Peacemaking Is Not Politics

The past few months have seen an explosion in diplomatic, military and political activity in the Middle East. To recap, we've seen an Israeli election, a war in Gaza, the inauguration of President Obama and the appointments of Secretary of State Clinton and Special Envoy Mitchell. Whew! The press dutifully records that coming and going of these people and events, and occasionally tries to persuade itself that this is related to peace.

Not true. There is a sharp difference between politics and peacemaking. Politics represents the art of the possible, at one end, and ideological warfare, on the other. As Von Clausewitz said, "War is the continuation of politics by other means."

In contrast, peacemaking is an intellectual and emotional process of 1) comprehending, and the 2) empathizing with the narrative of your enemy. This helps explain why peaceniks are so reviled by nations at war: their mission is to humanize the opposition for the explicit purpose of sabotaging an ongoing war effort. After all - most armies need to believe in the war they are fighting, and in most democracies, the population needs to buy in as well. Absent a high motivation for conflict, peace is more likely to break out.

And this helps explain two things. First, why it is so hard for American Jews and Israelis to stand up for peace. Second, why so many in the Palestinian solidarity movement shy away from seeing themselves as part of a peace movement.

It's like this. If you are playing chess, and only one of you can win, or if you are fighting over the budget, and every dollar for your favorite item comes at the expense of someone else's sacred cow, then making the effort to empathize with your opposition conflict with the primay goal: getting your needs met. If you feel strongly that your needs are very necessary, it fuels a sense of egoistic fervor. Imagine a child ranting angrily: but it's MINE! And you know what? Sometimes the child is formally correct, and yet - it doesn't matter.

And this is where we find both Israeli and Palestinian extremists. They don't want to spend time on comprehending the other side's narrative. What for? There's a war to be fought, a rally to plan, an appointment to scuttle, some funding to secure or cut, some victory or defeat on the horizon that must be attended to. Such people often think of themselves as 'serious' in contract to the softies who 'don't get it.'

Palestinian extemists will call someone a 'soft Zionist' even though they do not adhere to Zionist ideology. It's enough that they aren't committed to the end of Israel, so be default, they support it's existence, and so on. Similarly, pro-Israel extremists will call peaceniks 'apologists for terror' because they seek to divert the conversation away from the sysiphean task of defeating terror and instead seek to address the root causes of Palestinian anger and frustration. In both cases, being 'soft' or 'apologetic' is some kind of insult. Admitting your own side might be wrong, seeking softness and win-win solutions represents the beginning of the end. Serious people hold the line and don't say much, like John Wayne.

The peacemakers (on both sides) are seeking to transform the conflict from a war of positions into a journey of personal growth. The conflict for Israel is actually about dealing with the trauma of the Holocaust, antisemitism, and its own guilt-inducing actions in the past. The conflict for the Palestinians is actually about coming to terms with being on the losing side of a recent conflict in a world that prevents absolute defeat OR absolute victory. And let's be clear: no matter what happens in the future, the Palestinians lost so much, that they will always have that with them.

The peacemakers need to move closer to the center of the stage, holding a mirror to both sides. The mirror asks: is this who you want to be? Is this what your future looks like? Peace happens when both sides pause for a moment to say: no. I'm stuck and I want things to be different. How can I change, so as to change the outcome? What can I do?

Just asking the question the right way, from your heart, is the start of peace. And the beginning of the end for the political and military warmongers.