War, Peace, and Splinter Groups

The Middle East is full of problems, as any moderately-informed human is aware. There are conflicts going on all over the place: Israel vs. Palestine, the Lebanese factions, the Iraqi factions, Turkey vs. the Kurds, the Sunnis vs. the Shiites, political/religious struggles within Iran, Iran’s nuclear program, Afghanistan's civil war, the hunt for Al-Qaeda leaders, Pakistan’s problems, etc. And many of us reasonable, peace-oriented souls ask why the discordant parties can’t just sit down together and work out reasonable, peaceful solutions to their disputes. Well, this is close to impossible, as I will explain.

In conflicts that have polarized the opposing sides to the point where they have been at war with each other, are currently fighting in wars with each other, or are considering going to war with other, there is a strong sense of patriotic duty for those involved to be stalwart and loyally support the aims of whichever side they are on. In these highly inflammable circumstances, the simple act of talking with one’s enemy, much less working out compromise peace treaties with them, is seen at best as a sign of weakness and at worst as a sign of betrayal. Look at the cases of Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel. In each case, they stepped away from war and embraced peace with their opponents. And paid for it with their lives, being assassinated by parties within their own countries who accused them of betraying their people.

In like manner, it does little good to sit down with groups claiming to represent an opponent, work out an agreement with them, and then see more radical groups splinter off from them and continue the violence. I keep hearing of our efforts to help Israel negotiate a peace with the Palestinian Authority, which only controls the West Bank; its rival Hamas runs the Gaza Strip. But whatever treaty results from any successful negotiations will not only be completely rejected by Hamas as being a betrayal by the Palestinians responsible for it: there will most likely be elements within that same Palestinian Authority that will break off and continue the fighting. Even if Hamas itself were to sit at the negotiation table and accept a deal, that organization’s leaders would be risking being deposed and possibly assassinated. And the organization would just spin off more radical splinter groups.

I can understand why any leader in that part of the world would be very cautious about proactively trying to promote peace with their enemies, with the risk of assassination by disaffected members of their own side so strong. It will take some momentous acts of heroism on the part of some Middle East leaders, as well as a lot of good fortune in dodging bullets and bombs (launched from their own ranks) to be able to finally create the kind of peace that the people in this area thirst for. Hopefully, our new president (we really are putting an awful lot of pressure and expectation on him) will be able to serve as a benevolent, trustworthy arbitrator in the promotion of peace there.

Blessed are the peacemakers!
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You may have noticed over the past recent weeks that I haven't been publishing any blog entries on Saturdays. Actually, this is a new development: I think it would be a good idea to take one day off from the blog. But I'm still open for comments (and sometimes writing replies to them) on Saturdays. And if you are writing your own blog, I may be visiting it (and possibly submitting a comment on it) on that day as well.