Catalyst

I’m not sure where the current Israeli-Palestinian peace process is going right now but I have the distinct impression that all is not well. But, given the thorny complexity of every one of the issues inherent in so convoluted a subject, there can be little surprise at the slow, almost glacial pace of these negotiations, expectations of which have never been very high in the first place.

And yet without some real hope of eventual resolution, what future is there for the many millions locked into this 66 year-old spiral of sporadic violence, diminished futures and constant fear?

Looking as I do at the situation so far removed from its centre, there is only a broad outline to be seen; no direct experience of the battleground – or indeed of the battle itself – has been mine to evaluate. But this very distant viewpoint does allow for an objective and far less partisan approach to be considered, one in which results rather than reasons are given maximum priority.

As I see it, there is what might be thought of as a chemical imbalance in the mindsets on each side here, causing spontaneous and continuing responses to events that happen and the positions taken by everyone involved. These long established and compulsive tendencies ignite and add fuel to so much of the conflict, thereby creating and magnifying the many consequences stemming from it.

What, therefore, would it take to effectively combat this type of instinctive behaviour, so reducing its erratic and adversarial nature that a new direction can then be successfully plotted out and well away from the present impasse?

Like many chemical reactions, there are those that can only undergo proper transition through the agency of a catalyst, a reagent that assists, even enables a process that would otherwise remain unfinished and without its desired or intended outcome.

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This would be such a catalyst, an additive of such dominant power that no counter-agent could ever prevail against it.  And yet all it basically consists of is that very first piece of mathematics everyone meets on their journey through life, together with the time-honoured law of averages,  Thus it can easily and universally be understood, accepted and put into practice without too much difficulty or lengthy delay.

So, what are we all waiting for? An engraved invitation to save the lives of our fellow men and women?

And maybe those of ourselves as well. And in more ways than one.