While I am a disciple of neither Pangloss (a delusional fool whose creator was a vicious Anti-Semite) nor Pollyanna (whose saccharine treacle makes me nauseous) – I will admit I have seen a few glimmers of hope in the Middle East and beyond this past week. Usually the news out of the Middle East is anything but happy, and this past week there was yet again another tragedy: the fires raging through northern Israel, threatening the homes and lives of Jew and Arab alike  But I still see some signs of hope amidst such destruction, and some of them have come from very unexpected places.

 I was especially encouraged to read about Turkish aid. Given the relatively cool (and occasionally quite rhetorically hostile) relations between Israel and Turkey over the last 9 months, it is very nice to see that when it comes to humanitarian disasters, the Turks put concern for the lives of their fellow human beings ahead of political and diplomatic differences. If Israeli and Turkish leaders are smart, they will use this terrible event to begin to rebuild relations between their respective nations, perhaps creating even stronger bonds than those which existed before the flotilla incident last spring. I think there is reason to see this as a possibility, because Turkey’s willingness to help fight this fire places their outlook on the region in sharp contrast to that of Iran, a country whose leaders are surely very pleased to see that parts of Israel are being destroyed and lives being lost. While I have written many times of my concern that Turkey is drifting toward Iran, their response to the fires shows that unlike the Iranian regime, the Turkish leadership is not interested in seeing Israel destroyed. This could be an important moment in the history of Israeli-Turkish relations, providing an opportunity for both nations to set an example that relationships of trust, cooperation and mutual aid can actually be built upon things besides the resentful and bloody outcomes of war.

The deaths which have occurred as a result of this fire are an awful reminder of the transient and fleeting nature of human life, that many of those who died were prison guards, killed while going to help evacuate prisoners, only compounds the sense of helplessness one feels when hearing about this disaster. Such natural disasters are of course not unknown in the Middle East and Mediterranean – Greece suffered terrible several years ago from a similarly uncontrollable conflagration, Turkey has been the victim of earthquakes. In my mind, this highlights the need for the creation of a regional disaster response network which would allow countries such as Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Italy to work well and quickly together in the event of a natural disaster. This would not only provide a direct benefit to the victims of a disaster, but would also build goodwill and trust between nations and people.

One reason I feel optimistic that such a project might happen one day comes from what I observed last week at a very interesting Hannukah celebration, organized by the American Jewish Committee and hosted by the Consulate General of Greece to New England. The attendees included a wide range of people, from young leaders involved with the AJC, the Greek community and the American Islamic Congress, to young diplomatic  representatives from other consulates-general, including those of Israel, Germany, France and Great Britain. For over three hours we talked to one another and heard remarks from Greek Consul-General Orphanides, AJC Regional Director Rob Leikind and others. What struck me about this event was the way in which such a diverse group of people representing so many different ethnic, religious and national groups, could come together and find that we have so much  to discuss. I have seen this happen before, of course, but set against the backdrop of the fires in Israel and the response of the international community on a large scale, it was nice to see something similar taking place on a smaller one. If we can find ways to harness this cooperative energy which so obviously exists on the local level and use it to support the work of leaders at the national (and international) level, perhaps we can demonstrate to the world that there is far greater room and opportunity for cooperation than we sometimes so cynically underestimate. We have nothing to lose from trying, in my opinion, and a tremendous amount to gain.

 

-Daniel E. Levenson

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

The New Vilna Review

 

Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2010.

 In the interest of full disclosure I should note that I am a member of the AJC Global Circle. This piece first appeared on the New Vilna Review website.