The Arab Israeli conflict arose from vibrating energy “strings” – it really is that simple in a sense, if you want to take a purely reductionist view.  Which you probably should.

The Tao Te Ching talks of the “ten thousand things” and suggests we largely let them float by us.  As with Eastern religion in general, the idea is “flow”, and effortless “going with”.

We don’t really need to take too much notice of the “ten thousand things” – we notice them and let them go. Or at least that is the general intention. Not that Taoism or any other doctrine or religion has managed to achieve what it promises: liberation, the alleviation of suffering, wisdom, moksha.

At one level life can seem extraordinarily complex. I was writing about the Arab Israeli conflict earlier and some would see the situation as serpentine, byzantine, incapable of unravelling.  I would take a different view.

At heart science has shown us that our universe is extremely simple at the most basic of levels. What we see around us may seem complex in the extreme but it appears that a few simple rules are all that it requires to exist, grow, expire.

Emergence occurs when “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” meaning the whole has properties its parts do not have.  At rock bottom the latest theory is that our universe is built from one dimensional vibrating strings. From which everything else emerges, including our own consciousness.

Conway’s Game of Life is a good way of understanding how evolution has made everything around us from a few basic rules.  The same can be said for chaos theory and the Mandelbrot set.  The beautiful images are produced by a formula of extreme simplicity: a vast complexity again arises from a few simple mathematical rules.

And so it is with human society.  The incredible complexity of human affairs arises from a few basic, simple human needs: food, water, shelter and medicine.

And these simple physiological needs bring with them human emotions and qualia.

I am not so foolish as to claim that such things are easy to understand. What I do say is that human behaviour is easy to understand when you see where it comes from. And then complexity falls away and we are left with utter simplicity.

Every conflict in human history results from our physiology and our needs.  All of which (remember) arose from vibrating energy “strings”; or so the theory goes!  And that’s it.

So back to the Arab Israeli conflict.  Do you need to know much about Hamas, the PLA, Ben Gurion, Zionism, Arab Nationalism?

Well actually, no you don’t. Despite the fact that countless thousands are:

• employed reporting the conflict,
• engaged in it
• trying to solve it.

It’s about basic human need and basic human behaviour. Jews and arabs alike need food, water, shelter and medicine. Jews and arabs alike suffer from human emotion and qualia. Jealousy, anger, pain, pleasure.

Oddly enough it’s the philosophers and the more balanced clergy who get it right.  Certainly not the politicians, all of whom have their own agenda.  Bishop Michael Curry calls it love.  Philosophers would put it in a more sophisticate way but nonetheless the entirety of human conflict and its avoidance boils down to the way we treat each other.

And the necessity to tame our baser instincts.

It may not be easy to achieve, but please do not tell me that it is complex. It is not.

 

 

 

 

 

My latest Netflix Binge is Fauda – a violent, compelling and visually superb take on the Arab Israeli conflict.

Typically with a subject of such sensitivity, there is much hand wringing in the press. As usual The Guardian takes a staunch anti Israeli approach and calls the series Israel’s Brutal TV Hit. Israeli Newspaper Haaretz calls the show “morally dubious”. The New Yorker and the New York Times are a little more even handed as is the BBC (uncharacteristically).

I don’t much care what the various commentators are saying about this particular drama, or the world in particular. I do rather question my own motive for watching the program and feel surprise that it affords me much interest and absorption.

Let me fess up to the origins of my quandary. I have Jewish heritage somewhere along the line and a deep fascination with Jewish culture, as a result both of my ancestry and of my Church of England upbringing.

What child would not be fascinated by the stories of the Old Testament? Sodom and Gomorrah, Daniel and the Lions Den, Moses in Egypt, Joseph and his coat of many colours. Those apparently wicked Midianites and Babylonians! The terrible Pharaoh of Egypt! How very partisan, this musty old book – biased musings of an ancient desert tribe. Much like the equally unamusing bias of the Koran and its equally bloodthirsty, tribal raving.

At the same time I was fascinated by all things Middle Eastern and indeed Islamic. The haunting beauty of the call to prayer, the exotic food, the eerie and beautiful folk music. The exotic countries. The warm people, the lovely women. Sufi poetry, intricately decorated mosques, religious devotion (ever so foreign to my secular mind)

And then the disillusion set in as romance was replaced by reality. I remember vividly my sad awakening to the brutality of the Israeli state following the Sabra and Shatila massacre. I was sitting next to a beautiful young Jewish woman engaged to a young Israeli about to do his National Service; the massacre was fresh in my mind and I sorrowfully told her of my disappointment.

Did I ever fully understand the events which lead up to the formation of Israel? Did I condone the terrorism of Ben Gurion and his ilk or compare it to that of the Palestinians?

No, I don’t think I ever thought any of that through but I am not sure it would have helped. We humans are rats in a cage and will fight and kill over land, possessions, food water and power. Sadly I don’t think there is much more to know.

But what of Fauda (meaning “chaos” in arabic apparently)?

Well the banal aspect of my attraction to the programme is to see something of the life and countryside in Israel. Safer from my own armchair, much as I would love to see those mythical Biblical lands in the flesh.

My next recognition (or at least I thought it was recognition) was that this was a rather even handed account of the tragic Arab Israeli conflict. The arabs are not all viewed as monsters. They have exquisitely beautiful women folk, children, wives, husbands. The sun shines, the architecture is attractive, the people seem normal. Well of course they do – they are.

But the the brutality shocked me – torture and bestiality is portrayed as the normal course of events on both sides of the divide. The Israeli hit squad mercilessly torture captured arabs from Hamas or Isis. The arabs kill and maim the Israelis. It is business as usual in the human zoo.

The Americans in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the inexcusable extraordinary rendition. The bombing of civilians throughout the Islamic world, the merciless hunting down of Bin Laden and his extra judicial execution. The hideous Isis executions, the savagery of many Islamic states towards women and gays.

The human zoo. It is business as usual the world over.

So should I be watching Fauda? Should I find it so utterly captivating? Well the answer is probably no on both counts. But I am afraid I can not help that and shall continue to watch each series as it is brought out.

I do not condone or agreed with any side in this conflict or any other conflict. There must be a better way to resolve our differences.

On reflection I find this Israeli based drama pro-Israeli, although it does its best to bring out the humanity of Israel’s opponents while not hiding the bestiality prevalent on both sides.

I would like to redress the balance by seeking out some Arab drama. I am not at all sure I have ever knowingly come across any but it would be an interesting exercise. Neither side are without blame, neither side are without legitimate grievance.

An end to “Conflict in The Middle East” is unlikely to be achieved by conventional and time worn solutions which have achieved nothing over the decades.

At least 41 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests at the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel on the same day the US fulfils its controversial promise to move its embassy to the contested city of Jerusalem.

This is not about politics. Or land. Or religion. It is about something much more basic and much more invidious. It is about human nature and how to change it.

Some would say that the Arab Israeli situation is complex.  Some would claim that you must be an Arabist or a specialist in Middle Eastern politics and history to understand and resolve the sad mess.

Not so. The facts are simple enough as are the causes of conflict.

Humanity has certain basic needs and certain basic emotions which will result in violence if left unsatisfied.

The physical needs can and should be satisfied: shelter, food, medicine, safety, a meaningful job to name but a few.  That such needs are not met in the middle east is hardly unique in a world full of conflict and poverty, so we should not be surprised.

The emotional needs are far harder to satisfy. We are all part of the animal kingdom and when put in a cage we will behave like the animals we are: we will fight tooth and nail for survival. We will operate on automatic response; our stress will rise, and our reason will fade. It is usually called “fight or flight” and all too often there is nowhere to flee so fight is what we do.

This is not to belittle the conflict. Or indeed any conflict. But a solution is going to require wiser heads than are currently engaged in the puzzle and solutions which have as much to do with psychology and physiology as “mere” politics.

Unfortunately, all parties in this and every other conflict in human history have hidden motives, secret agendas. They, we, all of us are fighting our own narrow corner, protecting our own narrow interests.

Despite the laudable aims of the so called “United” Nations we are a deeply divided world. The divisions are tribal; the squabble is a vast version of a dog urinating to mark its own territory.

All of nature marks its territory. All of nature will tear throats to win, to survive, to ensure it gets food and water, shelter and territory.

So, looked at with this broad overview the problem becomes straightforward to understand, if less so to overcome. We need to change our very nature. To take more notice of Confucius, Lao Tze and the Buddha and less notice of Trump, or May. Or Israelis or Palestinians.

Reach the children and educate them in peace and humanity. Wean them from narrow prejudice and divisive tribal religion. Treat the ills, provide food, shelter, medicine and peace.

Persuade all those you can to drop hostility and to embrace reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.

Brave words easily spoken from the peace and safety of an English spring garden. No doubt many will deride my words and my sentiments. But somewhere they will realise that deep down the only end to eternal conflict is an abandonment of Darwinian evolutionary struggle and the adoption of enlightenment.