Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
We’re so used to seeing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process fail that we often overlook this simple question: How is it possible that so many can try so hard for so long and still fail to make any progress? How can it be that the United States, the most powerful country on Earth, has failed so royally, despite decades of making this conflict a top priority?
What I’m especially interested in is this: Why have the Palestinians, in particular, seemed so reluctant to make a deal?
As Ari Shavit wrote recently in Haaretz, “Twenty years of fruitless talks have led to nothing. There is no document that contains any real Palestinian concession with Abbas’ signature. None. There never was, and there never will be.”
Instead of criticizing this stubbornness, it’s more useful to try to understand it. As I see it, the Palestinians have internalized four “paralyzing narratives” that have prevented them from moving forward.
The first is that they see themselves as being unfairly punished for the great sin of the Europeans, the Holocaust. According to this narrative, the only reason for the creation of the State of Israel was to cure the European guilt for murdering Jews. There is no historical Jewish connection to the land, no centuries of Jewish yearning to return home to Zion.
In this narrative, Israel is simply a foreign transplant — a forced sovereign intrusion into Arab and Muslim lands.
The second paralyzing narrative is to see Israel as a thief. The West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem are seen as Palestinian lands stolen by Israel in the war of 1967. Now, all that must happen is for Israel to return this stolen property.
In this narrative, just showing up at negotiations is seen as a major concession. After all, why should the victim of a theft have to negotiate the return of his stolen property?
The third paralyzing narrative is a painful reversal of roles. For centuries, Jews living in Arab lands accepted their roles as dhimmis, or second-class citizens. That was the image of the Jew. Now, suddenly, with the creation of the State of Israel, Jews are in charge. This change is unacceptable. It creates cognitive dissonance and is a source of deep humiliation.
The fourth paralyzing narrative is also rooted in humiliation: envy and resentment over Israel’s enormous success. This resentment reinforces the pain of the previous narratives: “Here are people who were forced on us, who stole our land, who presume to be our superiors after centuries of being our subjects, and now, look how they have become so powerful and successful at our expense.”
While these narratives may paralyze any movement toward peace, they simultaneously speed up another process — that of demonization.
Demonization of the Jews helps reconcile the cognitive dissonance caused by the incredible success of the Jewish state. Only Jewish demons and Jewish conspiracies can explain this extraordinary transformation of the modern Jews of the Middle East.
Of course, the very process of demonization makes everything worse. The more Jews are demonized, the more the peace process is paralyzed.
Add it all up and you have a lot more than “obstacles” to peace. You have profound, fundamental reasons why Palestinians are so reluctant to accept what they call the “catastrophe” of Israel.
The tragedy is that even if Israel dismantled every settlement tonight, these narratives would not go away. The Palestinian conflict with the Jews is resistant to practical solutions because it’s not a practical problem.
It’s not an appendix that can be removed, but a chronic condition that cannot be cured. For all of Israel’s mistakes, no amount of positive gestures can relieve the emotional trauma that lies deep within the Palestinian psyche.
It doesn’t matter if these Palestinian narratives are accurate or not. What matters is that they have been nurtured as truth in mainstream Palestinian society.
Three generations of refugees who refuse to leave their refugee camps are the living symbol of this paralyzing, victim mindset.
Yet, however depressing this analysis is, it doesn’t mean we should give up hope. The status quo is getting more and more untenable, and I have sympathy for those who keep searching for solutions.
That said, it doesn’t do us any good to ignore the underlying narratives that are eroding all hope. We ought to stop fooling ourselves into thinking that all it takes to resolve this conflict is hard work, determination and good faith.
That is also a paralyzing narrative.
David Suissa is president of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal and can be reached at davids@jewishjournal.com.
The Pal are hated by the whole Muslim world and they will be considered traitor to Islam if they compromise with the Jews. Fanaticism and deception is their MO.
yamit82 Said:
translation
the phoenix Said:
Write the Chamber of commerce, Tucson, Ariz, find the address of the Desert Gardens, Carlsbad. NM has a good one also.
the phoenix Said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=voO3DXnPc-U#t=342
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaRAPpBE4Fo
@ yamit82:
Dear yamit,
‘For a change’, I am in complete agreement with your post.
What I am trying to bring to the discussion, is that even a Jew that lives in the diaspora, and has ROOTS that are undeniably there, and through a process of self study / increased awareness / focus on his Jewishness comes to the realization that indeed, he should proceed and ‘lech l’chah’ … Aliyah to Israel, it just does not happen on a dime.
There used to be a time, when you were a diaspora Jew.
And there may have been another ‘yamit-equivalent’ in those days that may have been perhaps less tolerant of you being in upstate ny instead of dimona…
It just so happens that we share the same Hebrew name.
In and of itself, it might be just a coincidence, for sure.
But I wholeheartedly agree with practically all your posts (even those that seemingly could be directed AGAINST me or the likes of me)
It is a process, yamit. For you perhaps long forgotten, but again, it does not happen on a dime.
(I will not tell you a ‘gashash’ism’ that “tafasta oti al hamizvadot”… But I WILL say that this grain of an idea has not fallen into barren land…)
Perhaps I should get a book on desert landscaping? 😉
NormanF Said:
Or Reverse the premise of your cause and effect.
The Jews are only a symbol what is really happening is the world or specifically those beliefs that sought to replace and or graft themselves by force into Jewish beliefs. I CALL IT IDENTITY THEFT.
11 And he said: ‘If the Arameans be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me, but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee.
What is meant by “The cities of our God”?
Lest they lose and then their gods will be the strongest and therefore the true gods.
“The L-rd reigneth; let the nations tremble!” (Psalms 99)
Christians and Muslims understand the theological principles above only the stupid Jews don’t.
the phoenix Said:
Bad analogies you are projecting your own conflicts on the historical record. The Jews of Arbia were Jews but divided by tribal conflicts and internecine jealousies etc. If they had united when they had the power to do so they would have defeated the forces of the initially weak Mohamed this mirrors Jewish tribal conflicts all through the history of the Jews since Abraham but not always.
During the age of the Judges the Jews usually united against a common enemy.
Can you imagine something like that happening with North American Jews forming an army to help and or save other Jews in dire straights? I can’t.
Thousands of Jews from the States joined and formed the largest contingent in the “Abraham Lincoln Brigade” fighting for communists in the Spanish civil war but a few years later how many fought for the Jews of Israel in our ‘Independence war’ of 48′? A few hundred!!
Today there is no reason why any Jew should need to endure ethnic and religious persecution due to lack of choices and options. If Jews almost anywhere choose to remain in the exile knowing that they are at risk then who is at fault and to blame. If you continue to live and build your homes in areas where natural disasters occur almost yearly who is responsible for the consequences? Should a Jew living in the Land Of Israel endanger himself to save another Jew so he can remain in the exile? Seems to me to be a contradiction re: purpose in being Jewish.
The Jewish communities of North America have failed in eveerything that relates to Jewish survival. There is nothing we need from them or can learn from them. They either move in our direction and bow with a humble heart to our relative success or bye bye!!!
@ LtCol Howard
AGREED
@ the phoenix:
Meci beacoup
the phoenix Said:
May I add my scream to the din!!!!!
@ yamit82:
yamit82 Said:
From the article that you have posted:
Indeed, this is my ‘signature scream’:
The divisiveness of the Jews… The rushing to ‘stone the sinners’ and to unsheathed the sword by which to kill all those who are not jewish enough… Whether we are talking about the sicarii of times past, or a present attitude of ‘I don’t give a damn if the Jews of the Ukraine are killed since they are not really Jews, anyway…’
@ honeybee:
http://youtu.be/HyRF1CjOPQ8
yamit82 Said:
One thing I have learned as a woman is ,” Power unused is power wasted”. [quote from the dichas of Deborah].
P.S. I wish we were both 18 again, darlin
honeybee Said:
Dead Palis shoot no rockets, kill no Jews.
It’s not as if we don’t have the power and the ability.
yamit82 Said:
Self-delusion ??????????
LESSONS JEWS NEVER LEARNED FROM THEIR OWN HISTORY
What Happened to the Jews of Arabia?
A story that should make every Jew shudder.
by Sara Yoheved Rigle
NormanF Said:
If the powers that be transported Israel [et al] to the moon, there would still be no peace. The Pals would still be shooting rockets.
The only way Israel can end the conflict is by ceasing to exist. Peace is not the aim and never was. While Edom and Ishmael hate each other, they’re both unified in their hate of the Jews. Since Israel’s birth in 1948, they have been consistent in their opposition to a strong and independent Jewish State and this remains in place for the foreseeable future. Its not about personalities like Obama and Kerry, its the policy, stupid.
I don’t expect world hostility towards the Jews and Israel to ever disappear. That’s an immutable law of human affairs and will be with us as long as the world exists.
George Orwell, 1984 (1949) chapter 7: his entire parallel sums up the ‘narrative’ of the West vs Israel: “The past was erased; the earsure was forgotten; the lie became truth.”
A form of “Newspeak” has been the essential inner dialog of the West since inception.
Yes, what matters here is what they believe. That we are occupiers of their land and that we stole it from them.
That leaves us with only 2 viable rational options.
A- To manage the conflict and wait them out even if it takes another hundred or even five hundred years.
Or
B- To drive them out by force, coercion, bribery or any combination of those options even all of them.
What makes it impossible not stated in the article by: David Suissa, is Arab Tribal culture and Islam. Islam cannot tolerate the Jews returning in a non Muslim Dihimmini context because it is for any believing Muslim an anathema, a theological contradiction and threat to Islamic theological basis of supremacy. We are screwing up their theology just as we are to most believing christians.
That makes our conflict with Islam and our millennial conflict with christendom a conflict of religious beliefs for if we are right they by definition are wrong.
Israel has few problems with the half of the worlds populations not tainted and influenced by with Islam and christianity, so the problem must lay with those religions who sprang from Judaism and each in turn claims to have replaced and superseded Judaism and the claims of the Jewish people to Truth and to the Land of Israel.
That’s why the Catholic Church prefers Muslim rule of Palestine and even the holy sites to the church and christianity, to having the Jews control and administer them.
Freedom of worship and liberal accommodation of those religions In a sovereign JEWISH state cuts little appreciation of those replacement faiths of Judaism. They would prefer any other sovereign of the Land of Israel and their religious sites other than the Jews.
THREE WARNINGS FROM THE GOD OF ISRAEL TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE REGARDING GENTILE CLAIMANTS TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL:
Over 2000 years of pogroms, inquisitions and Holocaust make it clear, Judaism says it unequivocally: “It is an eternal law, Esau (the non-Jew) hates Jacob (the Jew).” This is the eternal law – it is immutable. America is no different, nor Australia, nor Russia, nor Latin America, nor Europe, nor South Africa.
Johnathan Spyer wrote an article which clearly express the reality of the conflict.
Suissa “Yet, however depressing this analysis is, it doesn’t mean we should give up hope. The status quo is getting more and more untenable, and I have sympathy for those who keep searching for solutions.”
No, David.” Hope” is a delusion which could prove fatal for Israel’s survival. Compromise is not in the vocabulary of the Palestinians. They view any and every Israeli concession as another victory gained on their path to one nation, Islamic from the river to the sea.? ? The Palestinians will keep demanding more & more –85% of West Bank Palestinians reject a 2 state solution & an overwhelming majority view a 2 state solution as a step toward redeeming sacred Moslem lands ( = 100 % of the current state of Israel).
In Gaza even contemplating cooperation with Israel is punished with death . In the West Bank contemplating selling land to a Jew draws assassination which goes unpunished by the PA.
REMEMBER,THE GOAL OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS A JEW-FREE WEST BANK AND EAST JERUSALEM??The As long as the Palestinians demand all areas they control be Jew-free. ; maintain that if they get a State, the residents of the camps on the WB, Jordan, Syria, etc. would not be citizens of this new state but would have the right of unlimited return to the state of Israel; and that all of Israel is unredeemed Islamic territory… THERE WILL NEVER BE PEACE
DAVID SUISSA IT IS SIMPLE:The key is the HATRED FOR JEWS that existed well before Israel existed. It is a hatred for Jews, ……ALL JEWS….. anywhere in the world.
Suissa is spot on. Why should we heed their forged narrative when we have history, archeology and law on our side?
Melanie Phillips raised this issue last February, and came up with the right answer.