Shimon Peres died last night. He is shown above with Yasser Arafat (to his left) and Yithzak Rabin (to his right) just after they received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for their work on the Oslo Accords. These accords have not realized their promises, but they made a real difference, I believe, because they were one more step on the path toward a real peace. They showed that there is a willingness on both sides to talk through their differences. 

As a side note, I think it is worth saying that the signing of the Oslo Accords probably got Rabin assassinated by one of his own people in 1995 in a way closely analogous to the way in which the Camp David Agreement got Anwar Sadat assassinated by his own people in 1981. Both were hated for trying to make peace with the "sworn enemy". No nation has a monopoly on political extremism/insanity.  


   

      Egyptian President Sadat, US President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Begin (1978) 



Peres' was Israel's last link to it founding generation. Him, Rabin, a few others. Gone now. His death has made me think, sadly, one more time of how blindly cultural differences have driven political turmoil in our species. It does not have to be this way. If we could come to understand, in large majority, what cultural differences are really about, the scientific basis, we could teach that truth to the kids. We could get past the militaristic madness.  

I believe absolutely that peace is doable in every conflict. And it does not have to be bought with blood - with war casualties, in other words. It just needs balanced, visionary, dedicated leaders, who are both realistic and compassionate. And majorities in the nations involved who really do try their best just to be decent. Then, the rest, in spite of the warmongers, will come.  

Sometimes, the array of forces opposing a peaceful settlement can be very strong, and humans, being the weak and myopic creatures that they are, can slip so easily into the violent, delusional option. But honest people know, in their hearts, on both sides, that it didn't have to come to so much hurting. They could have worked it out if both sides had been ready to use reason and compromise. There are really very few "non-negotiables" in any dispute, and even these can be resolved by compromise. Jerusalem, for example, one day will be an open city, administered by a UN council, then later a local council, and it will be better off on its own than as part of either Israel or Palestine. Workable compromise can be done.  

Shimon Peres was a man who gradually realized this hard truth over the course of his life. I believe it is correct to say no Israeli ever loved Israel more, loved his people more, or knew the real world for what it is better than he did. But he came to believe, after years of suffering on both sides, that the Palestinians were people with legitimate aspirations as a people just as much as the Jews were. And to believe that debate, negotiation, and compromise could work to find a resolution to the endless woes of the two peoples. 

Was he mistaken? I can hear both Jews and Muslims all over the world arguing right now that he was, each side absolutely certain of its case, each case, of course, being utterly incompatible with that of its "adversary". "We must use force. They understand nothing else." Nonsense. 

When enough of their kids have died and nothing is getting any better for anyone, the grieving and the burning desires for vengeance gradually evolve into a real willingness to just talk. And listen. They have in the past and they will again. 

The festering core of the so-called "war of civilizations" between Islam and the West has been Israel/Palestine since before I was born (1949), and the war of civilizations will keep stumbling drunkenly and pointlessly on until the two sides really have had enough. 

I, meanwhile, will keep insisting that we could arrive, via Science, at a set of values that really could work for a family of human beings. 

Living with another culture is a lot like living with another family in your home. It will always be a strain to some degree, but it is still completely doable. We could do this. We could be a family. We just have to accept a low but constant degree of anxiety as ...life. A way of life that is infinitely preferable to the alternative. In short, it is time humanity grew up. 

In the shadow of the mushroom cloud, nevertheless friends, have a good day.