - why can't a powerful, educated, wealthy country like Israel offer conciliation, access and aid for Palestine? Surely somebody has to break this stand-off. Kindness and understanding is surely our greatest weapon in a "war on terror" (an oxymoron if ever I heard one mind you)
Is it that we cannot resolve it? Or is it - more frighteningly for humanity - that we will not?
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2 comments:
What a mess the Middle East is at the moment. I feel very depressed when I look at the news.
Unfortunately, conciliation in the sense that you mentioned HAS been tried many times before (usually because of pressure by the USA) - and, unfortunately, it has ultimately failed on each occasion. I think this has left each side with the feeling that the other side cannot be trusted and will break its word.
I should say that there are no "goodies" and "baddies" in this dispute: all sides have done things which are questionable.
At one point in the not so distant past, Ehud Barak (then Prime Minister of Israel) was prepared to give the Palestinians the state of Palestine - but the sticking point was that Israel wanted half of Jerusalem (I think it was the half with the Wailing Wall), Palestine wanted all of Jerusalem. Alas, no settlement was reached. I really regret that this opportunity was missed. I think that we might be seeing a different Middle East if an acceptable position had been reached.
On both sides there are people who don't want to conciliate. The reasons for this are various, and apply to both sides:
1. There are people who have built up political power, wealth and influence by the furtherance of conflict, and they do not want it to end (lest their power also end).
2. There are people who have lost loved ones in the conflict and blame the other side.
3. There are people who enjoy conflict and hurting others.
4. There are people who are blinded by their radical visions: Palestinians who say they want to push Israel into the sea and ultra-orthodox Jews who dream of a Greater Israel encompassing the occupied territories. Obviously neither vision is possible, and some kind of compromise has to be reached, but these people don't want to compromise.
On both sides there are definitely compassionate and intelligent people who wish for a lasting peace, but unfortunately, I think they are being drowned out by the lunatic fringes.
One of the reasons conciliation is difficult is because terrorism is involved. Once you start using terrorism, it's like letting a tiger off a leash. I am thinking here of Hamas and Hezbollah, but also Northern Ireland. When you want to make a settlement or a ceasefire with the other side...you find that you can't get the tiger back on its leash again! The tiger keeps on savaging people despite your efforts, and breaks the ceasefire. So then the other side comes in with an army to shoot it... If I were a Palestinian, I would be anti-terrorism because I see this as one of the greatest sticking points to resolution.
I wish both sides could just say "STOP!" and really stop it - but every time a ceasefire has been made, someone breaks it.
I don't know what the answer is. The UN is weak, the US doesn't seem to know what to do, and everything just keeps escalating. I hope that something comes to break the circuit soon.
Further to my post of yesterday, another complication to this conflict is the international power plays which are going on below the surface. It's not as easy as getting two or three warring parties together and sorting things out. More's the pity, too!
Hezbollah, one of the participants in this conflict, is based in Lebanon, but it is an openly declared proxy for the Iranian government. Hezbollah was formed with the blessing and help of Iran in the 1980s, which continues to fund and control it. (Syria is also a prominent contributor to Hezbollah.) It is certain that Iran wishes to increase its prestige in the Middle East via the present conflict, and to increase its standing in the Arab world through supporting Hezbollah.
A further complication has been suggested by the Israeli ambassador to the UN, namely that Iran is using the conflict as a method of deflecting attention from its nuclear weapons program. I can't comment one way or the other on the likelihood of this allegation, but it gives an idea of the sub-texts which lie (or may be seen to lie) behind this conflict.
See the following article from The Guardian on the formation and history of Hezbollah:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5964456,00.html
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