Dialogue is Key for Peace in Middle East

At this moment of hopefulness for Israel, Gaza and the wider Middle East, we yearn for connection, for meaningful dialogue within Israeli society, with the Palestinians, with the broader Arab and Muslim world, and with the Western nations of Europe and the English-speaking world.

Assuming G-d willing that the war is over, that the wars are over for Israel and her enemies, maybe there is an opening for a better world? If so, honest and persistent dialogue will be a key feature for getting there. This dialogue refers to diplomacy yes, but not just the work of the diplomats. It will require open, vulnerable, and at times painful conversations, encounters with the “other” — individuals and groups with which there is profound and sometime violent disagreement.

If we think back before the Hamas pogrom on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel was riven by the issue of judicial reform as perhaps it had never been divided before. After the shock of the massive and deadly attack, Israel was largely united, at least by comparison, but none of older animosities of life before the massacre of Simchat Torah two years ago have been truly addressed. They will have to be, even as Israel meets the challenges of Gaza, and Judea-Samaria, after the two-year war.  At the same time, there are bridges to be built with the wider world – -Arab, Muslim, Western and non-Western as well.

Sixty years ago, Israel’s greatest philosopher, Martin Buber, passed away. A refugee of Nazi Germany, Buber had spent decades looking at ways that humble individuals with open minds and hearts found deep connections with other people, and mostly through these encounters with others, found G-d.

Central to Buber’s mystic vision is the I/Thou relationship. When we interact with someone honestly, sympathetically, and deeply, we recognize that they and we both were made b’tzelem Elohim — in the image of the Divine. That recognition changes everything. Buber also posited an I/It relationship, which is transactional. You use the relationship to achieve some end: like using the cashier to check out at the supermarket. Both I/Thou and I/It modes of dialogue are necessary for a civilization to flourish.

Buber fled from Nazi Germany in 1938. For the next 27 years in first Mandatory Palestine, and then in the State of Israel, he strove for peace and understanding with the Arabs, especially with those who came to be known increasingly as Palestinians. His ideas, despite his celebrity as an Israeli intellectual, were never popular. Buber seemed to be drawn to the idea of a polity where two nations (Israel and Palestine) would exist side by side, but within some larger state.

But Martin Buber was a committed Zionist. He wanted what most Israelis wanted then and want now, to live in peace with the Arabs in the region. The political construct in which this takes place is important, but what is in peoples’ souls is more crucial; if Arabs and Jews see the presence of G-d in the other, ultimately that will be the road to a real peace. A powerful military is necessary for the State of Israel certainly, but it is not enough to achieve a lasting peace.

Martin Buber died in 1965. Much has changed in the last six decades since his death. But what remains, then and now, more than anything is the need for dialogue. May we all be rodfei shalom — pursuers of peace, peace through meeting the other, through encountering the other, even if that meeting is awkward, unfamiliar, risky. It is through such meetings that we find G-d’s blessings, which are not always evident, and are often surprising. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.