A coalition between Zionists and Arabs is a triumph for humanity
I’m not from Israel; I’m neither Jew nor Arab. I have no connection to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, not even a metaphysical one, because I don’t believe in any God. I’m just looking at the course of events there as a human being, who, by the way, was born and raised in the Middle East, in the Islamic Republic of Iran. But the fate of that land is of interest to me, as is what it reveals about us humans.
Long-lasting conflicts are nothing new for our species. We humans have always fought each other, killed each other, exploited each other. But in the past eight decades, we had a hope: to keep the peace more often, by maintaining mutual interests, or by simply hating each other less. In some places of the world it worked, in others still some war flames raise, but they usually set down after a while, or after a couple of years. So, the conflicts that Israel tangled in since 1948 are forming an anomaly, a long-lasting conflict for 77 years that should not exist in our era.
It’s not about the morals of the age. In fact, attributing the peace-seeking attempts to the morals of the age theory is not convincing, because saying that implies a significant change in basic human sense of morality occurred recently. But most human beings have always felt bad while seeing the pain of others, and feel guilty if we are complicit in causing that pain; it’s an instinct to us. We have always known that tormenting others is wrong, but some obstacles have prevented us from acting according to this moral principle. Economic incentives may be one such obstacle, but I reckon the most important reason we neglected our moral instincts is the sense of empathy. After all, we are tribal animals; we show affection to those who resemble us in any way, share something with us, and care for them, to the extent that we often kill outsiders in order to benefit them. This phenomenon has always been the greatest source of violence among human beings. We kill others who do not belong to our nation, race, or religion in order to bring triumph to our group. Our love for people similar to us pushes us to kill those who are less similar. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, with one coming with the other. When we love X, we inevitably hate anything and anyone who dislikes X. It seems ironic, but genocides are the extreme acts of love, and racism is a strong form of empathy.
To me, the modern humanity means to decrease the empathy for your own people, but increase the empathy for strangers. It’s unnatural, and that’s exactly why it keeps us away from our savage side. I grew up somewhere that its leaders tried to build an empire based on religion, based on Shia-Islam to be precise. They established several armed groups among the followers of that sect, and caused big calamities for the people of the region. Their religion-based empathy was a source of trouble for everyone, and that’s one of the reasons I hate those Ayatollahs.
In everyday conversation, Iranians refer to the clerical class, the Ayatollahs, as “the Akhonds”. Experience taught me the hard way that being an Akhond is essentially a way of life rather than being a member of a religious-political class. Not all Akhonds are Muslim and not all of them are official clergymen. They can be found in all kinds of societies, dressed in all kinds of ways. To me, anyone who sees themselves as so mighty that they start to see others as inferior beings who must kneel before them is an Akhond. Those who enjoy igniting conflicts in the name of the sacred mission they believe they are on, are Akhonds. Only someone who doesn’t enjoy killing can bring peace, and for this reason Akhonds cannot be peacekeepers. It may be too controversial, but the way I see it, folks like Ben Gevir and Smotrich are definitely Akhonds.
Thus, I think a coalition between Zionists and Arabs is a triumph for humanity. It demonstrates that old grudges can be set aside even in the middle east, and people of that land are getting ready to adjust their patterns of empathy. It shows that politics in Israel can depart from blind ideologies once again. It reveals that Israel is not stepping foot in the path of Ayatollahs, and when we pull down the Akhonds from sovereignty in Iran, we don’t need to worry about the non-Shia Akhonds in other parts of the region. It would be a sign of hope for humanity, a sign that a long-lasting conflict, which shall not exist, maybe has a chance to be solved.
