Nick Clegg has argued strongly in the Guardian this week that the UK government must lead the EU into using its economic & diplomatic leverage to broker peace in Gaza by suspending the proposed new cooperation agreement with Israel & halting British arms exports.
World leaders must accept that their response tot he election of Hamas has been a strategic failure, he argues.
Seumas Milne has also argued that the media choice to focus on the immediate reasons for the current conflict (ie the Hamas shelling of Israel) leads us to a reductive interpretation of events.
As a psychotherapist & campaigner for conflict resolution I have long been aware that just as aggression is triggered by 'emotional history' in the individual, so too is it triggered by 'emotional history & the framework of intepretation' in a nation, culture or religion. Both peoples in this situation need to be able to see the conflict from a different interpretative framework.
Until Western governments are able to show empathy & respect for the Palestinian world-view (61 years of national dispossession, refugee camps, occupation, seige & multiple Israeli violations of UN Security Council Resolutions & Geneva conventions) & are able to hold Israel to account for its actions where these are contravened, then peace & reconciliation will never take place.
The international world must stop shying away from the fear that criticism of Israel is the same thing as anti-semitism: it is not. Nothing can exonerate the action of the Nazis, or indeed, the action of Esatern & Western Europeans throughout the period of modern history. It is partly our responsibility that Zionists hold the opinions that they do. However none of this justifies Israel's attempt to enact a 'final solution' in Gaza nor does our own guilt in the West justify our tacit support of it.
Britain must not be led by the complex range of domestic factors that influence US policy on this issue. Sarkozy has taken an unexpected lead in this matter & it is a lead we should follow.
Ultimately only a UN with teeth can kick-start the kind of dialogue required. Whilst I worry about what Clinton's new position in the Obama administration will throw into the mix, I retain hope that the US president elect's vision for the UN in the 21st century holds some hope for the future.
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