What is the source of such a conflict? Although some see it as a struggle for control of oil, that is only the latest wrinkle of a conflict deeply seated in the psyches of all concerned. It is the spiritual aspects, not the economic, that hold the key.
Four great religions trace their origins, both physical and spiritual, to Jerusalem: Judaism, Western Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and Islam. It is where the one God revealed himself to Abraham, the patriarch of all these faiths; where Solomon and Herod built the temples that held the Ark of the Covenant between that God and their people; where Jesus suffered and died for the sins of mankind and rose triumphant from the dead; where the prophet Mohammed conversed with Allah and ascended into heaven; and where now stands the Islamic Dome of the Rock, built on the very ruins of the earlier temples. Even now, certain Christian groups in this country are urging Congress to support Israel because "God is not yet done with the Jewish people," echoing a near-apocalyptic desire to found the New Jerusalem after the final conflict.
These religions have formed the basis of civilizations that now encompass most of the world. They have each in their time sought to expand through physical force rather than moral persuasion. The current world crisis is the latest chapter of that conflict, with the potential of being the deadliest. Yet even if they are not bound by the moral imperative that any conflict should be resolved without violence, they should at least accept the historical lessons that tolerance and polycentrism are ultimately in their self-interest. The time has come for all parties in the conflict to acknowledge their own and each other's interests and to share the one city that cannot be divided: Jerusalem.
As described by Arnold Toynbee in his multi-volume opus A Study of History, there are five civilizations that currently encompass most of the world's population:
1. The Far Eastern, or Sinic, society, which formed its first nation-state in the third century B.C., with Buddhism as its spiritual basis. It includes China, Japan, and most of southeast Asia.
2. Western Christendom, which grew out of the Roman Empire, and extends from central Europe around the globe through the Americas and on to Australia.
3. Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which evolved from a split in both the Roman Empire and the Christian church, and extends from southeastern Europe eastward through Russia to the Pacific.
4. The Indic society, centered in the sub-continent of India, which formed its first nation-state in the fourth century A.D. with Hinduism as its spiritual basis.
5. The Islamic society, extending from northwest Africa through the Middle East to Indonesia, which began in the eighth century A.D.
These civilizations have survived the bi-polar world of communism versus capitalism. They are even more complex than George Orwell's tripartite world of Eurasia, Eastasia, and Oceania as envisioned in 1984. Yet for the most part they follow the pattern described in 1984's pivotal chapter, "War is Peace": they are constantly maneuvering in an effort to extend their control over the fringes of the others' spheres of influence.
It was probably easy for Orwell to lump together India and the Far East. But his great mistake was under-estimating the resilience of the Islamic society and its ability to maintain the cultural identity of a broad swath of humanity that refused to be absorbed by the dominant societies around it. Adapting to the dynamic tensions remaining between these societies is now the greatest problem facing the world.
There are, of course, other civilizations/societies in the current world, but they have not coalesced into the universal state and unifying spiritual force that mark those above. Certainly the culture of sub-Saharan Africa is of immense importance to the development of humanity. It is no co-incidence the most reasonable leader during this crisis, Kofi Annan of the United Nations, was nurtured by that culture. And there are other smaller, fractured, arrested, and fossilized cultures that make up the rich fabric of the human psyche. Indeed, one of these, Judaism, although the basis of only one small nation-state, is nonetheless at the geo-political center of a dispute that threatens the rest.
The resolution of this crisis thus requires not only that the Islamic world share Jerusalem with Israel, but that the Western world share Jerusalem with Islam. We cannot pretend to be uninvolved with that decision. It is the box outside the box that must be addressed with courage, compassion, and wisdom.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2002
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited