An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is what really matters right now for the two sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Palestinians, arriving at the point of there is nothing to loose, are breeding more and more of death seekers. Israelis, with the fear of what to be lost, are motivated to use more violence and force trying to avoid it. Everyone is turned into a monster and all are bloodthirsty.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is what really matters right now for the two sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Palestinians, arriving at the point of there is nothing to loose, are breeding more and more of death seekers. Israelis, with the fear of what to be lost, are motivated to use more violence and force trying to avoid it. Everyone is turned into a monster and all are bloodthirsty.
The fact that mighty Israel is fighting against powerless Palestinians makes no difference. When the only required end is complete surrender and when life matches death no one is mighty and no one is weak. What really happens with each escalation of violence is only an additional insensitivity to human sufferings and losses. It becomes easier to accept killings, brutality, and massive suffering as an inevitable destiny. Ask Israelis what do you want now? The vast majority will demand more brutality, more attacks, and more of collective punishments. Ask Palestinians what they want? The vast majority will demand more attacks on Israel and Israelis. In such times when no one can see what he wants for himself, almost all will be prisoners to the idea of what they want to do to the other.
Nothing matches what is happening here. It is a war but at the same time not a war. It is resistance against a foreign occupier but at the same time not exactly a resistance. It is a civil war but not exactly. It is a tribal fight but not exactly. It is a religious war but again not exactly.
What is exactly going on? What is it that fuels this level of brutality? Is it fear? Aggression? Ideology? Hatred? Injustice? Despair? I think it is none of those. What is going on is, like in any other war, the desire to win. The idea of if I did a little more to harm the enemy I will win is the major obsessions of both. Israel can not understand why with all the mighty it has she can not win the war and Palestinians are obsessed with the idea of as weak as they are they can not be defeated. Such obsessions are becoming the tradition, the common habits, and to a certain extent the common ideology. It is cynical that this applies to a conflict that no one can win.
No matter what both sides do in trying to win the conflict it will only be self-destruction. The only way out of it is for both to stop the attempts to win and accept the fact that the enemy cannot be defeated. Only then it will be possible for both to think about what it is that they lost with this bloody conflict. Only then sadness and sorrow can replace hatred and anger. Only then people will realize that there is still life to be lived in the holy land.
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The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People
64 Star Street, P.O.Box 24
Beit Sahour – Palestine
www.rapprochement.org
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The center is a non-profit making NGO, started in 1988 during the first Intifada.
PCR runs community service programs, youth empowerment and training programs.
PCR is also very much involved in the non-violent resistance against the Israeli Occupation to Palestine.
