My enemy’s enemy’s enemy

The enemy is the enemy and that does not change, not without a radical shift in something else.

Even defeat does not make him any less the enemy. It just means that, as a rule, he is now not as numerous nor as powerful as once he was.

In time, enemies can become friends. This might even occur virtually overnight. But so sudden a transformation only takes place with the arrival of some fresh development, an event that acts as a catalyst for a new change in tomorrow’s direction.

This happens, almost always, when these same enemies discover that a third has arisen, one that was not there at the start of hostilities and whose presence now is perceived as a very real threat to each of them.

So, can such a fortuitous enemy ever be sourced where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is concerned? No obvious candidate appears ready to fill the vacancy; nor is one likely to be revealed any time soon.

Thus, there is nothing to unite them in common cause, no clamorous, natural calamity that will fuse them into a single entity. To accentuate their division, much of the world has already lined up behind one or other of the protagonists here and those not doing so will profess to have little interest in the contest.

Thus, no common enemy is to be found – anywhere.

But what if such an archfiend were suddenly to make an entrance? Who would it be? What would it look like?

What if a specific enemy could be created, be brought into being for the sole purpose of unifying these two very disparate groups? And, in having to unite in opposing this nemesis, they eventually discover enough about themselves to put aside their many differences and work towards a salvation that suits them both – and also rebuffs this new-found foe.

And this foe? What of he?

He is not a newcomer; he is old, primitive and formidable. He’s been around for as long as man has walked this earth. He is that part of ourselves in which we seek to prolong our lives, advance our kind and preserve our posterity. He is our own human nature and the drive that compels us to do whatever will promote the furtherance of all or any of these ambitions. And he is always available.

And, if control over this, the very last and ultimate of our adversaries, is ever to be achieved, then it can only be done by all of us acting in unison. If we can stand together in this, then who or what is there left that we must fear?

Sometimes, solutions that carry the stamp of Occam’s razor are the best ones to implement. The least complexity, the least number of loose ends, the maximum of exposure, these factors provide the best certainty that is to be had.

Certainty banishes fear. And absolute certainty can banish it forever.

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