A Desert Mirage? Looking for Peace in the Middle East

The Middle East, meaning roughly that region between Pakistan and Libya and from Turkey south to the Indian Ocean, has been wracked by conflict since the end of the First World War.  As politicians have searched for ways to end regional conflict, they have sought to understand it in terms of the borders created by Britain and France at the Versailles peace conference of 1919. So modern statesmen who have sought peace in the Middle East have put forward political solutions to what they see as political problems.  Apart from the 1976 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel this approach has clearly not worked.  Nor has military action solved the region’s problems.  If anything, military action has frequently made the violence worse. 

Instead of focusing on Middle Eastern states, we need to understand the cultural, economic, and political interests and concerns of the peoples involved.  The modern economy, for instance, has led to dramatic job growth in the region, but also to an influx of foreigners.  This in turn has led many to see ‘westernization’ as a threat to traditional cultures and led to the growth of religious fundamentalism.  Cultural differences have also driven conflict. The establishment of a de facto Kurdish nation after the Second Gulf War has led to violence between Kurds and Arabs in eastern Syria.  Palestinians see Israelis as western intruders, not a people with whom they share a history and culture.  And Israelis remain traumatized by the Holocaust, a trauma that sometimes leads Israelis to misinterpret actions in the countries around them.  Recognizing that antisemitism has adherents in some Middle Eastern cultures (Palestinian and Iranian in particular) further complicates the search for peace.  To ask the question, then, can we find peace in the Middle East? Perhaps, by immersing ourselves in these economic and cultural factors we can.