“In consternation at the afflictions of your households you are neglecting the salvation of the community…” – Pericles, (Thucydides “The Peloponnesian War”, Book 2-60).
The icy Greek historian Thucydides wrote his books on the Peloponnesian War as a “gift to eternity”. While he did not live to complete the work, he mused that the wrongdoings of history will continue to comprise a lengthy litany for as long as human nature remains the same—aggressive, prone to anger, and, most importantly, always on the lookout for new ways to commit torture and sins.
In response to the piece authored by Paul Blasenheim ’12 in the Hermes Magazine for Winter 2009, I can imagine that Thucydides continues to weep from wherever he is. All too much, the modern saga of the Holy Land parallels his own chronicles of a torn-apart Greece. We as humans have all too much failed to learn the lessons and parables that Thucydides provides in his telling.
While too lengthy to talk about here in detail, Thucydides writings’ blame neither nations nor circumstances for crimes committed, but instead the dooming factors of human emotions and selfishness.
Sadly, Blasenheim fails to break the circle of hate by calling for divestment of Israel. Aside from the fact that those who rally his cause have been guilty of direct intimidation of Israeli supporters on Wesleying and wesleyanarugus.com (something that the Israeli supporters have not done), he fails to be constructive as he ultimately tallies labels against the state.
“Apartheid state”, “illegal occupation” and “human rights abuses” he tells of without citing anything as proof, violating “Rule Zero” of academic authorship. Furthermore, he fails to mention how or why divestment is capable of putting a halt to hostilities altogether. If he and others like him really seek on helping the situation, more of the “constructive” in “constructive criticism” and less bale would suit his efforts on paper.
I have spent a semester in Israel, and it is a place much abounding in inter-cultural love more than those who have not visited it can hope to glimpse. Furthermore, I have spoken to students who have spoken to Egyptians while visiting the breadbasket of the ancient world—they (the Egyptians) are more understanding and sympathetic towards the image of Israel than the warmongering commenters on Wesleying are.
As I see it, the goal of peace is to make two one—to patch rifts. There are people on campus to whom I have spoken to who claim they are pro-Palestinian. Constructively, they say that Israel very well may have a claim on the land, but aggression and some violations of human rights have been infractions as such.
Little do they know that many Israelis of all shades are apt to have very similar sentiments—all they want is what makes people stop dying and stop suffering. In this respect, I and they are one with the hopes of breaking Thucydides’ vision of the vicious circle of violent human nature, and putting it to rest. No country is capable of doing anything perfectly—and certainly the Ancient Israel for whose restoration religious Jews hope for was never perfect at any time in its history.
But much like Pericles was able to put the “salvation of the community” above continuing to gripe about mass afflictions, our vision for a better Israel, a better America, and a better world can start with individual people—such as myself and you, the reader.
Divestment will ultimately solve nothing. One thing I have learned about being a club/team manager here at Wesleyan is that every asset is, in fact, replaceable. The companies shortchanged will either persist or be exchanged. As for what Wesleyan will do should it choose to divest—nothing will be accomplished save creation of a rift between those who support Israel—even lightly—and the administration, and the formation of a dangerous alliance with people who do not understand that peace is formed by unification, not by creating more barriers.
Blasenheim’s job seems as though it seeks not to fix anything in the Holy Land today, but instead further the fear of expressing anything concerning Israel in public, that has been explicitly expressed by members of the student body.
I, for one, am ready to subscribe to an agenda with divine ingredients—peace, love, and atonement—which will be the only things capable of making peace in the Middle East, and no political or economic shenanigans, which Thucydides, in his works, illustrates as gears in the Devil’s machine of human history.
See that I leave before you a blessing and a curse. You may seek to continue to make Israel/Palestine the “Titus Andronicus” that it has been, by begetting hate which can in turn only beget more hate, as memories of the Holocaust and past persecutions still fuel the Israeli settlers.
On the other hand, you can choose to create a new solution which does not alienate or intimidate anyone, but instead ensures the prominence of brotherly love, the most sublime state known to man. I may not know what it is yet, but if peace is the foundation of humanity, I am confident that the best solution lies within us.
I as a Jew love all human beings, whether or not they hate me or what I stand for, and I am ready to destroy Thucydides’ cruel circle of history, not with my fists, but instead with my hands on my heart and my mouth ready to speak words of loving rebuke and of praise.
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