Peace in the Middle East, Annapolis, and All That

It struck me the other day that "the troubles" (to borrow the old term for the English entanglement in Ireland) between Israel and her neighbors has now spanned three generations. When my father was born, no state of Israel existed; he then went on to live through a time that saw Israel fight her neighbors in several wars. I was born in 1963, and so lived through several more of those wars (e.g., the 1967 war), right up to the incursion into Lebanon. Now I have a child, and it is likely that she, too, will grow up in a world where Israel is still engaged in conflict.

What's my point? A better question is what's THE point -- this continued conflict has transcended any kind of sense, even geopolitical sense. These wars and police actions, everything from Israeli tanks rolling into urban area to Palestinian suicide bombers, have only set the stage for more conflict. Little has actually been resolved. Moreover, this perpetual strife, and the agitation it creates among the citizenry, is corrosive to the societies in the Middle East.

But more profoundly, it makes no sense on a personal level. What I mean is that if one were to talk to individuals (not take polls or listen to politicians), one would find that the average Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Israeli, and so on, was interested in just a few basic things: family, work, friends, a proper meal, and some measure of happiness. That is, the average person in the Middle East would be interested in the things that the average citizen in most of the world is interested in (one might add soccer, too). War and conflict, simply gets in the way of the average citizen's just getting on in life.

One wonders why citizens don't just rise up -- not against the Palestinians, or Israelis, or any other such "grouping", but against these conflicts themselves, and just demand peace.

It is interesting indeed that citizens sometimes, when left to their own devices, are quite capable of living in peace. I had a friend in graduate school who had been in the Israeli military. He was never quite clear on what he did in the Israeli forces -- something murky, I suppose, perhaps even the Special Forces -- but he himself was a very mellow guy, and a good musician (we played in a band together).

I asked him once about the continuous conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He looked at me and smiled, answering, "You know, the battles between the Israelis and the Palestinians is really between the politicians in many ways. When they want to, the Israelis and the Palestinians get along fine..." I asked him exactly what he meant. He replied, "You know, in the underworld there, all the 'mafia' stuff -- stolen cars and so on -- the Israelis and Palestinians work together all the time, no problem!"

And he was serious. If there is truly such honor among thieves in the Middle East, perhaps there is hope for the rest of us.