It’s pretty bleak out there, politically, these days. I don’t recall
the last time I talked to anyone, left or right, Jewish or Arab, who
mentioned any light in the end of the tunnel. Pretty much everyone is
busy with slinging mud at the other side, in an endless cycle of blame
laying. The sad thing, of course, is that both sides are often right
in their blame laying, as both sides have performed their share of
atrocities. Both sides have bodies of dead children to put on display,
cry “foul” and justify their own actions with.
Am I the only one seeing the symmetry in that? I know I’m going to get
it for even mentioning symmetry, and that’s the beauty of the
symmetry: people on both sides of the fence will condemn me for daring
to see any…
Anyway, I decided to write an optimistic post and explain why the
notoriously naive IsraeliMom believes in the old John Lennon “Give
Peace a Chance”. This is going to be a therapeutic post, so please
bare with me.
Back in 1993, having graduated from university (Atuda), I was drafted
into active service the IDF. I was quite anti-military, as left-winged
then as I am today, and preferred to stay away from contributing to
the “war effort”. Family and social pressures, and my own signing of
documents, meant I was going to go through with it anyway, albeit not
highly motivated.
Something else happened back then in September 1993. Peace broke. The
IDF as most of the “establishment” was faced with a new set of orders
following the “Declaration of Principles” signed by Rabin and Arafat.
I was fortunate to have been thrown right into the middle of it all -
into the IDF’s peace administration, as it was then called.
It was pretty amazing. For several years, I have had the rare
opportunity of witnessing the peace process “on ground level”. I saw
Palestinian warriors and Israeli combat officers literally shake their
war-scarred hands and sitting down to the table to talk about joint
security arrangements. I saw the way joint-security mechanisms were
put into place with joint patrols of Palestinians and Israelis taking
place. People on both sides seem to have forgotten those, but they
were real. They did happen. Agreements kept on being created. I just
Googled some words and it brought back some nice memories from my
early 20′s. Long days and nights of work on long legal documents – and
all with a sense of wonder and utmost dedication – we were making it
happen.
Even more amazing was watching the personal interaction between
Israeli officers and their Palestinian counterparts. It was friendly
and professional and all carried out in that local mix of Arabic,
Hebrew and English. As a side note, let me say that when it comes to
debating the problems of the Middle East, I have always found it
easier to talk to Arabs, and specifically Palestinians. I feel that
Israelis and Palestinians have a lot in common and share a lot more
than many of them would care to admit.
As for the negotiations, the rest, as they say, is history. On both
sides, extremists managed to bring the dialogue to a halt. Palestinian
suicide bombers joined hands with the Jewish Yigal Amirs to put an end
to the peace process and threw us all back into the throes of Intifada
and oppression. But for a brief historical moment, it was there. I saw
it, with my own eyes. It’s doable and I believe that we can do it
again. Why? because Israel is here to stay and the Palestinians are
here to stay and there is no other choice other than to find that way
again to living together and providing people on both sides a safe,
prosperous life.
There is a lot of anger on both sides. Disappointment, and some would
say disillusionment. Sigh. This will get us nowhere. We all need to get
back to our senses at some point and get back to the sane dialogue
these two wonderful and special local Middle Eastern tribes here can
and should have.
ETA: I wasn’t sure whether or not to post this. Thanking my good friend Steve for reading this post and encouraging to move ahead and hit “publish”. I am guessing a lot of people on both sides will not like the comparison and claim for symmetry – that too would be symmetrical, probably…
on Jul 1st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Thje reason I thought it was a great post is two fold:
1: Most importantly, no matter how naive or no matter how much it may ignore who the most recent “worst actor in the drama” was, your heart is on your sleeve here. You want peace. Hey, the only time we get peace is when it becomes a goal. Argue that.
2.: It always takes someone giving some ground before trust is established and more progress is made. On the other hand, distrust which engenders more warfare and hatred hurts only those people involved in the warring regions. It’s fine to run a war from Washington DC or from Beirut. The people on the ground, however suffer the greatest. Nor are they particularly well-represented by whoever it was that made things go in reverse. This is both sides, not just one.
The entire world is affected by this conflict. It is a grain of sand in the world’s teeth. Fix the dam thing. You’re holding us all up.
on Jul 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
iam not an arab, iam not a jew.
i have no doubt you are sincer in seeking peace.
i have no doubt that muslims are not sincer in seeking peace.
do the math and tell me everybody if there is gonna be a peace.
on Jul 11th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Thanks for the post, and the twitter reply too, I have a real heart for Israel which goes back to my own mother’s prophetic teaching based on biblical passages. I find particularly perplexing the way media portrays anything Israel does as ego and hubris, and takes away your right to defend yourselves.