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>>Can we, just for a minute, dispense with the >>hand-wringing and acknowledge that the problem Israel >>and the Palestinians are having with one another is >>actually their mutual solution to the problem of being >>mortal? >> >>Of course, to understand what I'm talking about it is >>first necessary to recognize that it's not love or sex >>or money that makes the world go around but the fact >>of death; that what drives virtually everything we >>believe and do is the need to reduce, to at least a >>manageable degree of fear, the terror and panic the >>anticipation of extinction causes us. (If you can't >>quite grasp this notion, if you have to be reminded >>that terror and panic constitute the human default >>condition, then whatever you're believing and doing is >>working for you.) >> >>Of the myriad subtle and blatant ways we've come up >>with to make living with an impossible given >>tolerable, one example would be the symbolic >>immortality we assure ourselves of by the making of a >>scientific discovery, or a work of art, that will >>continue to exercise an influence on the world after >>our departure. Another is the accumulation of >>inordinate wealth. The god-like trappings great sums >>of money buy enable us to feel not just superior to >>the common man, but less vulnerable to the common >>fate. Still another is getting "high," which is about >>getting ABOVE the body that we know will one day be >>our undoing. >> >>And then there's our invention of an afterlife. >>Presenting us with a chance to survive death--if we >>honor the pronouncements and follow the dictates we've >>assigned to deities of our own fashioning--it's this >>immortality illusion that's at the heart of the >>Arab-Israeli conflict. >> >>The Arabs are qualifying for eternity by doing what >>they've determined to be God's work, which is to make >>war on those who, ignoring or questioning His >>authority, are undermining His plan for the planet. >>And Israel, dropped in the Arab's midst, its diverse >>culture implicitly challenging the validity of Arab >>beliefs, provides the Arabs with the infidel they need >>to carry out their mission. For Arabs, it's not about >>killing Jews, per se. Jews are simply a fortuitously >>placed means to a purchase on heaven. (You could say >>that their culture being, by all appearances, limited >>in its repertoire of immortality illusions to the >>resources of Islam, suicide is the only instrument of >>self-perpetuation available to the Palestinian >>terrorists.) >> >>On the other hand, the Arabs afford Israelis an >>opportunity to continually certify their biblically >>bestowed "chosen" status--AND TO ASSURE THEMSELVES OF >>THE POST-CORPOREAL REWARDS IMPLICIT IN THE >>ANOINTMENT--by constantly threatening, but never >>accomplishing, Israel's destruction. Persistently >>testing Israel's exalted designation but never >>disproving it, enabling Israel to be embattled AND >>remain intact, the Arabs are every bit the blessing to >>Israel that Israel is to the Arabs. >> >>It follows that the violence each side visits on the >>other must be measured; balances and proportions need >>to be kept. For one side to win, after all, would be >>for both sides to lose; would, that is, return BOTH >>sides to a contemplation of the Void. We might call >>this aiding and abetting of one another's immortality >>illusions--the cooperation and the accommodations it >>requires--the deeper definition of the "social >>contract." >> >>So we can engage ad infinitum in the most earnest >>discussions about anti-Semitism, about Arafat, about >>Sharon, about territory and occupation, and forever >>miss the real dynamic of the situation. The >>Arab-Israeli problem is, again, a solution to a more >>pressing problem, to what is, literally as well as >>figuratively, the mother of all problems. And what >>accounts for the tenaciousness of the conflict is the >>ongoing success it's enjoying in the service of its >>underlying agenda. As long as this holds true, Arabs >>and Israelis will, on one level or another, be >>enemies. Because for all of the horrors hostilities >>between them cause, they cause a more acceptable, a >>more BEARABLE species of horror than the fact of >>oblivion does. >> >>The pain we are witnessing is a palliative. These are >>not the worst of times in the Middle East.

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