Edward Seaga

Much is being written about the future of the world since the great tragedy of 9/11 but without sufficient recognition or understanding of the real history.

The underlying force which erupted on 9/11 causing the mighty pillars of the temple of capitalism to buckle and collapse was not a sudden surge of pent-up anger. This anger had been stored in the psyche of hundreds of millions of people for more than 3,000 years with periodic emission in ancient times in various tribal wars in lands now called the Middle East, followed by waves of invasions by crusaders more than 1,000 years ago. Indeed, it goes right back to the patriarchal foundation of Abraham, the biblical father figure 3,600 years ago.

Abraham had two sons, Ishmael (Ismail) and Isaac (Ishaq). Ishmael was born of an Egyptian mother, Hagar. She was a slave to Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Because Sarah had not been able to conceive, Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham so that there could be conception of a child to carry on his "seed." Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael, so named by Hagar, was born.

But Jehovah God promised a doubting Sarah a child. She eventually conceived when she was 90 years old and Abraham 100, truly a divine gift. He was called Isaac.

As Isaac grew, Sarah became concerned about his legacy. She did not want Isaac to share his inheritance from Abraham with Ishmael. So she called on Abraham to banish Hagar and Ishmael from their camp. Abraham was reluctant, but, it is written in the Bible that God intervened and told Abraham to heed the pleading of his wife. So Hagar and Ishmael were put out of their home to roam in the desert.

Prophecy

Hagar was told by an angel of the Lord prophetically that her unborn child would be "a wild man, his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him" (Genesis 17:12). The angel also promised to "multiply her seed exceeding and it shall not be numbered for multitude" (Genesis 17:10).

Written in the scriptures, therefore, is the genesis of the discord of Ishmael, dispossessed of home but possessed of anger which has manifested itself under the name of many tribes in many wars in which the sons of Ishmael (Canaanites/Philistines/Palestinians/Muslims/Mohammedans) have been pitted against the sons of Isaac (Israel and Judah).

Out of the seed of Isaac, Judaism and its off-shoot, Christianity, were born, led by Jesus Christ the Messiah and Jesus Christ the Son of God. But the same God who told Abraham to heed his wife and banish Ishmael and his mother to roam the desert could never be Ishmael's God. So out of the seed of Ishmael came the God of Ishmael (Islam) led by Mohammed the prophet.

Birth of three great religions

From the split by Abraham came three great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam - all products of his seeds.

But the hand of the angered Ishmael has been "against every man and every man's hand against him." This bitter, deep-rooted enmity of those dispossessed of home but possessed of anger has been at the root of conflicts for over 3,000 years. Had Ishmael not been evicted to roam in the desert, the seeds of Isaac and Ishmael could have worshipped together before the same throne, sharing the same religion and same God. There would have been no crusades which ravaged the Holy Land for three centuries as Christians tried and failed to recapture the spiritual home of Christianity from Muslims who fought off attempts to evict them from their spiritual home in the same land.

The parallels are too sharp to ignore. Although the error of the past cannot be corrected today, this great error which split the seed of Abraham into two peoples, Arabs and Jews, and three religions, need to be made the crux of the solution because without settling the historic dispute there may be no peace.

Peace settlement?

Is there such a solution that can reduce warring religious tribes to a settlement which brings peace?

When the Turkish Ottoman Empire fell as a vanquished power after World War 1, by agreement of the League of Nations (1920), France became responsible for Syria. This included the area now known as The Lebanon which was split off from Syria. By this separation, the large Christian community of Lebanon who worshipped as Maronite Christians was insulated and protected. The separated area was comprised of Christians as well as Muslims of two sects: Sunni and Shiite. A wise constitution was drafted in which the President of Lebanon would always be a Maronite Christian; the Prime Minister, a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the House, a Shiite Muslim. Lebanon has existed with this co-existence arrangement peacefully ever since, except for an internal war in the 1980s which was triggered by encroachment from displaced Palestinians and the involvement of neighbouring countries.

Beacon in the Middle East

For those who value democracy, Lebanon has been a beacon in the Middle East although it had no natural resources. It has been a piece of the west in the east, the Switzerland of the Middle East, a model for others to follow. Instead of this oasis being hailed as a living example of co-existence between conflicting factions, it was pulverized with the massive destruction of missiles by the short sighted policy of men, and of others who encouraged them, who do not realize that they were destroying a symbol of the future.

Lebanon was an example of a political solution. Over several decades political solutions have been tried and have failed to bring peace because with successive generations the sons of Ishmael have grown in anger to a point of being intractable to all but extreme solutions. Obviously, something else has to be tried.

Since the political solution has failed, the alternative now considered to be the option, is a military solution. The recent merciless bombardment of southern Lebanon by the vastly superior armaments of Israel has been the military option to rid the area of Hezbollah guerilla forces that are doing sufficient damage in the northern area of Israel to cause anger and deep concern. But the military option did not succeed in eradicating the Hezbollah threat.

Military solutions won't work

This conflict in the affected area has become a classic case of conventional warfare versus guerilla tactics. This is a replica of Iraq and to a lesser extent Vietnam. It was the tactic of the Sinn Fein of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against Britain. The odds in such cases are with the guerillas as Israel, the United States and Britain have discovered for a simple reason best expressed by Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA after a near successful attempt to assassinate the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by exploding a bomb in her hotel suite in Blackpool at a British Labour Party Convention. Adams publicly told Margaret Thatcher, when she fortunately escaped injury by the blast: "You have to be lucky every time; we have to be lucky only once". No one knows when or where the suicide bombers will next strike in Israel, or elsewhere. No one knows when or where Al Qaeda will strike next. No one knows where and in what jungle area guerillas are hidden. One force is in the open; the other, hidden. There can be only one solution here eventually. The military solution won't work.

When Abraham turned Ishmael and his mother out into the desert, they faced a stark existence. The desert was fruitless, but not anymore. The desert is now the richest area of petroleum deposits and untold wealth. Its fabled wealth can be a source of terror or prosperity.

Israel, on the other hand, has one of the greatest pools of advanced science and technology in the world. Marry the money and the technology and another Europe will be born. This is the vision that should be pursued. Even though it seems unrealistically attainable, a start must be made by which each step becomes the driving force for the next. Europe is an appropriate analogy. The name is from the daughter Europa, of the Tyrean King, Tyre then being a city state in Phoenicia, today's Lebanon. It was the Phoenicians who were the first explorers to circumnavigate Africa and dominate trade in the Mediterranean Basin. They created, arguably, one of the greatest innovations of world history, the alphabet.

When I visited Israel in 1963 at the invitation of Prime Minister Golda Meir, I marveled at the amount of relevant technology displayed in agriculture, housing and energy. They made the desert bloom, produced the most productive dairy cow and solved many problems still facing the developing world.

Ping-Pong diplomacy

The polarisation of US-China relations in the Richard Nixon presidency was a threat that potentially could have become violent and global. That threat was not diffused and converted to a mutually productive relationship by either political or military solutions. It was overcome by economic co-operation. As difficult as it was to imagine such a solution at the time, it was eventually effected by starting with a small, insignificant step: ping pong. The two countries broke the ice with a ping pong tournament then followed up with diplomatic initiatives as the next step, eventually reaching step by step to the present level of mutual deterrence and mutual reliance for compelling economic reasons.

It is time to put away the old weapons. The IRA did that. Ireland has become so economically prosperous no one wants to be bothered with war. The resources are there for the same prosperity, if Arab money can be married to Israeli technology. This should be the focus in order to reverse the steps of Ishmael until he feels that he is back home again with his cousin, if not under the same olive tree, under another.

Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the UWI. E-mail: odf@uwimona.edu.jm