Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Teaching Nonviolent Atonement

Home
Progressive Christian
Battling to the End in Israel/ Palestine

Battling to the End in Israel/ Palestine

Last updated on: July 18, 2014 at 8:57 am by Suzanne Ross

Battling to the End in Israel/ Palestine 2014-07-18T08:57:58-05:00 Suzanne Ross

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sometimes a blog just writes itself. I’m preparing to attend the annual academic conference on mimetic theory being held near Munich, Germany July 21-24, 2014. We will be focusing on René Girard’s book on war called Battling to the End in the context of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. Girard’s analysis of war centers on his reading of another famous treatise written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars by Carl von Clausewitz, called simply On War. Needless to say, theories of war are on my mind.

So when I read an article in the New York Times on July 4, America’s Independence Day, I was struck by the way in which it supplied evidence for Girard’s thesis. The article is about the escalating conflict in Israel/ Palestine triggered by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths. This was followed by the kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian youth and an increase in rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and a massing of Israeli troops on the Gaza border. I’ll set quotes from Battling to the End alongside excerpts from this article to illustrate the connection between current events and Girard’s ideas.

The Trend to Extremes

From the news article, commenting on the tit for tat exchange of kidnapping and murder:

“It could be a shift in the nature of the conflict, from political struggle to blood feud,” said Moshe Halbertal, a professor of philosophy at Hebrew University. “It’s no more the Palestinian possible state vis-à-vis the Israeli state; it’s kind of two people entangled in cycles of vengeance.”

From Girard:

Heraclitus wrote that Polemos, war, “is father of all and king of all”… This law of human relations was reformulated [by Clausewitz and] took the shape of the trend to extremes, the inability of politics to contain reciprocal, in other words, mimetic, increase of violence.

Are we witnessing an escalation to extremes? Is violence in Israel/ Palestine escaping the ability of politics, diplomatic negotiations or even of military power, to contain it? The possibility of

Josh Sager — November 2012

descent into “blood feud” – the quick return of violence for violence against indiscriminate victims – is none other than a predictable result of long history of alternating periods of truce and violence in the Israel/ Palestine conflict.

Who Started It? They Did!

From the news article:

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a [Israeli] military spokesman, said troops were mobilizing around Gaza “to serve defensive positions and forward preparations.” But he repeatedly said that “we have no interest in escalation… but we will be prepared for developments”… Hamas political leaders, too, have said they are not interested in escalation… masked men from the Hamas military wing declared themselves “ready for all possibilities.”

From Girard:

[A]mong humans, the fact that no one ever feels they are the aggressor is because everything is always reciprocal. The slightest little difference, in one direction or another, can trigger the escalation to extremes. The aggressor has always already been attacked. Why are relations of rivalry never seen as symmetrical? Because people always have the impression that the other is the first to attack. (18)

Why do we always ask who started it? Such a question is futile and misses the point Girard is making. No one ever says they started it. That would mean that their violence was aggressive, which no one ever admits. Like the Israelis and Palestinians, we all firmly believe that our violence is defensive, always a response to someone else’s aggression. This is because our actions are reciprocal – we are always learning from others what is worth fighting for and the more violently someone defends what they have, the more it dawns on me that I am willing to fight to possess it, too.

Adversaries Become Doubles

From the news article:

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday [July 3] sentenced four recent recruits to 10 days in military jail for joining a Facebook revenge campaign by posting pictures of themselves with signs urging Israel’s prime minister to “let us exterminate the terrorists”… a Hamas fighter said through a kaffiyeh covering all but his eyes, “We monitor the barbaric and brutal aggression by the enemy’s army in the West Bank and Jerusalem. We promise to turn your settlements, posts, the targets you expect and those you don’t expect into a burning coal if your leadership makes any stupid step.”

From Girard:

When the belief of adversaries in their differences from each other producers the alternation of defeats and victories and approaches reciprocity, then we are nearing what I call the sacrificial crisis [loss of differences]… It can be seen only be someone who is outside the conflict because from the inside you must always believe in your difference and respond more and more quickly and forcefully. From the outside, the adversaries look like what they are: simple doubles. (14)

What the combatants cannot see is how much alike they sound, how their calls for violence are mirror images of one another. From within the conflict, as Girard says, both sides believe completely in their differences from one another. Each side believes in its own goodness and the justice of its cause while condemning their opponents as evil and wantonly violent. Only from the outside can we see that the claim of difference is false and that the truth lies in just how much each side has come to resemble the other.

Signs of Hope

This is how the article ends:

Tamir Lion, an anthropologist who focuses on youth and combat soldiers, said on Israel Radio, “The state of Israel in recent years is looking for its ethos – that is to say, ‘Where are we going.’ When there is no ethos, and it does not matter why, you always withdraw to the most primitive ethos – us and them. It becomes a group that defines itself not as what it is, but what it hates.”

Of course, the same could be said of the Palestinians. Each side has come to know itself by its hatred of the other. A sorry state of affairs that seems to be heading towards a path of mutual destruction. But in Battling the End, Girard consistently refers to “apocalyptic thought” as a way of thinking about the trend to extremes. Mutual destruction is but one possibility – the other is reconciliation. How is that possible? Because, as Girard explains:

Apocalyptic thought recognizes the source of conflict in identity, but it sees in it the hidden presence of the thought of “the neighbor as yourself” which can certainly triumph, but is secretly active, secretly dominant under the sound and fury on the surface. Peaceful identity lies at the heart of violent identity as its most secret possibility.” (46)

Paradoxically, then, reconciliation is within reach just when a conflict appears to be spinning out of control. “The Kingdom is already here,” Girard says. Rather than a reciprocity of violence, adversaries can always opt to “change into peaceful reciprocity in order to avoid falling into the abyss of absolute violence.” (47) It is when we stare into the abyss of mutual destruction side by side with our adversaries that hope for a mutually assured future becomes most attainable.

Uncategorized

battling to the end

Carl von Clausewitz

Israel/ Palestine conflict

On War

rene girard

World War I

Previous Post

July 17, 2014

Why I Hope Ann Coulter is Right: Soccer and the Moral Decay of the United States

Next Post

July 22, 2014 Why Rewards Backfire with Children: Advice for Teachers and Parents

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atonement and Current Events Curriculum Faith and Families Interviews Jesus the Forgiving Victim Lent Montessori politics Reviews The Bible Explained Uncategorized Valentine's Day Wednesday Sermon Who is God?

Select a Month July 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014 December 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz