Swords to Ploughshares

On Friday this last week I attended an extraordinary event at the Abraham Hostel venue in Tel Aviv. It was the book launch of a work titled in Hebrew “Vakitatu”. The word “וכיתתו”  in Hebrew immediately jolts the minds of Israeli born Hebrew speakers and all students of the first testament to the famous bible quotation in Isaahia 2: 

“And they shall beat (וכיתתו) their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

The authors of the book, Dr. Alon Liel and the late Yehuda Litani embarked on a mission of discovery several years ago of successful peace processes: South Africa, Ireland and Cypress. The book is the result and the insights achieved by this journey of discovery. This is a serious documentation of peace negotiations in completely different social and national environments with all the complexities and complications that ultimately provided results. Alon Liel was an ambassador to South Africa who knew and met Nelson Mandela, heads of  – and of course –  the leaders of the apartheid government at the time. He was later to become the director of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yehuda Litani was a renowned journalist and a specialist in the history and culture of Ireland. 

The underlying message here is that peace is possible, even in the most seemingly impossible situation. I arrived in Israel in 1977 as an Oleh. In my view, we would never see a free South Africa. Apartheid was so deeply woven into every aspect of life, so deeply part of the culture, that even the oppressed people of color were unable to imagine equal rights and equal opportunies. This is to say nothing of the ruling class of whites who accepted and enjoyed the freedoms and privileges of white rule, even if there was hesitation and an unclear conscience that something was radically wrong within society at large. 

The book traces and leads the readers to an in-depth analysis of three societies in conflict which were intractable with deep hatred, suspicion and a violent expression of subjugation of the opposing side. These were conflicts that emerged and became ensconced over generations. Violence both outwardly and inwardly expressed, were manifested in hateful violence, suspicion and discrimination deeply woven into these societies. Am I sensing some familiarity with our current situation here in Israel? Of course I am, yet the unattainable – yes the completely unattainable can, and has been achieved. The proof is in the reading and in the knowledge for those who wish to probe further. 

My insight that this work has provided is that peace is not generally expressed – certainly not at the outset – by a warm fuzzy new relationship with the opposing side. No, we need to be real here and understand that we are talking about processes that take time, education of all citizens from all sectors of society, adults and children, and the growth of a new mindset, a zeitgeist that permeates the society that has embarked on change. And when I see images today of children of color – in the Jewish day-school of my youth together with white children, singing Hebrew and English songs with all the boys wearing kippas, I am drawn to tears with both the pain of the past and the wonder of the new era. 

We also need to temper aims and expectations with respect to these massive changes that have successfully taken place and will, hopefully in the future, mature and form in other areas of conflict. The case of Cyprus provides an interesting insight to conflict resolution. The mainly Christian southern citizens, namely Greek Cyprians do not love Muslim – Turkish northern Cyprus. Likewise there is no love from the northern side for Christian southern Cyprus. However, daily, citizens of Southern Cyprus stream northwards for vacation, work and business and in parallel citizens of Northern Cyprus stream southwards for similar needs and reasons. The bottom line here is that the killing and violence is over and at this stage at least, remains behind in history, while here in Israel – Palestine, we remain in deep conflict daily, both in the South and in Judea and Samaria known internationally as the West Bank. With respect to Gaza and the shocking, ongoing war initiated by Hamas, we have yet to see any change there. But the unexpected can and sometimes curious events do happen. For the cynics in the comment gallery who will lecture us on Islamic fundamentalism and Iran here is an interesting event that warrants a view: t.ly/efHUA

Peace is not around the corner. It is a complex and ongoing process yet there are results and there are solutions. They often take time both within the populations of countries and for the ruling governments to internalize to act upon.