Let's Talk Root Causes
9/30/06
by William Hessell


Our government's leaders have been saying a lot in recent days about "root causes".  Bush, Cheney, Rice, and their spokespeople have repeatedly stated that the root cause of the fighting in Lebanon is Hezbollah, that terrorism is the root cause of the threats we face at home and abroad, and that terrorists and the countries that support them must be defeated to eradicate the root cause of the worldwide struggle in which we are engaged.  The "war on terrorism" is seen as a matter of killing all the terrorists, winning in Iraq is reduced to eliminating people considered terrorists, i.e., involved in anti-government activity or sectarian strife.  This simplistic way of looking at root causes and their solution needs to be seriously challenged.  Much wiser people have emphatically stated that terrorism is a response, not a cause, and that to deal effectively with terrorism an understanding of the underlying causes must be developed and steps taken to reverse them, in addition to safeguarding against eminent threats and taking necessary action against those actively engaged in terrorism.  To focus only on the latter leaves the root causes unaffected.  Rather than eradicating terrorism, more terrorists are created, as has been occurring in the current battle between Islamic extremists and the US-led alliance of countries in the Middle East.

So what are some of the real root causes of the conflict in the Middle East?  They are obviously complex, long-standing, and interwoven, and reducing them to a simple matter of right and wrong does a disservice to the realities that exist there.  It may be more realistic to speak of "perpetuating" causes rather than root causes, since some of the significant factors are so historical that their influence spans over centuries.  Hostilities engendered since the early days of the Muslim religion and subsequent conflict between Muslims and Christians during the Crusades, and between Hebrew and Muslim peoples fighting to retain land they both consider their homeland, has left a lasting and unfortunate legacy that has continued over time.  The creation of the state of Israel at the conclusion of World War II, as valued as that has been in providing Jewish people with a legitimate homeland, had a highly unsettling effect on the region, as the solution was forced on the local inhabitants and the problems created by the displaced Palestinian refugees have been allowed to fester for generations.  As attempts to resolve the conflict failed and open fighting erupted periodically, Israel, with major support from the United States and other Western nations, developed into a formidable military and nuclear power, while the Palestinian refugees and surrounding Islamic countries were unable to develop comparable strength.  The utter failure of western nations to broker a settlement to the problems created by the Palestinian displacement, and the resulting imbalance in strength between those struggling for survival in this region, has to be considered the major root cause of the continued conflict in the area.  And with the serious imbalance in military strength that exists, terrorism became the main means for the weaker side to sustain the conflict.

The obvious solution to the conflict, full recognition and acceptance of the state of Israel by the Palestinian people and the concomitant establishment of a viable, self-sustaining, independent state of Palestinians including Gaza and the West Bank, will not be easily accomplished.  The immediate perpetuating causes should first be the focus of attention--the intense poverty that gives Palestinians a sense of hopelessness that fuels their hatred of those they blame for their suffering, and the intense distrust and hatred that both sides have developed for each other through the years of fighting and failed attempts to resolve the conflict.  If invested nations are interested in lessening the poverty, hopelessness, and lack of development that has racked Palestinians, one option could be undertaking a program akin to a Marshall Plan for the area, to foster development and imbue hope in tangible steps towards self-improvement.  To lessen distrust and hatred obviously takes time, and an incremental process involving sequential contact in controlled settings.  This has been impossible in a context where adversaries refuse to even talk to each other, and when the only attempts to negotiate are based on intimidation and force.  A change in the mindset that exists in the Middle East is unlikely when the world's superpower, the United States, itself currently models a style of conflict resolution that relies on power and dominance rather than true diplomacy and negotiation.  When our President refuses to talk with adversaries until they submit to our demands (he will agree to direct talks with Iran when they first agree to suspend nuclear development) and when he states that in dealing with adversaries, he isn't interested in "process", he is only interested in results, he is playing into the same mindset that has left the Middle East in torment for generations.  Neither the root causes, nor the perpetuating causes, will be dealt with that way, and true solutions will not be found if the real causes are overlooked.   Let's hope that future leaders adopt a different course.