there is a great deal of talk lately about peace in israel — actually i have been hearing more or less constantly all my adult life about efforts to bring peace in the region — but still there is no serious talk of justice.
peace can never be the object of negotiations. that is impossible to attack as a first principle. there is only one route to peace and that is through finding just solutions, blind, disinterested, egalitarian solutions to problems between (self-identified) factions of the population. as long as individual human beings continue to see themselves as different and more deserving of the considerations of life than so-called enemies there is no prospect for justice.
and no matter what rules to promote order may be imposed on the parties by intimidation, destruction and murder, no matter what historical rationale is advanced, the prospect of peace without justice will remain forever beyond the grasp of all.
the old end justifies the means argument rests on the assumption that neither one is fictional. in reality the ends never arrive, but are always just one more action away, retreating apace as the troops advance, like the mirage they are, while the means, everpresent and ruefully if not brutally real, are the reality we all endure.
No comments:
Post a Comment