I'm going to write something about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and I'm going to do it without shepherding myself toward one side or the other. Because frankly, I don't care about being pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, or anti-Israeli or anti-Palestinian. These are just labels we use to condense a horrifically complex dispute into something resembling a sports game.
This is perhaps the trickiest of all possible issues to tackle in an initial blog posting, but that also makes it perhaps the best example of what this website will contain. I suppose I should write out a bunch of facts that I believe create an incontrovertible truth; that the end of the Israeli settlement project is simply unimaginable or that the Palestinian government apparatuses are moving further away from democratic ideas and more closely resembling the autocratic regimes so threatened in today's Middle East. And then fervently argue my points that are of course totally right and mean that Israel or the Palestinians are to blame, and condemn one of them to ... condemnation.
There is something to be said for Straight Talk. It's just that when someone uses the phrase in Washington, it often instead means Pure Bullshit.
What we have in Washington is not however groups or interests seeking to find ways to end the conflict* but rather ways to continue existing. "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the expanding needs of the bureaucracy" (or something along those lines) said Oscar Wilde, hitting to a tee what Washington's greatest industry is — itself. So you have organizations rushing to fill niches that either are unfilled or poorly filled. Take J Street, the newish liberal pro-Israeli advocacy group. J Street was designed to fill in an unrepresented voice in Washington talk; non-hardline Israel supporters who believe themselves different in tone and attitude from AIPAC or similar groups:
"J Street represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who support Israel and its desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own – two states living side-by-side in peace and security. We believe ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the best interests of Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, and the region as a whole."
Seems straightforward enough. And it is ... merely wholly pointless, empty rhetoric.
I don't care about Israel or Palestine, neither of which has an inherent right to exist — they just exist. I care about the people in those two countries who are all born with the same needs — shelter, food, water, medical care, economic opportunities — and wants — a path to a better future, a meaningful existence, a loving partner. No matter their protestations, the individuals and organizations arguing respective sides' aren't interested in improving the lives of the people of the Holy Land — they're only arguing to argue.
One thing Washington is never short on is rhetorical masturbation.
This is not to say that one side doesn't have more credence to its claims than the other, or that both sides have an equally valid point (one of Washington's greatest sins is false equivalency) — it's merely lost in the endless he said-she said Industry Noise Machine.
Ask yourself — have you heard any of these following questions ever addressed?
- How is Israel going to evacuate tens of thousands of its most devout, Messianic settlers in the West Bank?
- How is a swiss-cheese Palestinian state supposed to exist as a viable economic unit?
- How are either Israel or Palestine going to refrain from the constant cycle of retaliatory military action in the face of constant public bloodlust?
Washington's problem isn't that the "wrong" side wins or that its processes promote poor policy; it's that its culture of business is designed to permanently forestall reaching even imperfect solutions — because if it ever did, what would be the purpose of all those think tanks and advocacy groups? There'd be no need for endless white papers and reports or lectures or books.
Washington exists for Washington to exist.
*Aside from, of course, organizations that are not Serious enough to be part of The Conversation.
