Tragedy
Do the Middle East negotiators have the skills to succeed?
As talks begin in Washington between Israeli and Palestinian representatives – talks which both sides have described as negotiations – it is worthwhile considering their chances of success over the next nine months which is the time frame they have given themselves. Past experience gives us little hope. The Oslo Accords and the Camp David Summit were both trumpeted as great opportunities, and both ultimately failed. There has been little talk between the parties since, at least in public. Is this because the Middle East problem is inherently insoluble, or because the capabilities of the parties are inadequate?
Hegel defined ‘tragedy’ as the collision of mutually exclusive but equally legitimate causes. I cannot think of a better description of this conflict. From a Palestinian perspective, the land they call Palestine is theirs because it belonged to their forebears. From an Israeli perspective the land they call Israel is theirs, voted to them by the United Nations in 1947. Unfortunately, both are referring to the same land. Dissemblers on both sides can find a thousand reasons why their claim is more just, or the other side’s claim is fundamentally flawed. They waste their time. Their arguments are self- neutralizing and don’t move the search for a solution forward, because the causes on both sides are genuinely mutually exclusive but equally legitimate. As Hegel says, a tragedy.
So the only two possible outcomes of these upcoming talks are either failure or compromise. Compromise means a two state solution, in which both sides get only part of the territory they see as rightfully theirs, and have to accept that they cede part of it to the other side. This can only happen if both sides are prepared to accept a deal which falls short of their ideal position. Bounda