War is over, depending on how much you want it
The most troubling stand-out from everything being said about the Middle East is the polarisation of opinion in the West. Two peoples claim the same bit of desert as homeland, and the only tolerable opinion seems to be cheering for one or the other. Yet there is no prospect of one group prevailing and history speaks loudest that nobody should want it to.
The situation in Gaza was born of complex histories that reach back to Biblical times. Both sides can point to deep roots and assert the right to be there. Neither side has a natural refuge anywhere else. Slogans that assume one group should submit to the law of their enemies or decamp somewhere else do nothing to move the dial. A more unhelpful perspective there is none, but for every protester with an interest, that seems to be the only way of looking at it.
Disputed territories founded on historic wrongs can be found all over the globe. You live in one of them. The descendants of the displaced live with the descents of the displacers and each keeps alive the flame of their ancestors’ perspectives. What is at stake is how that will be dealt with. Those who seek unqualified triumph over the other tribe and the right to return to historic boundaries are destined to live with both disappointment and violent resistance. Those who embrace compromise and emphasise the ties that bind will make better lives in the end.
Māori can point to land displacements that met no standard of law or natural justice, by the mores of our times or the ones they happened in. If the descendants of the victims had maintained a blood feud it is likely few of their number would currently exist. In the main those descendants lived with the inevitable, embraced what was good about it, and in recent decades have received recognition and genuine attempts to make amends from the children of their adversaries. Other first peoples elsewhere have experienced the same. Their due may be little and late, but it is a dramatically more wholesome way forward than any other.
Many citizens of Northern Ireland and South Africa were born and died knowing nothing but brutality. In the end exhaustion bred enlightened leaders who learned to deal with their enemies and brought both territories to stability. Neither country ended their bloodshed by vanquishing one side and anointing the other as the true possessor of the land, and neither has founded a perfect peace. But the rule of law applies and people live side by side without generational enmity. Belfast no longer rocks with bombs, South Africa no longer keeps order by grinding down its black citizens.
These wars were not won. They were abandoned. Ian Paisley sat down with Gerry Adams. President de Klerk went to Nelson Mandela’s jail cell. They weren’t being chummy. They were being realistic.
I hope Gaza is destined for something similar, but I suspect it will not be soon. Israel has capacity to flatten a lot of buildings and kill a lot of people but not to winkle all the Hamas leaders out of their tunnels, or to stop the next generation being radicalised by what is being done to them.
Hamas has capacity to launch rockets and suicide raids but not to over-run a modern nation state. Powerful interests worldwide, particularly Iran and the United States, see advantage in supporting one side or the other. Neither side has any prospect of a decisive advantage and the issue is how long it will take until that reality changes the tactics.
Gaza could be the Riveria of the Middle East if war ended, but that means wanting war to end, and finding a way to process injustices without it. It will not happen while each side, and its international sponsors, see their triumph as the only solution, and Westeners keep waving placards on the streets in their support. A sentiment for one side to prevail is a sentiment for conflict to continue forever.
That narrow bit of desert is also famous for a chap who got nailed to a post for suggesting that your own peace comes from treating others properly and emphasising forgiveness. He may have had a point.