Conservative Donnybrook

When I was but a wee lad, growing up in the greater Chicagoland area, my younger brother and I fought. A lot. My mother was at her wits end trying to find some way to keep us from fighting. She begged, pleaded, cajoled, punished, yelled, ranted, raved, and bribed us to stop fighting. She even attempted to talk reason to us. Nothing worked. One day, my step-father conceived what he thought was a brilliant idea. Let them fight it out. He went out and purchased a couple pairs of boxing gloves and agreed to referree our bouts. I immediately warmed to the idea. I’m pretty sure my brother was less enthused. Our bouts always ended with my brother running upstairs crying to our mother, while I (abetted by my step-father) taunted him for being such a baby.

After only a few such attempts by my step-father to broker a peace between my brother and me, my mother stepped in to put a halt to the experiment. Her next idea was to make us talk to a child psychologist. I’m sad to report that none of these attempts ever worked. However, in the back of my head, I always thought the boxing idea was the only one that ever stood a chance of success if it had been given more time to work. When aggression breaks out between two parties who both feel they are in the right, the only outcome that will end the hostilities is for one or the other to be utterly humiliated and made to realize his powerlessness over the other. My mom never understood this. And the kiddie shrink sure as hell never got that.

It is with this background in mind that I saw this latest story of yet another doomed attempt to broker a peace in the Middle East. It seems Egypt and France are stepping between the belligerents in Gaza to attempt to bring “peace.” To be sure, this may succeed in staving off armed conflict for a period. But, there is a distinct difference between the lack of hostilities and peace. As long as residents near the Gaza Strip fear that Hamas is going to open up a barrage of their homes and schools (or vice versa), there is no true peace. The populations will live in mutual fear and antipathy to one another, always waiting for the next round to begin.

While it may seem callous, the rest of the world should probably back off and let the two sides fight it out until one side or the other sues for peace. It is only after one side or the other is humiliated and finds they have no choice but to capitulate that any gestures of magnanimity have any hope of working. Quite simply stated, neither side is ready to quit. Neither side has thrown in the towel. Both sides harbor animosity toward the other. They need to slug it out and see if, once exhausted, they can find a way to live together with one team knowing that the other can spank them.