For What It’s Worth: Trouble in the Holy Land … again

By Medicine Hat News Opinion on May 20, 2021.

Tensions have once again boiled over in the nearly century-long conflict between Israel and Palestine. Thousands of rockets have been launched by both sides: resulting in the obliteration of neighbourhoods and hundreds of innocent lives being lost.

The events have spurred mass protests around the world, including in Canada. Like most protests nowadays, they are clear displays of bitter tribalism, with pro-Palestine demonstrations putting all the blame on Israel and vice versa.

These demonstrations and much of the commentary surrounding this conflict are based on justifying the actions of whichever side they support and labelling the other side as evil.

This line of thinking really misses the point if people actually want the bloodshed to end.

The reality is that peace isn’t achieved by the demonization of the opposing side. Rather, it adds fuel to the fire by increasing divisions and hate and thereby increasing the appetite for war.

Both the leaders of Israel and Palestine have recognized this and used it to justify their violent actions. Instead of acting as modern leaders should, by committing to diplomacy, both Hamas and Likud have adopted a Machiavellian strategy of ultra-nationalist rhetoric, religious fanaticism and fear mongering to drum up political support among the population.

It’s no secret that war is an incredibly powerful political tool. The use of war for political gain has been a staple in the playbook of history’s greatest despotic governments. From a political standpoint, it’s a brilliant strategy because it allows governments to seamlessly deflect blame for society’s problems from themselves onto the entity they are at war with. The governments of Israel and Palestine evidently know their history and have used it to their advantage.

There is no good versus evil in the Palestine/Israel conflict. Rather, it is a war that has been manufactured by two morally corrupt governments that are willing to mislead and sacrifice their population.

One could engage in the eternal debate of which of these two are the lesser of two evils, but it’s a futile exercise and beside the point. Unfortunately, politicians here in Canada have fallen into the trap of debating which side is more at fault for the bloodshed, with the Conservatives clearly backing Israel and the NDP throwing their support behind Palestine. Surprisingly, our Prime Minister displayed a rare degree of nuance regarding the matter. In the House of Commons last week, Trudeau was critical of the actions of both Israel and Palestine while calling for a ceasefire and a commitment to diplomacy.

If peace is ever to be achieved in the Holy Land, the focus must shift away from debate over which side is worse than the other. Instead, there must be a willingness from both Israel and Palestine to seek compromises so they can coexist peacefully.

Cash Moore is a political science student at the University of Alberta from Medicine Hat.

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