In Israel/Palestine: Victims and Victimizers

Before taking off for some much needed vacation, I visited Israel. The purpose of my recent trip to Israel/Palestine was to better understand the Jewish narrative of the situation there. I had been to the region twice before, but had spent most of my time in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and so I was more familiar with the Palestinian perspective. This time, I was hosted by my good friend Rabbi Naamah Kelman, Dean of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College. She was magnificent in running me ragged, meeting with dedicated individuals who hold a variety of perspectives on the intractable conflict in this sacred place, individuals who work tirelessly on addressing the multi-faceted problems that lie behind the current tension. I learned a lot.

One particularly instructive conversation was with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights. Arik had recently been featured in a New York Times column by Nick Kristof, where the columnist spoke of his selfless and courageous work helping to insure both a stable future for Israel and justice for the Palestinian people. Over coffee sipped in the courtyard of my small hotel, Arik spoke of an underlying truth about the intransigency of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict: its asymmetry.

Israel and Palestine are not equal. Israel has more: a higher standard of living, a more advanced infrastructure, deeper democratic roots, greater military might. Seeking sustainable solutions on these foundation stones is unlikely to yield lasting results. However, he said, there are two elements of this conflict where there is absolute symmetry. By addressing these elements, solutions may be found.

"Both sides,” the rabbi said,” are equally insistent about considering themselves the victims in this crisis and both sides are equally intolerant of the idea that they might be victimizers. If we can get both sides to acknowledge that they are not always victims, but sometimes victimizers, then a lasting peace has a chance.”

This simple idea struck me as profound and encouraged me in the work we do here at Intersections. By opening up space for dialogue, by asking hard questions in the context of mutual respect, by being able to “change the frame” of how we perceive ourselves and “the other,” we help make transformation possible. In the world’s most troublesome conflicts, in our domestic political disputes and in our own day-to-day living, if we can develop new frames for how we relate to one another, we may find pathways to peace—as individuals and as a society—that have heretofore been blocked.