Postulate one: you learn in life that
generally you can only control what you yourself do. Others will
generally do what is in their own interest, except your parents, if
you are lucky, and except your spouse, if you are lucky, and
sometimes other members of your family, or sometimes someone else,
but you can't count on it. It's a blessing when someone understands
you and helps you, something to be relished.
Postulate two: it doesn't help much to
blame others and to hold a grudge. I'm talking about utility, not
justice, and not even truth. If things go bad, you do best to look
at your own actions and make them better next time. You can
acknowledge what somebody else did wrong, and how somebody else is a
jerk, but aside from choosing who you associate with next time,
blaming somebody else doesn't have that much utility, except maybe
legally.
Postulate three: it's a good thing
generally to do “the right thing” without expecting either
appreciation or reciprocity. Don't go crazy about it, but just do
the right thing, even if the other one is a jerk (most people are not
jerks all the time, although I've heard that some are, mostly
concentrated in the financial industry.) You may get appreciation,
you may get reciprocity, or you might get resentment. Still, I think
it does you the most good to do the right thing. Just don't go
overboard.
Do these postulates apply in political
affairs? Especially, do they apply in international affairs, where I
believe there really is a clash of civilizations? Clearly, turning
the other cheek to Mr. Putin is not the right thing to do. Bullies
must be stood up to, not collapsed to.
But let's not talk about Russia, let's
talk about Israel. The Israelis are much afflicted in their
neighborhood, where school children in neighboring Muslim countries
are taught to hate Israelis and Jews. Being sweet to Hamas or
Hezbollah isn't likely to help much. Even being nice to the
Palestinian Authority brings a mixed bag; the PA has to answer to its
people, and there enough hard-liners to make it very difficult to
make progress.
But thinking a little more short term
actions and long term results, 20% of Israel's population is
non-Jewish, mostly Muslim, but also Christians and the Druze. This
population is generally discriminated against in many ways. But in
fact, they offer a major opportunity for Israel to do the right
thing.
So, here's the proposal: If Israel took
this population as a gift, as an opportunity to do the right thing,
it is possible that they could really make some headway. What if
they preferentially delivered excellent educational opportunities to
them? What if they practiced affirmative action for employment?
What if they went out of their way to make this population
successful?
OK, it would be hard to do. But
imagine what might happen. First of all, would they be appreciative
or resentful in the short run? Or suspicious? Probably appreciative
and suspicious, but who knows – I've never even been to Israel.
But I can't imagine that this population wouldn't take advantage of a
smoother road to become educated.
Then what might happen? They might
become a very economically successful part of Israel. They might
develop their own institutions, but they would probably just
integrate. I can't imagine the Jewish businesses not incorporating
such talent. In time, these non-Jews might become some of the most
appreciative and patriotic citizens of Israel of all.
Then, what happens in the rest of the
Arab world? Well, they might declare jihad against these turncoats,
some of them. But mostly there would be envy and maybe admiration,
and maybe even competition. If there were resentment and denial, it
would be rebutted by families and relatives who would know the truth.
The truth would out. The eighth
century Caliphate ideal would be replaced by the twenty-first century
modern ideal. The misled Middle Eastern Muslim masses would be slow
to come around, but thought leaders with some sophistication would
privately and then publicly point to Israel as a beacon for Arab
advancement elsewhere. There would actually be a way out of the
tunnel.
Call me a fabulist. Call me naïve.
Call me uninstructed. But, as they say in the movie review part of
Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle, “It could happen.”
Or maybe nothing would happen. The
Israeli right wing would waylay it; the Arab world would become even
more antagonized by the attempted seduction; the most respected law
of social affairs would rear its head, the Law of Unintended
Consequences. But so what. At least the good people of Israel would
have done the right thing, and that is reward enough on this earth.
Budd Shenkin