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compromise will be less likely with the increase of fundamentalism.
Duncan Morrow of Northern Ireland noted that, in the end, what
is national, religious, or secular can be lumped into otherness, into
perceptions of who is in and who is out. In Ireland, he went on, the real
problem is about the political rights of minorities, even though religion
is what holds them together. He asked: How can we resolve what, in
fact, can only be managed? What principles can transcend both
nationalism and otherness? Daniel Murphy of the Irish Republic trans–
posed this issue into the moral realm which, to me at least, seemed
somewhat utopian. At another point, Murphy argued that because every
political initiative aimed to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland has
failed for the past twenty years, sectarian tension must be alleviated. To
that end, he proposed that community values and attitudes be fostered in
line with Buber's advice to nurture community spirit and the "I-We–
ness" intrinsic to authentic mutuality.
The loftier the tone of the presentations, the closer they came to the
discourses of the United Nations, the sharper the questions to the
presenters became. Still, discussions of Buber's "passionate Zionism,"
which contrasted the policies of
Kleinziorlismlls
based on
realpolitik
rather
than on the vision of his
Grosszionismus,
did engender genuine dialogue
among conference participants. According to Kalman Yaron, Buber's vi–
sion of "co-existence without illusions" presently is being undermined by
mutual denial of the other's national legitimacy - by the Palestinian
Charter that officially lays claim on the entire land and demands the ex–
pulsion of the Jews as well as by the Likud government that denies the
existence of the Palestinian identity. Palestinian violence and the "armed
struggle" against the "Israeli occupier" reinforce Israel's "institutionalized
terror" against Palestinians, and the irrational drive for vengeance. Re–
counting the dilemmas of being Arabs in a Jewish state, Yaron argued for
coexistence, for
de facto
as well as
de jure
equal rights and opportunities.
After a Palestinian entity has been created, he maintained, Israeli Arabs
will be able to freely choose Israeli citizenship. Was Yaron's optimism
fueled by what happened when, equipped with gas masks, he continued
Arab-Israeli encounters in extremely dangerous conditions, and one of his
Arab students said, "Regardless of our political outlook, we are in the
same boat. We can either live together or die together. Let's live to–
gether." In fact, "no less than two hundred eight-seven organizations are
engaged in creating the conditions for such Arab-Israeli coexistence."
While on our post-conference trip to the Golan Heights, as we were
amazed and bowled over by the recent excavations of Bet-She'an, the
city that goes back to the fifth millennium
B.
c.,
we heard about the Los
Angeles riots. Tuned into the "postmodern" reports by our international
