Musings on Peace and the pursuit of happiness

Years ago, what now seems centuries ago, I had the honor of working for ace diplomat and the Chief Negotiator of the Oslo accords Ambassador Uri Savir. Diplomacy then was an art of conversation, negotiation, finding common ground and most importantly doing the right thing. Or the closest you could to do the right thing by your country.

Leaders in most democracies today communicate by social media in a macabre show of virtual power while diplomats and ministers of foreign affairs try to keep up. The world is in flames and while the first Trump administration was a continuous musical chairs while the world largely watched US drama, the second Trump administration seems to be an externalisation of musical chairs with allies.

The US President is frustrated, or so he would portray. He is frustrated with his closest allies Israel and India. More frustrated with NATO, who are kind of relieved that he has found others to be frustrated at. Seems more frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has taken time out at being frustrated with Chinese Supreme Leader Xi Jinping. 

Except for the Dalai Lama and the Pope, POTUS is just plain upset with everyone. Uri had once told me that Shimon Peres, on reading something I had written, had called me an optimist. Uri was being sarcastic, I took it as a compliment.

So I will continue to be an optimist and look at POTUS’s chess board. As predicted, India is reacting to Trump’s tariffs and has sent its National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to Moscow. Can India afford punitive tariffs, industrial India probably can, the speculative Indian stock market probably can’t.

Will Europe follow suit with sanctions against India? Probably not. However in spirit of appeasing Trump it very well may. So how does the world deal with the US President for the remainder of his term? Disrupt and go back to traditional diplomacy.

The advantage of dictatorships such as China and Russia is their selective use of social media as a tool of communication, propaganda and “passing a special message”. India and Europe should go back to do the same. Deactivate the choruses that follow leaders, clean X, use it only for spokespersons accounts.

Conflict must stop. The US President has some reason to be frustrated. He believes he is the “man of the deal”. No one told Putin or Hamas this and they don’t care. He finds himself also without Jared Kushner and Trump whisperer Ivanka. And there is still war. And new ones are starting. He also will understand that at a certain point, after friends who are advising him on this extremely messy tariff business have made billions from their shorts, markets are going to start ignoring him.

Peace is only going to happen if he can find enough Likud MP’s to vote Bibi Netanyahu out and get a national unity government in Israel which gets back all the hostages first and stops wrecking what is left of Gaza. Peace is only going to happen when Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE create a plan to disarm Hamas and form a sustainable government for the Palestinian people that is made of intellectuals, business people and leaders not terrorists. It will also mean Marwan Barghouti has to be released to rally what is left of Fatah and its little self respect.

Peace is only going to happen with a new government in Moscow or Kyiv or both. Peace will only happen by clipping Erdogan’s wings and ambitions.Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Congo, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Nigeria, Mali all need corrective peace measures and leadership. The UN is at its lowest, needs immediate reform or disbandment. The amount of money wasted for background noise is criminal.

For all of the above deals to happen, Trump has to empower real leaders in Europe, Africa, Asia who are not afraid to take hard decisions.

The world needs its diplomats again. Public diplomacy has failed. It needs those men and women who can speak for hours and say nothing, send you to hell and make you look forward to the way. Only by people to people interaction can peace be born.

I wish India sends its Foreign Minister to Washington DC, to put across its point of view to the Trump administration in person, much like it has sent its NSA to Moscow. I wish Bibi would take three steps back, without waiting for Yom Kippur. I wish Putin decides its time to be magnanimous and invite Zelensky for a discussion to finish this terrible senseless unending war. A face to face, with no mediators.

We need our diplomats and spies. We need our men and women, to quote my Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who check our parachutes. Above all we need Pax Americana for a little while longer, so that we can dream a little more about the equality of all men (and women) and pursue happiness at least in the freedom of our dreams.

Somewhere in the universe Uri is calling me an optimist again, I’m still smiling.