How can Israelis and Palestinians start anew post-Gaza war? - opinion

If the Second Intifada pushed us back 20 years, this Hamas-Israel war has returned us to 1948-49, if not further. That is the bad news; the silver lining is that Palestinians and Israelis get, in some ways, a do-over. It is therefore incumbent on us to utilize an analysis of missed opportunities, successes and failures from the past to guide us forward.

There are invaluable lessons to be learned. Scholars, journalists, politicians, negotiators, diplomats, civil society, activists and others should be brought together for this exercise.

In addition, a more sophisticated messaging about what is meant by peace needs articulation within Palestinian and Israeli societies. One of the great fallacies about the concept of peace is the belief that once the ink is dry a conflict is completely over and all issues have been laid to rest. Nothing could be further from the truth. A hundred years ago, through the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Republic of Austria was established out of the remains of the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Within that treaty, Austria lost the districts of South Tyrol, Trieste, Trentino and Istria to Italy. To this day tensions remain, but people found ways to move on: as recently as 1992, Italy and Austria signed an autonomy agreement for some of those regions. This says nothing about race the United States still wrestles with, over a century and a half after the Civil War. Twenty-five years after the Good Friday Accords, issues are still being worked through in Northern Ireland.

Peace is the absence of war, but not necessarily the absence of the dilemmas. Peace allows for differences to be addressed on a different stage. Shalom means the absence of war, but at its core is the understanding of shleimoot, to be whole and complete. That is to say, there are three stages of peace: 1) the end/absence of war 2) that creates improved, less violent conditions to deal with the issues of the conflict 3) that over time (can be generations) leads to a state of wholeness between parties.

The Alliance for Middle East Peace includes more than 160 Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations that change attitudes in profound ways. Greater numbers of Israelis and Palestinians must be reached and included within their activities if they are to have the necessary influence and change on their respective and collective societies. That circle must be enlarged.

There are extremists in both populations, but the majority of Palestinians and Israelis are not extremists; by the same token, nor are those populations involved with or aware of these programs. Increased knowledge of and participation with these organizations will have three benefits: 1) it creates conditions for an agreement to emerge by creating buy-in among both populations; 2) this gives the political leaders the backbone needed to reach an agreement; and 3) it creates the conditions for an agreement to hold, as there will be immense pushback; those negative forces need to be marginalized.

THE US government over the years has invested millions of dollars, beyond the Nita Lowey Middle East Peace Partners Act (MEPPA), in Palestinian-Israeli civil society. It is not enough. The International Fund for Ireland spent $42 per person in Northern Ireland on MEPPA-type projects. This relatively large expenditure was critical to pave the way for the Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of violence between Protestants and Catholics. At present, only $4 per person is spent on Palestinian-Israeli enterprises.

The international community needs to come together and coordinate vast increases in the support of these programs. In addition, that investment needs to be augmented by appointing someone whose sole responsibility is to wake up every morning and focus on advancing peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. Appointing a Liaison to Israeli-Palestinian Civil Society at the US Embassy in Jerusalem would signal a greater integration of MEPPA-related US funding with policy.

A critical goal is to bring these societies to a tipping point so they are able to see one another in a different light. These organizations produce effective, measurable results shaping strong, respectful relationships between Israelis and Palestinians. They build trust, empathy, and understanding.

The unending violence between Israelis and Palestinians signals they are stuck; there is need for an off-ramp. Greater knowledge of these civil society NGO programs is one way to create that off-ramp.

With such positive results, why don’t more Palestinians and Israelis know about these initiatives? Because of the “Asymmetry of the Sensational.”

Acts of violence can expand

In his poem, "The Diameter of the Bomb," the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai explores how an act of violence expands from “thirty centimeters” to “distant shores.” The multiplier effect of violence and extremist language far outweighs the affirmative consequences of the work of Israeli and Palestinian civil society NGO organizations. Fanatics need to do far less to have a greater impact.

Why is the Asymmetry of the Sensational effective? Our brain responds to trauma with fear, fight, and flight responses. Violence and extremist voices play into and feed off that fear, creating a deadly spiral.

That fear is real and leads to negative perceptions; the daily headlines steer us in that direction. It is very easy to understand why so much distrust exists between Palestinians and Israelis.

To counter this trend there needs to be better utilization of high-profile visits, social media, standard media, and other forms of messaging to get the word out about such healthier Israeli and Palestinian relationships. On Pete Seeger’s banjo was written, “This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces It to Surrender.”

The challenge we face is the forces and voices of violence, hate, and division have an easier time being heard. The song of peace, goodwill, and cooperation must be sung more aggressively and louder.

In a recent article in these pages (The Jerusalem Post, January 8: Closely observed), I wrote about “myriad factors, nuances, and influences” beneath the surface of the conflict needing more attention. Discussed was that Israelis and Palestinians have visceral, painful, and justified claims of being victims, in need of acknowledgment by the other side. Asking each side to recognize the victimhood of the other – even in the asymmetry of the conflict, all have agency – means to take responsibility for one’s own actions.

This is no easy task. Victims, at first, do not take chances. Emotionally and physically, both populations have understandably retreated to their respective corners. The trauma of this war has wiped away compassion for the other. We need courageous voices, reaching between sides, to emerge.

Moshe Dayan reminds us, “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”

The writer, a rabbi, teaches at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura and Bennington College.