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Bradley Burston/ Ten Mideast traps for Barack Obama to avoid
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Burston, Israel, Palestine 

For the first time as a potential president, Barack Obama is venturing into the seductive bazaar that is Israel and Palestine.

Both sides will welcome him with the avalanche of courtesy accorded a person of his stature, that is, a prospective customer. Not just any customer, of course. An American customer. In fact, the ultimate American customer.

Both sides have much to sell him. Based on hearsay, which, in the Middle East, is the most trusted form of evidence, they are also wary of him.

In order to deal effectively with these people, the Israelis and the Palestinians, he will need to know at least as much about them and their culture, as they are certain that they know about him and his.

To know them is to learn the rules of the bazaar, a seductive warren of apparent treasures and unmarked tiger traps, obvious opportunities and unmapped landmines, creative come-ons and must-see blind alleys, intriguing doors and brilliantly baited hooks.

Herewith a survival guide, 10 caveats for the para-presidential tourist:

1. There is no such thing as small talk.

All conversation is negotiation. Form is substance. Gestures, niceties, deference to cultural details are paramount. Phrasing is everything.

The crucial divide here is not specifically between Jews and Arabs, but between what people here define as home and what they define as the shuk, the marketplace.

There will be a gulf of difference between the way they speak with you when they see you as a guest in their house, and when they see you as a potential customer. Do not take umbrage. Take advantage.

2. Everyone here will lie to you.

There will be no exceptions. Take advantage. Listen to both sides with equal measures of care and incredulity.

Remember that their view of the Holy Land is no more objective that their view of America. Keep in mind that their view of both has to do with the status of Israelis and Palestinians as the most consistently disappointed people on the face of the earth. Not the most miserable, not the most oppressed, not the most denigrated - though they themselves may argue that they are - but certainly the people whose leaders, spiritual and political as one, have historically promised them the most, and delivered the least.

If they lie, and they will, never take it personally. For more than a century, the Palestinians national movement, no less and no more than the Zionist movement, have been based in part on the lies we tell ourselves here.

Prepare to cater to two parallel systems of self-delusion. This is, in no small part, an outgrowth of:

3. Sectarian selective moral blindness.

Sample conversation: Side One will recite, chapter and verse, minutely documented examples of the moral failings of Side Two. Side One will also be prepared with elegantly argued defenses of why their own actions must be seen in the wider context of the conflict, are therefore of negligible significance, are unrepresentative and isolated acts, or are expressions of legitimate self-defense.

Test Questions: Ask both sides about Qassam rockets. Then ask both about the incident http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1003717.html earlier this month in which a bound, blindfolded Palestinian, detained in a clash with IDF soldiers during a West Bank demonstration against the security fence, was shot and wounded with a rubber bullet fired by a soldier standing beside him.

4. When on the fraying tightrope, the trick is to take steps, not sides.

Israelis and Palestinians both will greet your arrival with maddening moves, some of them designed specifically to derail your progress, some of them simply having this as a side effect.

5. The more obnoxious they may seem, the more courteous you must be. Therefore:

6. Compassion, compassion, compassion.

The problem here is not that one side is right and the other wrong. The problem here is that both sides are right. Which is one of the reasons that:

7. Most people on both sides are in favor of peace, and, at this point, few people on either side believe in it.

Most people on both sides will explain calmly and with conviction why their side can no longer in good conscience compromise on certain issues, how their side has compromised much more to date than the other, how the other has consistently violated peace agreements. In most cases, they will be right. Consequently:

8. Look upon the unexpected as your only hope.

They have seen everything here. They have seen it all for much too long. They have been at war so long that their great-grandparents were at war as well. Their grievances are engraved on the very back walls of their hearts. Their claims have become the stuff of religious belief. They feel that they have nowhere else to go, and can no longer move forward toward peace.

Be open to the last thing they expect.. It may be a war in the region, or perhaps a regime change. They have seen everything here, but they are still regularly and thoroughly shocked. Take advantage. The unexpected happens here more often than anyone suspects, and it may be your only opening for creativity and positive mediation.

9. Tough bargaining is a way of showing honor.

This is the first rule of the bazaar, and perhaps the only rule. Be hard on both sides. But under no circumstances condescend, force-feed, coddle or fawn. They will respect you for it. Finally:

10. Remember who you are.

Resist the urge to fall in love with the place, and with one side. Of all the sophisticated traps this place lays, this is by far the most insidious. Feel free to give in to the emotion, but reclaim your head at the door. There are as many lures here as there are newcomers, but for American Protestants in particular, they roughly break down to two: The Lawrence of Arabia Syndrome, the belief that you, and perhaps only you, can confer statehood on the Palestinians, and its mirror image, The Land of the Prophets Effect, the belief that the Palestinians can be ignored.

If you become president, your job will be to help them manage their chronic disease, the one they will either die with or die from. You will be dealing with an entire population suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and receiving no treatment, two entire peoples in permanent stages of grief. Some are in denial, others in anger, some in the bargaining phase and others in depression.

If you become president, your goal will be to somehow bring these peoples to a semblance of acceptance. Odds are it won't work. Odds are that both peoples, and the American as well, will hinder you. Odds are that the terms of peace will be beyond the means and will of Americans to finance them. But should you succeed, there will be no legacy of greater lasting importance.


Previous blogs:

The pleasure that Hezbollah takes in torture
Experiment: People's Peace Plan Number 1
Fear of calling a terrorist a terrorist
Palestinian terrorism as a natural act
How would Jesus vote on Mideast peace?
Perhaps we killed Christ after all
Experiment: Peace dead? Send us your own plan!
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
4th quarter jitters
Democrats have grown so used to losing, they feel any good news must have a catch.
Designing an icon
Ten years ago, two students asked Israeli Ruth Kedar to design their new company's logo.
  1.   To Bradleys even handed advice I would add 16:18  |  Natallie Durson 22/07/08
  2.   Who are you???????????????? 16:45  |  Asher 22/07/08
  3.   If we were Saints... 16:54  |  Allan 22/07/08
  4.   "Prepare to cater to 2 parallel systems of self-delusion" 16:55  |  Aphemia 22/07/08
  5.   Great piece of journalism 17:16  |  Keith T. 22/07/08
  6.   There has to be peace 17:29  |  Soothsayer 22/07/08
  7.   Most people on both sides are in favor of peace, 17:47  |  Dr. David Feigenbaum 22/07/08
  8.   Bradley`s analysis 17:50  |  Dov Ber 22/07/08
  9.   ANOTHER TRAP FROM ARABS 17:51  |  indrajaya 22/07/08
  10.   Thank You Bradley, I benefitted from your points I`ve struggled 17:53  |  Palestinian 22/07/08
  11.   Best Advice For Barack Obama 18:04  |  Yosemite 22/07/08
  12.   Bradley - a Jew or an impartial judge? 18:06  |  x-ray 22/07/08
  13.   HOW COULD IT BE? 18:12  |  indrajaya 22/07/08
  14.   A democracy based on the laws of a bazaar 18:28  |  Kris Lazar 22/07/08
  15.   Obama ME visit 18:47  |  Anonymous 22/07/08
  16.   Advice for Obama: Put America`s interest and ally with Israel 18:54  |  Realist 22/07/08
  17.   How droll Bradley!But at least it`s better than those insidious 19:14  |  lakshmi 22/07/08
  18.   Best News Yet Bradley 19:19  |  Yosemite 22/07/08
  19.   Moreover, about PLO and Hamas you know, but Israel has the worst 19:51  |  S 22/07/08
  20.   TEN STEPS 20:36  |  ANA STONE 22/07/08
  21.   #1 Dr. David Feigenbaum 20:45  |  Boycott 22/07/08
  22.   Simple logic escapes David Feigenbaum # 2 21:07  |  Clickfool 22/07/08
  23.   Indrajaya and the First Mistake 21:12  |  Greg 22/07/08
  24.   There is a reason, Dr. Feigenbaum 21:14  |  Sam C 22/07/08
  25.   6 X-ray - Why not Both? 21:15  |  Mark of Lewiston 22/07/08
  26.   More Amusing ( I choose to smile, not cry) Moral Equivalency 21:27  |  Tod Zuckerman 22/07/08
  27.   Arab property and Jewish lives 21:41  |  R`phael Moshe 22/07/08
  28.   The contempt shows 21:55  |  Natallie Durson 22/07/08
  29.   Tod Zuckerman 22:36  |  Mark B. 22/07/08
  30.   Barack Obama & Mideast 22:59  |  David Zweibel 22/07/08
  31.   Humor - prescription drug for humanity 23:26  |  Toon Moene 22/07/08
  32.   The Walrus & Burston 23:27  |  Hank N Tennessee 22/07/08
  33.   25 David Zweiberl,maybe if israel stopped its theft of 00:28  |  lakshmi 23/07/08
  34.   #3 dr david Feiganbaum re 70% favour armed struggle 00:41  |  Labhras 23/07/08
  35.   one & only advice to Barack Obama - 01:25  |  ivo 23/07/08
  36.   You`re talking about a tinhorn lawyer here! 01:50  |  Voice of Reason 23/07/08
  37.   Whats meant by "Palestinian" Land? 02:11  |  Scharker Yid 23/07/08
  38.   Rule #11: Don`t forget to apply pressure, especially on Israel 04:12  |  Tosefta 23/07/08
  39.   Too bad Obama doesn`t hold an American birth certificate 04:47  |  Ran 23/07/08
  40.   What a cleverly written article to Barack Obama 05:16  |  Smadar 23/07/08
  41.   The `Big Trap` 05:19  |  Mark Lincoln 23/07/08
  42.   Sweet jump shot 05:58  |  allang 23/07/08
  43.   26 mAYBE IF... 06:50  |  David 23/07/08
  44.   Shuk and jive.... 07:43  |  Webster 23/07/08
  45.   For posterity 08:12  |  james hazan 23/07/08
  46.   good writing 08:41  |  freda 23/07/08
  47.   #32, Tosefta, stop dreaming 09:20  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 23/07/08
  48.   scharker 31 palestine 09:33  |  hassan salem 23/07/08
  49.   Yes Mark of Lewiston Have you seen an arab who is both? 09:39  |  x-ray 23/07/08
  50.   Burston again tries the ignorance of equivalence 09:47  |  David Teich 23/07/08
  51.   No. 11 Forge friendships. Just like USA`s southern neighbor... 10:15  |  Maureen Ann 23/07/08
  52.   For Mark Lincoln # 36 10:37  |  Clickfool 23/07/08
  53.   #51, clickfool 10:55  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 23/07/08
  54.   Soothsayer-naive, Feigenbaum realist 12:18  |  Hilda 23/07/08
  55.   Rule Ten 12:37  |  Eric C 23/07/08
  56.   The 11th Trap 13:33  |  ARTH 23/07/08
  57.   The Eleventh point and the Messiah 13:38  |  Ronnie Wolman 23/07/08
  58.   #2 Aszer 13:55  |  Dave 23/07/08
  59.   #13 indrajaya 13:58  |  Dave 23/07/08
  60.   #50 The simple response to David Teich`s blatherings 14:08  |  Johnboy 23/07/08
  61.   Asher...Palestine is Palestine is Palestine