An Open Letter to the Israelis

Now you are faced with having one of your own in the hands of the enemy. Yes, you regard the Palestinians as enemies, and they have reciprocated. Or were they first? Does it matter now? Whatever the case, this is your situation today.

Your actions are viewed by Palestinians as a demonstration you did learn something from the Holocaust. You suffered that horror, and now you are far more slowly creating the same experience for people who you have defeated in a war so long ago that you (and Palestinians) now have children who only see the recent tit-for-tat exchanges as justification for your actions and policies. Of course your children, like those in Palestine, have been taught hate and fear from their first breath, and so you both now have that product of your efforts becoming an ever larger percentage of your population.

So you are trying to decide what to do in response to this abduction. Some of you simply want to do more of the same. Hit them and hit them hard -- harder than you have hit them before. Others are wondering whether there is a message in the fact your two peoples have been exchanging assaults upon each other for so long with no meaningful change in your relationship.

Ask yourselves what you want of the Palestinian people. Do you want them simply to lie down like dogs in the lifeless dust of the places you have left them and have them die? Or do you want them to flourish and become partners in creating a greater Middle East? Yes, I know you have differences over some real estate that for each of you has great significance. And yes, I know, you (and the Palestinans too) are really not a homogeneous people; you have many different minds in your population, and some are no less fundamentalist than are their counterparts in the Palestinian lands. This is the result of how we all have made the world today.

So as there are three monotheistic religions in the world, perhaps a rule traditionally attributed to the one religion that is not directly involved in this conflict could be of some use. That rule is the Golden One, of doing to the other what you yourself would like them to do to you. Of course, such an action requires reciprocation to advance into a greater relaxation of tensions, and it requires starting with small steps. This current crisis, or the next one, or the one after that (if you are simply too stuck in your ways to be rational any sooner), can be the place where some new direction can occur. Rather than disdaining the people who are your counterparts (the Middle East conflict has been kept alive for many years entirely because each side has used 'ad hominem' accusations against the other; this has "neatly" avoided any talk about the real and salient issues of property, movement, rights, etc.

So look now at this situation of some soldiers being killed (and one abducted). Do you not see your own contribution to this situation? No I don't mean some political position or other policy decision. Rather I point to the obvious, that something about your powerful military system didn't work, and that failure cost you some soldier's lives, and now the possibility of another being tortured or even killed. Of course you want to avenge this. Who wouldn't? But is revenge going to get you out of this quagmire? And does having the power to go through some village and simply destroy everything and everyone remove the incentive of other Palestinian men to act against Israel?

I know the standard answer to this question, that giving into terrorists should never be done. This is how it is phrased. But this phrasing is itself an expression of your mind-set. It is not truth. In fact, it is not so difficult to argue conducting some military action that can be easily viewed as an act of avenging this abduction will only move the place marker back into the Palestinian camp and function as yet another incentive for some Palestinian men sooner or later to conduct another action against your army or citizens.

Now I realize the problem of leaders (on both sides, incidentally) is that they are caught between some of their own people (who are simply bully-fundamentalists hiding behind their bureaucrats, goading them to do their bidding) and the enemy outside the country (or territories) who wishes to demonstrate he is worthy of being given the post of leadership. So politicians for both Israel and Palestine are caught between two fires, with little hope of pleasing both.

Then to whom is this writing addressed? It seems the smart man (or woman) should just make a point of never getting into a position of leadership in these communities. That's the only way to avoid being torn apart by one's own people. Of course that it has come to this only indicates how desperate the situation is.

But it also indicates something else -- that within Israel (and Palestine, too, of course) there is a dialogue that is not now happening -- between the "hard liners" and those who are more secular and wish only to live in peace and prosperity. The problem of the Middle East is really an archetype for similar problems the world over, including in America, Africa and the Orient. It is really the problem of people anywhere today.

We have not yet decided to be civilized for the simple reason too many people see advantage in the old ways of authority, domination, subjugation, and power. One can even make an argument that the so-called democracies around the world are to a great extent imposed on their citizens, who in large part give only politically-correct lip-service in defense of democracy while at the same time they behave in a manner calculated to take every advantage of the loop-holes in their democratic system of government, for personal gain, even when those cunning actions undermine democratic principles. So it seems the Middle East is simply manifesting this planet-wide ambivalence toward being civilized.

The only hope in this picture is that the Israeli people have shown themselves to be quite brilliant in many other endeavors, and the Palestinians have demonstrated genius of global significance in times past. So both peoples are smart. Perhaps the intelligence of these two adversaries can discover a way out of their dilemma which at the same time will reveal to the rest of the planet how better to conduct itself. Then not only would the Middle East conflict become a closed entry in the history books, but the whole world might take another step toward growing up.

Deep down we all hope for this.