Wandering hearts, troubled souls & involved minds

Woordcombinaties zijn in die zin net zo eindeloos als algebra en meetkunde: oeroud Sanskriet, Farsi, Grieks, Latijn heeft aldus wegen gevonden in
practisch alle 'moderne talen'. De woorden en cijfers voor 'g d', 'nul', eeuwigheid, heelal, nu & hier vallen samen via alfabet/alefbeit in ons 'zijn'?!

Unlike similar name changes by Jewish immigrants to countries with non-Jewish majorities these cannot be said to conceal the Jewishness of its bearers, but they do precisely conceal their Yiddishkayt, their Yiddishness. The revelation of this covert history should help to nuance the notion of the absolute, "phallic" Ashkenazi ruler of Israeli society precisely by bringing back a reminder of the Yiddish subaltern uneasily contained within that exalted Ashkenazi! In contrast to this emphasis in European secular Zionism on innovation and on rejection of the alte zakhen of the diasporic Yiddish past, Palestinian culture and collective identity are sometimes portrayed as unalienated, authentically rooted in the land and in the past. Yet formulations of both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism are marked by a curious combination, on the one hand, of claims of pri- ority, of being THE nation that "really" belongs to the land, and, on the other hand, of claims to representing the side of progress in this national struggle. The Isareli-Palestinian conflict is thus a struggle for both land and history, space and time. History is as basic to the two peoples' iden-tity and security as is land. A great deal has been written about this history with the intent of clarifying the origins of the conflict, but it had rare-ly been addressed as one of the major stakes over which Israelis Nd Palestinians still contend. The very notion of abstract time - in which discre- te events can be marked as discontinuous, sequential, or simultaneous - is closely linked to the progressive concept of history throughout these stories from several books, sources, interrelations and cross-fertilizing 'happenings'?! Yet even on the most straightforward, everyday level the practical relevance of time becomes clear when we consider that the most likely territorial resolution of the conflict - partition into two separate
states - was accepted formally and in principle by the Zionist leadership in the 1940s, and is accepted by mainstream Palestinian leaders today, but has never been simultaneously by the contending parities. Even after the signing of a vague agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization in September '93, this question of whether the Israelis would ever agree to the establishment of a separate Palestinian state, and whether the Palestinians would ever agree to anything less, cast the realization of even the minimal initial terms of such an agreement in doubt. Our research is inteded to clarify both why such a compromise is so difficult to achieve and I. What ways it is inadequate as a solution to the problem of conflicting histories. Research into these questions can benefit from the insights of contemporary cultural theory - a body of work that draws on all the humanities and social sciences. Cultural theory addresses global social dynamics without ignoring particular cultural frameworks of perception. Thus our approach neither shuts out the larger framework of world history in which the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict is set nor treats the Israelis and Palestinians as mute pawns in a global chess game. it is not intended to imply any symmetry in the expi-riences on which Israeli and Palestinian identities are based. It provides a starting point for an effective critique of various theories of conflict genesis and resolution: European models of conflict resolution through mediation by "neutral" powers; the progressive idea that "religion" or "na-tionalism" is the essential problem; and well-intentioned "dialogism" without sufficient grounding in the cultures, histories, and differential powers
of the parties to the conflict. This approach also questions the employment of value-laden political goals based on Euro-American models, such as the desire for independence and the doctrine of democratic pluralism, as well as security concerns deemed "natural" or "commonsense," such as the mutual fear of irredentism. Employing it, I sometimes find myself struggling to repress a naive or liberal belief that "People are basically good
at heart" and to remember that the worst nightmare scenarios of those who mistrust all treaties sometimes come to pass. Yet it is important to remember that such project ice scenarios remain grounded not in the holy spirit of prophecy but in a complex mix of information, anxieties, em-phases, and desires. My mind dwells where my heart belongs: more or less exactly in-between warring parties & mutual ignorant foolishness ...