Here's the money quote from "The Rise of Settler Terrorism," an excellent Foreign Affairs piece written by Dan Bynum and Natan Sachs: "Almost everything related to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute involves complex tradeoffs and sorting through opposing and often equally legitimate claims." No real peacemaking can ever take place without dealing honestly with mutually irreconcilable narratives. But when we are willing to listen to more than one view of the conflict and treat both with respect, room is created to build a new future on the ruins of a broken past. The equally important lesson I draw is the way in which this piece undermines the assumption that the status quo in this long-unresolved conflict can hold. As a wise American diplomat once said, there is no neutral gear in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You're either moving forward and making progress or you are going in reverse. Lack of progress toward peace strengthens radicals on both sides. And of course there are those who believe violence is a legitimate means to achieve their goals, but violence begets violence and will bring neither lasting peace or security to either the perpetrators or the victims. Leaders on both sides must not only be quick to condemn the use of violence, but they bear equal responsibility to be about the urgent business of pursuing peace. The status quo does not hold, and only by providing a vision for a better future, one that finds a way to accommodate the legitimate rights of two people with deep connections to the land, can those on both sides who desire to live in peace be strengthened and those who would use violence be pushed further to the margins of their respective societies.
