The Knot at the Heart of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

A groundbreaking op-ed piece “How Words Could End a War” by Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges” appeared in the New York Times last week.  For years  I have observed how geo-politicians ignore the way human beings think, feel and behave in the real world.  It’s no wonder that diplomats and political leaders fail to achieve permanent peace.

Research Into Moral Values Under I/P Conflict

Atran and Ginges’ article, based on some fascinating academic research, validates for the first time that both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are more concerned with deep moral values than they are with accepting compromises based on self-interest.  They note that:  “Diplomats hope that peace and concrete progress on material and quality-of-life matters . . . will eventually make people forget the more heartfelt issues. But this is only a recipe for another Hundred Years’ War. . .”

When they talked to ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, and to leaders on both sides, they found that symbolic moves like an Israeli apology for the 1948 War or all Palestinian factions (Hamas) recognizing the right of the Jewish people to a state in the region would be dramatically important.  Other reparative actions could follow.  Would just these words be enough?

Are  Apologies Enough to Make a Difference?

Atran and Ginges work opens up new territory that has previously been ignored in the efforts to create peace in one of the most intractable conflicts on the planet.  My concern with apologies is that these words could become a formula and the meaning behind them would be hollow.  For these steps to mean anything the words must be heartfelt.

The Israelis and the Palestinians have different narratives and their stories derive from their different experiences.  One might say that the past is incomplete for each group.  There is much in the past to be examined and/or felt collectively for the past to really be done.

Toward Full Completion of the Past for Israelis and Palestinians

Not being Jewish I am unclear what it is, but I have a hunch it has to do with the Holocaust. Perhaps it is some shame about not having been able to fight back more effectively against the Nazis. Or perhaps it was an inability to fully grieve the losses of the six million, because those losses were simply too big to grieve. Only those who are Jewish can fully illuminate this point.

I am also not Palestinian, but I surmise that the continuation of the conflict for them has to do with first allowing the Jews into their land with generosity and then having their beloved land torn away from them, a theft for which they cannot forgive themselves.  It seems to me that the Palestinians are continually trying to restore their honor and dignity by fighting back against the Israelis.  And I may be wrong. Whatever is going on here is unconscious and needs to become conscious so it can be completed–by both peoples.

Irrational but Human Reasons Why People Fight

This kind of completion is at the heart of what I call transformational peacemaking.  It is enormously exciting that academia is finally recognizing that human beings fight for irrational reasons that are completely human:

To preserve their dignity

To cover shame and humiliation

To say to the world “We want to survive!”

To say, “Let us thrive!”

“Stop treating us as we are dogs!”

To feel powerful when they feel powerless

And for these very basic things people are willing to die.  It’s pretty simple really. All you have to do is listen.

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