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UNDERSTANDING EINSTEIN
By Rabbi Dr Jeremy Rosen
I regret that John Chuckman continues to see the Middle East in terms of black and white, rather than grey. I expect people of poor education to make naïve generalisations. But as I have argued here already, every political and religious conflict can be seen from different angles and if we are genuinely seeking a solution rather than a fight then we must be prepared to see other points of view.
It is pointless to do body counts. Who has killed more Muslims? Israel? Palestinians? Saddam Hussein? Algerians? Russians? We will never agree and to look all the time to the past or to apportion blame will never help the future.
We are witnessing in Iraq day by day how spokesmen lie and how facts are contradicted and how a campaign can be looked at from so many conflicting view points.
It is just plain silly to argue that Israel was always wrong. After all it did vote in 1947 for a partition that would have given Palestinians far more land than even the present Road Map offers. It is sick and stupid to argue that all Jews are murderers. But equally it is wrong to argue that Israel has always been right and has not made grave errors, politically and militarily. I strongly oppose any military occupation unless it is, as in post War Germany and Japan a temporary process that leads to freedom and democracy.
It is equally just as silly to argue that the Palestinian leadership is a perfect, incorruptible agency of peaceful co-existence as it is to argue that it has lost all moral authority. It is simply wrong and dishonest to argue that all Palestinians kill innocent women and children. Yet sadly on both sides such pathetic arguments are constantly being spewed out.
So John Chuckman takes Einstein’s legitimate argument against nationalism and applies it only to Israel. Why not apply it to Arab nationalists too? Can’t one argue that Iraq ought to allow Shiites, Kurds and Christians all to have their own states? Why do we think we have to impose one state on everyone? On the other hand I personally object to establishing sovereign states in principle, for all sorts of reasons. States are very unstable, incompetent systems of government, like small corner shops in contrast to supermarkets.
Why don’t I like Nationalism? Look at how it has ruined the Middle East. Firstly it is a European import into the Middle East. It was introduced by the Western powers and then enthusiastically adopted in the wake of the collapse of the Ottomon Empire.
I happen to believe that the Ottomon Empire had the best solution to the Middle East to date. One overall government controlled the whole of the Middle East under one constitution and political system. Each individual religious community under a system called The Millet ran its own affairs independently under the central authority. Neither Christians nor Jews nor individual Muslim communities had their own armies or flags or anthems. They co –existed peacefully.
The Ottoman Empire sadly declined into a state of corruption. It could not stand up to the aggressive Imperialists like Russia, Germany and France (ring a bell?). It lost control of its own empire. Its industry failed to modernize and compete. It massacred millions of Armenians before the First World War. Fortunately the United Nations did not exist then because otherwise they would have herded the Armenians into refugee camps instead of allowing them to integrate and to emigrate to countries where they could flourish and gain citizenship. And then in the wake of the First World War it collapsed altogether.
Incidentally, I know India and Pakistan are not on such good terms but thankfully after 1947 the United Nations did not get involved there either because otherwise they would have established refugee camps and once again prevented refugees from trying to re-establish themselves in other countries. At least they were able to get on with their lives.
Nevertheless, the Ottoman idea of how to deal with different communities within its Empire was and remains to this day the best example and model for us to follow.
I wish, as did Einstein, that there would be no need for a Jewish State. But for as long as other peoples insist on being states, what alternative is there other than suicide? If the UAR of Egypt and Syria couldn’t come together or Egypt and Libya, both Muslim Arab countries experimented with political unification and failed, how can we expect Arabs and Persians and Jews to join together into a Common Market of the Middle East? Yet this is precisely what Einstein wanted and we should be trying for.
You know the famous Arabic proverb ‘I hate my brother but my brother and I hate our cousin.’ Instead of demonising and hating each other why not try to work for a constructive solution? If John Chuckman thinks Einstein was right then lets apply Einstein to the whole of the Middle East and get on with it.
Rabbi Dr Jeremy Rosen.