Page 23 - HaMizrachi #6 TuBishvat 5779

Israel Insight

Dr. Eran Lerman
In Praise of

Conflict Management

he urge to “do something,” to aimed at conflict management are a Even in Gaza, despite the recent
devise a proper and permanent more rational and even moral choice. drive by Hamas to breach the fences,
T answer to Israel’s Palestinian They are not a cowardly cop-out the potential is there for a conflict
predicaments, is well rooted in our of spineless politicians and overly- management bargain that would
culture. It flows from a Western cautious military tacticians. make life better – if Mahmoud Abbas’
Meir Deutsch, Director-General, Regavim tradition (and in recent centuries, a negative tactics could be overcome.
pragmatic American notion) of problem Sometimes, the bid to solve profound The alternatives – various options
solving. When bad things happen, the and painful problems leads to tragic for forcing the issue by major new
urge becomes stronger, as does the results, due to the “law of unexpected initiatives or military action – could
chorus of voices berating the present consequences.” Israelis have had a turn out to be very costly for both
leadership and high command for their measure of this in previous decades. sides.
lack of strategic vision and plans for From Sharon’s adventure in Lebanon
bringing the conflict to an end. in 1982 to Oslo in 1993, grand The urge for a solution is
transformative designs have turned out understandable. But sometimes, the
For some, the preferred design would to have deadly flaws hidden in their humorously inverted dictum – “don’t
involve the use of overwhelming force inner mechanisms. just do something, stand there” –
to destroy, say, Hamas’ hold on Gaza. may turn out to make more sense
They would also seek an unequivocal The same can also be said of the than setting in motion a chain of
victory over the Palestinian Authority American intervention in Iraq in 2003. unpredictable consequences. This is
in Ramallah, and counsel the Things went wrong, and in ways not especially true when Israel faces a very
government to dismantle the accords fully or even dimly anticipated by the real prospect of escalation in the north
altogether and return to pre-Oslo grand strategy designers. and of having to act – in this case,
verities. a wise precaution – to prevent the
Grand designs should be measured establishment of an Iranian strategic
Others call either for a resumption against their resilience to such built-in presence in Syria.
of negotiations on Palestinian terms, risks of failure; even more so when
or for a non-negotiated unilateral dealing with a region as volatile and None of this should be read as an
withdrawal from significant parts unpredictable as the Middle East. endorsement of the present situation
of Judea and Samaria. This would When this is the landscape to be in perpetuity. All it means is that at
reassure the Palestinians, and navigated, our captains should not be this specific junction in Israel’s history
the world, that the prospect of a faulted for being cautious before they and in the region, overwhelming
Palestinian state has been rendered sail into the storm. question-marks pile up against any
irreversible. major transformative project.
Conflict management does not come
Here and there, alternative plans – as without a cost. It can be interpreted as Wisdom may well require a policy of
yet vague or unworkable – are put a sign of weakness and it angers many, gaining time; awaiting the possible
forward by fertile and creative minds, who pin the blame on the government emergence of more conducive
including notions of a “federal” state and/or on the IDF for not hitting the circumstances for policy initiatives
and other inventive constitutional Palestinians harder. It brings anguish down the road – while doing what
solutions. All belong to the broad must be done to bring down the cost
category of conflict resolution to others, who want to see their of conflict.
strategies. millennial hopes for peace translated
into action.
But what if the urge to “solve the
problem” is misguided? Nevertheless, it is the right direction Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman is vice
for Israel at this time, requiring a president of the Jerusalem Institute for
Under present circumstances in the careful balance between doing too Strategic Studies
region (and the world), sober policies much and too little. www.jiss.org.il

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