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When The Hell That Is War Loses Its Power
“Between Sovereign states there can be no last resort except war; if war no longer serves that purpose, that fact alone proves that we must have a new concept of the state.”
—Hannah Arendt, in an interview with Adelbert Reif, 1970.
The prejudice that there must be a solution to the mess in the Middle East assumes that one even knows what the problem is that is to be solved. One side says the problem is terror. The other says the problem is occupation. The humanitarians say the problem is the killing of children. The internationalists say the problem is war crimes (either disproportionality on one side or using civilians as shields on the other). Somehow, “we”—whoever we are—must solve the problem.
Maybe the problem is that there is no realistic and meaningful and humane vision of a solution to what now must be seen for what it is: a tragedy without end. The long-dangled promise of a two-state solution is in shambles. The hope for a non-denominational multi-ethnic single state—a dream that Martin Buber, Judah Magnes, and Hannah Arendt thought possible in the 1940s—has been shattered by war, occupation, and mutual dehumanization; it is held together today only by the utopian ecstasies of well-meaning yet deluded idealists. In Israel, the occupied territories, and Palestine, the roadmap to peace has been shredded. What is left looks more and more like hell.
More:
www.the-american-interest.com
“Between Sovereign states there can be no last resort except war; if war no longer serves that purpose, that fact alone proves that we must have a new concept of the state.”
—Hannah Arendt, in an interview with Adelbert Reif, 1970.
The prejudice that there must be a solution to the mess in the Middle East assumes that one even knows what the problem is that is to be solved. One side says the problem is terror. The other says the problem is occupation. The humanitarians say the problem is the killing of children. The internationalists say the problem is war crimes (either disproportionality on one side or using civilians as shields on the other). Somehow, “we”—whoever we are—must solve the problem.
Maybe the problem is that there is no realistic and meaningful and humane vision of a solution to what now must be seen for what it is: a tragedy without end. The long-dangled promise of a two-state solution is in shambles. The hope for a non-denominational multi-ethnic single state—a dream that Martin Buber, Judah Magnes, and Hannah Arendt thought possible in the 1940s—has been shattered by war, occupation, and mutual dehumanization; it is held together today only by the utopian ecstasies of well-meaning yet deluded idealists. In Israel, the occupied territories, and Palestine, the roadmap to peace has been shredded. What is left looks more and more like hell.
More:
When The Hell That Is War Loses Its Power - The American Interest
“Between Sovereign states there can be no last resort except war; if war no longer serves that purpose, that fact alone proves that we must have a new concept of the state.” —Hannah Arendt, in an interview with Adelbert Reif, 1970.
www.the-american-interest.com
