“Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights”. George Wilhelm Fiedrich Hegel
On the radio recently, and in the same vein, I heard one of the official negotiators from one of the Israeli Palestinian peace efforts put it this way — the conflict between Israel and Palestine is a conflict of two just causes, the definition of a tragedy.
In this last violent episode between Israel and the Palestinians of Gaza, I felt the tragedy of it more intensely than in prior conflicts, because, I think, the unanimity of the West’s support for Israel is more in question.
My family of origin is Jewish, and I have a deeply rooted sense of Jewish identity. As my brother Scott announced after getting our genetic results back from 23 and Me – we’re pure – 99.6% Ashkenazy Jews – that about covers our ancestry for at least 500 years, if I understand the implications of our genetics correctly. That is the only fact then I know about my family beyond 5, maybe or 6 generations back.
In one town that my paternal grandmother came from in Poland in the early 20 century, 100 %of the Jews were exterminated by the Nazi’s in the 1940s. We know there were some who survived to become Israeli.My education in being Jewish always emphasized the history of pogroms, oppression, banishment, and liberation over their 5000 years of history and so recently in the 20th century.
Now the world feels more for the Palestinians, driven from their ancestral land or confined to a small restricted and poor territory while Israel, established in the wake of the Nazi ethnic cleanse, has developed into a strong and prosperous nation. I felt this time, that Israel faces an existential threat that may be becoming more stark because of changes in international feeling favoring the Palestinians, as well as the escalating tensions in the Israeli- Palestinian relationship as the inequality becomes more fixed. My adult daughters, who identify as Jewish, think that Israel is the occupier and oppressor of the Palestinians.
Tzipi Liveni in the NY Times Opinion section of May 27, 2021, writes about the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict. Liveni is a former Israeli vice prime minister, minister of foreign affairs and justice minister. She was the chief negotiator in the last two rounds of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
“The first meetings of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority back in 2007 were very emotional. “
Each of us — I, as Israel’s chief negotiator, and Ahmed Qurei, known as Abu Ala, the former Palestinian prime minister — tried to convince the other who has more rights to the land: the Jewish people or the Palestinians. “
Unsurprisingly, we left these sessions frustrated and unconvinced. After two such meetings, we agreed that these discussions would lead us nowhere and that any peace agreement would not determine which narrative prevailed. And instead, we should focus only on how to establish a peaceful future. “
In the family system, arguing over who is right and who is wrong is a formula for failing to settle a conflict. Even if it settles an episode here and there by one side winning, when conflict is chronic, a lasting peace is unlikely. So, if you don’t want to settle a conflict, try to impose your point of view on the other side.
Liveni goes on about the Israeli – Palestinian Conflict:
“The argument over historical narratives hasn’t changed. It won’t. Those on both sides that insist on forcing their narrative on the other side, or turning the conflict into a religious war, cannot make the compromises needed for peace. This is true also for those from the international community supporting one side and denying the rights of the other. This is destructive and only strengthens extremists.”
Religiosity and other forms of dogmatism and rigidness – the intensity and fixedness of feelings – are impediments to the resolution of conflict in the family as well and third parties can escalate the conflict between the fighting parties by taking sides.
Ms. Liveni goes on to argue that the two-state solution is more important than ever, and that priority is that that option is not closed off as it may be the only possible path to equality and peace. Pragmatic forces should be strengthened extremist forces should be weakened. US-Israeli policy has in the past few years done exactly the opposite as it supported annexing land in the West Bank and bringing the situation ever closer to a point of no return where a two-state solution will be geographically impossible.
Meanwhile Israel can’t negotiate with Hamas the Palestinian leadership in Gaza when it does not grant that Israel has the right to exist. “Criticizing any government policy is legitimate, … but denying the right of a country to defend its citizens is not.”
I think a systems view is consistent with Ms. Liveni’s conclusion that “supporting only one narrative and denying the other will lead us nowhere and will strengthen extremism on both sides”… how not to solve the conflict and go to war again.
Here’s a link to Livni’s article, There Is a Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjc5Ons0YTxAhVvHzQIHTquChAQFjAGegQIAhAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2021%2F05%2F27%2Fopinion%2Fisrael-palestinians-two-state-solution.html&usg=AOvVaw0kkQxx8-fTJZsZl7s3zSqe
Laura,
Thank you for this thoughtful essay, that I wish everyone could read. I think it is more powerful because you acknowledge your history and even the natural emotions that accompany it. The definition of tragedy is heartbreaking, because it’s true. My husband is an editor for a Palestinian publisher and has friends of friends in Gaza, as well as Jewish friends here in the US and in Israel. What I noticed in him this time was a distinct lack of anger, or blame, just compassion. Maybe the way out is our knowledge of and love for people on both sides of a tragedy, like the chidren of warring parents. And add some differentiation, as you do here.
Laurie
Laura,
I, too, wish everyone could read this essay, especially those in leadership in Israel, Palestine, the U. S., and all the nations that have played a part in this tragedy.
I find it actually understandable that this problem has been so intractable. If you look at it from a biological perspective, it is a contest for territory, and territoriality is a deep biological instinct for humans and many species of animal. The drive to claim, occupy, mark, and defend territory is essential to survival. It is most intense over territories that hold valuable resources. Human history includes ongoing war, conquest, displacement of people, migration, colonization and many episodes of genocide. In addition, there is now the rising anxiety around the world as we recognize that we have overcrowded the planet. Looking at the size of the problem faced by Israel and Palestine gives me great respect for Ms. Liveni and leaders like her who are trying to address it with reason and principles.