From the article leader:
Late last year, the award-winning novelist Linda Grant moved to Tel Aviv for four months. How could people bear to live there, she wanted to know, amid daily reports of violence, corruption and despair? What she discovered was a society in a state of profound denial – and the horrifying possibility that there may be no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Linda Grant’s novelist eye allowed her to comprehend in a very short period what is really going on in Israel. Everything I hear from family and friends in Israel reinforces this article. Israelis are living in a bubble. But I am less of a pessimist than Grant.
Claiming the impossibility of a “one-state solution” and the danger for Jews living as a minority in an Islamic state, is a red herring. It allows parties on both sides of the conflict to avoid grappling with a meaningful solution. It allows boths sides to wallow in their victim-hood and feel morally superior.
People confuse nation and state, and insist on a political model of a strong, central government, instead of a loose co-operative. An alternative, realistic model is of Israel and Palestine starting in a loose confederation which handles joint regional development issues, while maintaining separate national identities. Over time, the confederation will strengthen, without having to give up national identity or security.
Can this model work? It did in a far more bitter, long-term and deadly conflict – Europe pre-1945. Let us not forget the tens of millions who died in Europe over similar issues of rag and rock. Then look at Europe today. While problems persist, for the most part Europe has unrivalled stability and prosperity.
I often repeat the lesson I took away from a famous episode of John Cleese’s insane comedy “Fawlty Towers.” From the episode guide:
“Some Germans are staying at Fawlty Towers [the hotel run by Basil Fawlty, played by John Clees] so ‘don’t mention the war.’ Basil mentioned it once but he thinks he got away with it. Only trouble is, after receiving a knock to the head rendering him even less sensitive than before, he can’t stop mentioning it.”
“Mention Fawlty Towers to anyone and the chances are they will think of The Germans episode. Basil goose-stepping around the dining room and constantly reminding The Germans staying at Fawlty Towers of the war is probably the most memorable of many great comedy moments in Fawlty Towers. …The line by Basil: ‘Don’t mention the war!’ has become one of those phrases from great British comedies that has become common usage.”
This description does not do justice to the brilliant black and bitter humor of Cleese playing out this scene. Cleese is making an insightful and important point, not just making us laugh. Despite over 50 years of economic co-operation, and alliance, the bitter memories of the death of tens of millions of people can’t be erased so quickly. National feelings never really go away.
Yet on the other hand, these national feelings, which once led to bitter, bloody, apocalyptic wars of endless death and destruction, can now be laughed at. Germans go to British hotels for vacation and vice versa. The European Union model, with all its flaws, works. And the conflict it resolved was far worse, far more deadly, far more hateful, than the war between the Israeli Jews and Palestinians.
Perhaps we need to change our nomenclature. Instead of calling for a one-state solution, we should call for a confederacy (of dunces?).
In any case, the real conflict is between radical religious groups on both sides (who have much in common) and secular, progressives on both sides, (who have much in common), not between Jews and Palestinians. I am a big believer in the ultimate victory of progressive ideas. The human spirit strives towards freedom, and that striving can never be permanently repressed. This conflict too, will find its solution. Meanwhile, whatever you do, “don’t mention the war.”
Tags: One State Two, Solutions