Conflict and Coexistence
I am part of an interracial, intercultural, interfaith family, blending Black and Jewish identities, with Christianity and Judaism, along with other aspects of culture and spirituality into our lives. And for years, my wife and I have talked about the seemingly intractable complexity of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and between the Middle East and the West, recognizing that all of these labels gloss over billions of human experiences that are not just one thing. Much of our reason for being together — staying together despite our own overwhelming obstacles of race and faith — was because we believed in something bigger than ourselves, a better world that we wanted to be part of and contribute to. That is a world of unity and peace. Perhaps it’s a dream. What is not in question right now, is that Israelis and Palestinians alike are living their nightmares.
My wife traveled to Israel 16 or 17 years ago. While there, spent time with Israeli soldiers and she met with Palestinian families living in Israel trying to work towards peace. As she told it to me, she came away with an even deeper love and appreciation for her cultural and spiritual identity as a Jewish person, a sadness at the persistence of the conflict, and a spark of hope at what younger generations might achieve together, in pursuit of peace and unity. And yet, this is one of those times when our desire for unity exists alongside a deep and abiding pain, a sense of hopelessness, and yes, also empathy.
We see the shocking, horrific destruction perpetrated in the last two days on Israel, and we know also that Palestinians have had their homes razed due to settlement expansion. We recoil in fear and anger at the kidnapping and taking of Israel hostages — reminiscent of Munich — and we know the retaliation will be fierce, because that is often the Israeli way, and their leadership has already said as much.
We sit here in America and pass judgment on this conflict as though we understand it. We experienced 9/11 and have yet to fully learn its lessons; and what’s worse, we lord it over other groups — foes and allies alike — as justification for our policies at home and aboard, without stopping to think for a second that other countries around the world react to their existential conflicts in much the same way we saw ours on 9/11.
I suspect that for those of us who are much more identified with this conflict as members of the American Jewish community and the American Palestinian community, while it is experienced through the lens of pre-drawn lines of conflict, it also seen through the frame of American import and cultural remix, for an American way of thinking. One of the great ironies of this is that on any given day in America, both casual and violent examples of anti-Semitism AND anti-Muslim sentiment can be found almost anywhere you look, and we tend to get just as bored with those as we do with racism in this country.
And whether we are on the political left and therefore presumed to be supportive of the Palestinian people because we see overthrowing oppression as an abiding principle of that political ideology; or we are on the political right and therefore presumed to be supportive of Israel and its government because we consider them to be a critical ally in a region where we believe America’s brand of democracy is under constant threat — in either case, we often ignore the inconvenient truths that authoritarianism is growing, that oppression is increasing and that democracy is under attack — abroad and at home — and that if left unchecked, we are likely in for a far worse time of things than what we have now. We ignore the hypocrisy in our own ranks, we ignore the selective application and enforcement of our ideals in our own ranks, we ignore the contradictions within our own ranks. We ignore the common cause that is shared among those extremists committed to terrorism of ALL racial, political and religious identities, which is to destroy through fear. And we ignore the common aspiration that exists among those who are committed to hope, justice and a dignified humanity of ALL racial, political and religious identities, which is to strive for unity and peace.
We are often reminded that history is told by the victors, but I believe this is a flawed idea. We all deserve better than that, and so do the Israeli and Palestinian people. We all deserve to think about complex things in broader and longer contexts, so we can actually understand the cause of conflicts and their present effects, rather than just in abbreviated narratives framed in absolutes. In perhaps one of the world’s most devastating examples of “They Started It,” each side of this conflict can claim the moral high ground depending on how far back in history one wants to go and what starting point one chooses. And where does that get them? Where does it get any of us?
I believe that more than one thing can be true at the same time: that the modern State of Israel’s existence has been under constant threat since its formation post-WWII, from countries who refuse to recognize its right to exist; that Palestinians who were living in places one day were told the next that such places were no longer their homes; that the Holocaust happened and the Jewish people faced almost complete extermination in the span of just a few years; that the Western world’s policies towards the Middle East have focused on exploiting natural resources with very little understanding of the long-term ramifications of that exploitation; that Palestinians have lived under horrific circumstances for decades; and that Israelis live under daily threat of acts of terrorism for just as long; that people who lack a vision for peace and an understanding of their enemies will only see conquering as the way forward; and that all of this speaks very little to the longer-term conflicts that have been part of the history of that place for thousands of years. Why have three religions/cultures/faiths fought so fiercely over that land, for so long? We may not fully understand it or resolve it in our lifetime, but to simply throw up our hands and avoid the hard work of getting to the bottom of it is to go from small conflict to large conflict to war to fragile peace, back to small conflict all over again.
So today, as my heart is with my extended Jewish family and friends, which are many, who see their spiritual and cultural homeland, the place of their identity under massive attack, whose right to exist is once again under dire threat, I also empathize with the hopelessness that the Palestinian people must feel, wondering if the end of this latest conflict means an even worse human existence than before. And it is not lost on me that ideologically extreme minorities — both in the Middle East and in the U.S. — continue to make decisions for the rest of us, most often to the detriment of the people they claim to represent.
I believe we need to collectively resist extremism in all its forms. We need to truly accept that anything less than a coexistent approach will likely not succeed, and that even with such an approach, if we fail to deal with the larger conflict of ideals, values, cultures and faiths, then the world’s proxy wars in the Middle East will just continue for another hundred years, or a another thousand, looking for another piece of land for war to call home.
