The civil war in Israel, much to the chagrin of armchair generals, presidents, and diplomats around the world, has not been quick and easy to resolve. Two of the most noteworthy Italians who ever lived could have told them that. This problem, seemingly as old as time, is a long way from any definitive resolution. So-called peace, if it comes, will be another cessation of fighting in a to-be-continued conflict.
Niccolò Machiavelli and St. Francis of Assisi could not be further apart in their understanding of human nature and motivations. But both understood the intractable nature of certain conflicts, Machiavelli on the theoretical stage and St. Francis of Assisi on the practical stage.
It was Francis who, unarmed, crossed enemy lines in the Fifth Crusade to meet with the sultan to convert him to Christianity and bring the war to a peaceful conclusion. At the time Francis entered his camp, the sultan was offering a gold coin for the head of any Christian delivered to him by his troops. Yet Francis not only ignored the death-defying odds but, in the process, became a friend of the sultan. This nephew of Saladin marveled at this man of peace and was even more stunned when Francisa declined his gifts when he departed because of his vow of poverty. Under duress, as a token of friendship, Francis accept a small ivory horn, which can be seen today in Assisi.
Francis’s famous phrase is, “Let me be an instrument of your peace….It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.” His rejection of the “eye for an eye” ethic that still haunts the Middle East, where grudges are measured in centuries, still points towards a path to peace.
On the other hand, the cynical Machiavelli understood the role of fear and desire for possessions that are the driving force of much of history and its bloodshed. His advice to the Prince was, “Above all he must refrain from seizing the property of others because a man is quicker to forget the death of his father than the loss of his patrimony.”
How contrary to our sentimental understandings of conflict. With both sides claiming the same land and both sides roughly dating those claims to 2000 years ago, which from a Western point of view is a bit extravagant, you have the makings of an intractable conflict. It is as if a group of Native Americans were determined to enforce a land claim to Manhattan Island from 2,000 years ago.
In most of the world, history moves on. Borders are adjusted as claims to land are determined by a rough combination of financial transaction, law, negotiation, and bloodshed, a.k.a. the spoils of war.
In this case, the Jews and the Muslims (or Palestinians and Arabs) all claim the right to control the same piece of land. The Jews are claiming land they lost when the Romans expelled them in 70 AD. The Arabs are claiming a right to the land after they expelled the Crusader states in the Middle Ages. This claim unraveled after World War I and World War II and the end of the Ottoman Empire and the ensuing British occupation.
Killing more people has only served to embitter relatives with long memories as both sides try to enforce their claim to the same piece of ancestral land, arguing on various ethnic, theological, or historical lines.
Machiavelli outlined the problem, and in his way, St. Francis provided the solution. Unfortunately, no one took up St. Francis’s offer of peace. His dream of having an eight-year cease-fire with the sultan came to nothing. So far, no one has been able to break through the Gordian knot Machiavelli has presented of two peoples claiming the same inheritance. It is the military and diplomatic equivalent of the famous Charles Dickens probate case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which only the lawyers got rich. In this case, it is the arms merchants who make the biggest killing.
In modern times, the closest anyone came to pushing a practical solution was Pope Paul VI, who proposed that Jerusalem be declared an international city controlled by none of the parties. His proposal united everyone -- in hating him and his idea. So, the Jews are not going to forgive the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are not going to forgive the Jews any time soon, and the fighting will continue. If only St. Francis could convert everyone, it might be a start, but 800 years in, that is the very definition of a long-term strategy for Middle Eastern peace.
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