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Middle East solution: patience
By Cory Casicato
casciato@mscd.edu

Hope.

The belief in it gives us reason to persevere through the darkest times. The death of it is the triumph of despair and the beginning of the end.

It can be hard to sustain hope in the face of seemingly intractable problems, such as those of the Middle East. The region’s history of violent conflict, failed peace initiatives and bitter divisions over the most elemental issues doesn’t encourage optimism.

In the aftermath of the latest conflict, between Israel and Hezbollah, Metro hosted a seminar called “The Death of Hope and Compromise: Does Peace have a Chance in the Middle East?” The title implied despair, but the seminar gave some reasons to have hope.

Dozens of people attended one or both of the sessions, which ran from 8:30 a.m. to almost noon, filling the Tivoli Multicultural Lounge.

That so many showed up to share their thoughts and points of view was encouraging and inspiring. Some spoke in cool, analytical terms, others in outbursts of passionate conviction. They spoke of personal experience and global politics, of human nature and the nature of belief, of history’s precedent and impact – from ancient times to yesterday’s news.

Their diverse perspectives illustrated the complexity of the issues facing the region and of its importance and impact on the world at large.

Can peace be forged in the Middle East? Several speakers recalled that just generations ago, peace and harmony between France and Germany seemed equally unthinkable. Today, they enjoy economic and political ties that make armed conflict between them almost as unlikely as armed conflict between Colorado and Utah. Others recalled that long before Germany and France overcame their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in peace in the same lands they now fight over.

There were few real solutions offered. The best practical advice came from Metro political science professor Jim Cole, in the form of his favorite quote from Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo: “Wait – and hope.”

There’s little else we can do here, half a world away from the devastation of Lebanon, the misery of Gaza and the West Bank, and the terror Israel lives under. We wait, we hope and we learn.

For me, the most profound statement of the day came when the seminar was over, and not from a professor or expert, but from a father of four children, a student studying finance and accounting. David Miera spoke of his experiences in the army years ago, as he trained to use a bayonet. He recalled stabbing the dummy, and said he thought of his own young son at home and realized that in a war, the dummy would be someone else’s son. He told an acquaintance, as I listened, that the experience made him a pacifist. The realization, for him, was simple.

“If there’s a war, it’s because I pulled the trigger,” he said.

When enough people on all sides of the Middle East conflict share this realization, they will have peace.
Wait – and hope.