On November 4th, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a lone gunman in Tel Aviv. As we mourned, and as President Clinton said "Shalom Haver" ("Goodbye, Friend"), I was struck with the idea that it was nothing less than fear that drove Yigal Amir to perform this horrible deed.
There was (and still is) a fear amongst a segment of the Israeli population that the world, especially the Arabs, want to take something significant away. Whether it is rational or not, we cannot deny the existence of this fear.
Near the time of the assassination, I was reflecting on this, and I wrote a long letter to an Israeli newspaper, and shipped it via Telex (this was pre-email days). I don't know if it got received or published, and I don't have a copy, but I remember a bit what I said.
Fear, I said, is one of the basic emotion that exists in humans. It preceeds mistrust and hate. Mistrust and hate preceed much of our violence.
We have seen this work at all levels of interaction - whether it is animal to animal, person to person, group to group, nationality to nationality, religious group to religious group, person to country, or country to country.
It is easy to see these days where fear exists: Many of the Israelis fear the Arabs and Persians, many of the Arabs (and Persians) fear the Israelis and the West. One side feels that the other side wishes to take away its wealth or pride or freedom or even existence.
Even domestically, there are fears by one ethnic group for another, by one race for another.
The fears are perpetuated from generation to generation. This is often done by a demagogue in a group. Also by our "teachers" - be it religious leaders, educators or politicians.
At the Million Man March, which was near the time of Rabin's assassination, I walked around the National Mall with a sign of protest. I stated that we should not be influenced by messages of fear, as I felt that Mr. Farrakhan was giving us just that. I caught some flak from the attendees, but I think many of the people there understood.
So let's take Israel and Palestine. There are many examples in the world, but this one is closer to my heart.
The Israeli people have recent history to help generate fear. Not just the Holocaust, but the current fear that Arabs do not want them in the land they currently reside in. They point to evidence such as the anti-Israel education in Arab schools.
The Arabs see Israelis as a powerful force (thanks to the US) that wishes to take away Arab land and pride.
The fear has given rise to leaders who perpetuate it.
The media promotes these leaders.
Looking from the outside on this, I see a way out, but it is going to have to start with one basic premise:
The fear must be eliminated - as much as possible.
This is as much grass-roots as top-down. For example, I attended the Unity Walk 2 Sundays ago. This was a gathering of all religions and cultures to find bonds and our commonalities. This was, for me, all about removing fear. Juan Williams got raked over the coals for confessing to his fears of other cultures (NPR took this way too far in my opinion), but in this Unity Walk setting, I could admit to my own fears and realize that the people there had more warmth, more trust, more in common with me than I ever thought, and I was able to form bonds, not walls.
We had leaders of each of the 3 major religious communities speak. These people were great speakers.
However, they spoke to our choir, and I do not hear their voices heard outside this safe gathering nearly enough.
Try to imagine what things would be like if we could expand our sense of community. Instead of placing all your trust in the closest family, friends and neighbors, imagine what the world would be like if we saw that many of our own fears were irrational. Our neighbors might be of a different culture but still possess the basic human elements of compassion.
I, a Jew, am trying to see this in those I am told are my "enemies", such as the Arabs of Palestine.
In reading Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish's incredible book "I Shall Not Hate", I see the expressions of compassions from a man I am initially supposed to hate. I am supposed to mistrust and hate him because he expresses the desire for a state for Palestine (which for many imply the elimination of the Jewish state). But I see in his book words that reach out with compassion. Not only that, but Izzeldin says that many of his countrymen agree with him, so I should try to replace my mistrust with trust.
And Izzeldin also says that most Israelis, whom he used to see on a daily basis at the hospital he worked at (as a Fertility Doctor) are perfectly capable of forming bonds of trust - once they know that the people facing them are not out to take things away. He says that if Palestinians and Israelis could only find their commonalities by simply having the simple positive interactions, we could go a long way in solving this conflict.
How can we build on this? How can we bring these 2 groups with a long, strong history of conflict together?
What I see as a partial solution is to tell others about Izzeldin's book and have them read it. At least that's a start. It might influence a few minds and hearts. We'll see.
I am also in touch with Dr. Abuelaish and hope to meet him soon, so that we can cement the bond we have recently formed, and come up with ideas as to how to influence others towards reducing our fears and increasing trust and respect.
Thanks for reading.
