Protection Racket

There is a chant that one often hears in protests in the United States, especially when the subject is "racial justice" for the nation's Black population.

"No justice, no peace."

This chant comes across as extortionate. Mainly because it is. However, there is also an implicit promise in it; that if there is justice, then peace, rather than payback will follow. These are points I've made before, so I'm not going to drain them again here.

I bring this up because I find it a useful lens through which to view the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The Palestinians feel that they deserve a functioning state of their own, with part of Jerusalem as its capitol. The problem they have is a more or less complete lack of anything with which to pay for it. They have nothing that Israel wants enough to meet their price for it, and nothing that anyone else needs badly enough to put pressure on, or intercede with, Israel on their behalf.

And so, as with many other politically powerless groups, they are reduced to protesting and acts of violence. As they (and some number of other people) see it only their readiness, willingness and ability to inflict pain, suffering and death allow them to stay relevant, and advocate for their interests. (Of course, they run into the same problem that most political violence does; the pain, suffering and death are seen as ends in themselves, rather than means, by the people they are attempting to influence. And this understanding (or misunderstanding, if you prefer) becomes and affirmative roadblock to progress because it casts the implicit promise that peace will follow justice as false.

While much is being made of the fact that certain young people and/or leftists in the United States appear to actively support what Hamas has done in Israel, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. After all, these are more or less the groups that line up behind the chants of "no justice, no peace" when they are heard on this side of the world.

I don't cast myself as anything approaching an expert on international affairs or foreign policy. But I suspect that, unless this is allowed to play out to the eventual decimation of the Palestinians, and end to it will require that someone give the Palestinians something that they can bargain with, other than bloodshed.