Samuel Huntington died at a convenient moment: one of his wars is starting. Huntington was an advisor to Carter and Hubert Humphrey, from a generation of post-Victorian romantic nationalists. His work is broader and more nuanced than its readers. However, Clash of Civilizations and Who Are We are not books meant to attract nuanced readers. Nuance in both is a rationalization, not a rationale.
While Huntington warned against America imposing its order on the rest of the world, his paradigm left few other options. His late influence obscures his contributions to political realism, such as Political Order in Changing Societies, which featured perhaps the most concise discussion to its day of modernization which, despite its rationalism does not necessarily mean the rationalization of power, authority, structure, or political participation, because of the difference between modernization as a direction, and modernization as a process.
The current war between Hamas and Israel is a Huntingtonian War, in that it is based on the belief that cultural unity is essential for national hegemony, and that unlimited force is acceptable in pursuit of this goal. It is an idea that was born of the rise of the Nation-State, and which traces a vast arc for good and evil, to land in the sands of Al-Anbar, the ravines of Helmand, and the mazes of Gaza. Israeli politics is predicated on certain totems of cultural unity which must be pursued at all cost as essential to their national identity, even if these conflict with peace. They are arrayed against a people – the Palestinians – who beginning 80 years ago traded their identity as Palestinians, for their identity as the edge of militarized pan-Arabism, a movement to which they historically had not belonged.
The outgoing administration backs Israel completely, however virtually the rest of the international community has called for a halt to the attacks, which have claimed more than 230 lives, of which Hamas reports 160 are security personnel. 700 are reported wounded. For comparison 31 Israelis are listed as killed by terrorism this year through October, 12 of them soldiers or security personnel. Steve Clemons perceptively notes that this is part of Bush’s reverse hundred days to restrict Obama to Bush’s policies.
Both Israel and their antagonists are creatures of outside flows of capital and funding: the current military aid deal to Israel is 30 billion over 10 years, with as much as an additional 1 billion from private donations. Hamas is even more dependent on outside funding, including allegations that Israeli intelligence community funded Hamas to create a counter-weight to Fatah in the first place. However, it is from Iran and other states seeking a counterweight to Israel that its military moneys come.
This inflow of outside funds drives cycles of terrorism, and it drives the military instrument in Israel. As a result, while taking nothing away in terms of responsibility of the parties involved, people are dying there, because of the internal political dynamics of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and a host of other states that find financing military proxies to be convenient.
At the present moment, however, this is a game changing moment. Israel’s political coalition, faced with electoral catastrophe, decided not to wait for administration change in Washington, and is pursuing an action aimed at decapitating the political leadership of Hamas in Gaza, risking a wider asymmetrical response. The gamble is undertaken, absent an overwhelming economic response from the outside world, or a stinging military defeat, neither of which should be relied upon.
Instead of a clash of civilizations, this should be seen as a clash of economic identity, with Israel and Hamas both willing to use violence to influence economic outcomes, and other actors funding a proxy war for their own economic needs. This is a collision between what Philip Bobbitt might call a "Market-State" in Israel, and a National-pre-state in the form of Hamas.
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It’s nice to read SOMETHING here that recognizes that their is culpability on both sides of this cluster fu*k.
This “war” is like shooting fish in a barrel.Isreal has tanks,planes,helicopters,guns,missles etc.Fighting a people who have small rockets and some guns and stones and a LOT of anger,living in horrible conditions and being told to accept it.The American Indian would eventually wind up on reservations,the Palestinians wind up in “GAZA”.
You see commercials for visitng all parts of the world,when is the last or first time you saw a commercial telling you to come and spend your vacation in Gaza?
Yea, just like those pesky VC with no air,not arty and small rockets and guns. We kicked their ass with our technology didn’t we?
This is a great essay, stirling. Its important to remember that all the normal functions of democracy in both these cases are deformed by the fact that endless war is costly only to the civilian population–its a moneymaker to the states or sub state entities involved. In fact, renouncing endless war would probably be a budget buster for both sides. Once we grasp that–that the business of both political entities (to the extent that there are two and only two) in the conflict is war, not peace. If we could make peace as valuable to both sides we’d have it in an instant. If, for example, the US and Iran deducted money support for every violent act their proxy side committed and *gave* money and support only for non violent state building/bridge building efforts, Hamas and Israel would come to an agreement, or simply stop bombing each other, more or less at once. There’s money in the war, and money *only* in the war.
aimai
Interesting analysis, and one that merits some considerable thought. Let me add one other point, if I might.
The tactical actions by Hamas — to wit, the continued provocation of firing rockets into Israeli territory — is downright stupid. It will of course accomplish no military goals of any kind, and, as we see here, is quite likely to trigger massive retaliation. Clearly, Hamas leadership has failed to learn from history and — equally clearly — they’re quite willing to suffer horrific civilian casualties, as long as they can use them as talking points. It’s a pity that the citizens of Gaza have apparently not figured that they’re pawns being used by BOTH sides; maybe if they did, they’d exterminate Hamas leadership themselves and save the IDF the trouble.
I continue to find it telling that the same Arab countries currently expressing their outrage over this are conspicuously silent when asked how many thousand refugees they would be willing to shelter, feed, and clothe. They, too, have their uses for the people in Gaza, and it serves their political purposes to keep this problem unsolved.
You better have this discussion before our traditional Sunday night Israel haters show up.
Yea, and remember the outrage from the “Arab Street” when the Paki’s went on their little spree in Mumbai?
Two things:
Firstly, I was just having a similar discussion with my husband when this post popped up. Nice summary of some of the issues we were just discussing.
Secondly, Raven!! Dude, I’ve missed your voice. I was going to say subtle snark, but chickened out.
Hi! I spent a week sitting on a dock on a lake in Virginia freezing my ass off and catching ZERO fishes!
Would that be like those who dislike the US government’s actions are America haters?
Breaking news from the CNN wire (11:26 AM EST):
Israeli bombs fell Sunday on the Palestinian side of the Rafah tunnels on the Egyptian border with southern Gaza, according to Palestinian sources.
The bombing came amid Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, carried out for a second day Sunday. At least 277 people have been killed, according to Palestinian sources. Ramattan television, a Palestinian network, broadcast footage of people picking through the rubble at the site.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the airstrike, which he said targeted 40 tunnels on the border. The tunnels, he said, are used by Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
Two tunnels were hit by missiles, eyewitnesses said, and others collapsed. Two people were killed. Palestinians began trying to cross over into Egypt through a hole in the wall after the bombing, the witnesses said, but Egyptian police and Hamas gunmen began firing in an attempt to stop them.
Note last paragraph.
If that’s the way you read it there’s nothing I can say about it now is there. Like I said above, I don’t buy the idea that this shit is all on Israel. What we did in the Nam was wrong but that didn’t mean the NVA/VC were boy scouts does it?
But, you had your ipod?
Merry Christmas, my friend.
My sister and her partner left LAX this am for Egypt. Told her to stay away from Gaza. She said she planned on doing just that. I’m looking forward to seeing a photo of her on the banks of the Nile, but think she’s taking an awful risk by going to that region.
iPod and the pupsters!
His work is broader and more nuanced than it’s readers… you can put that in caps next time around. Nothing good will come from this habitual
violence as solution to poverty technique. Stolen land is stolen land and
nothing will make that right except restitution. No sign of that soon, so
it will go on until the balance of power changes and makes it unprofitable,
like detroit.
Thanks for that report.
Plz see my # 13.
The Huntingtonistitic paradigmitonality of Israel’s aforementioned politico-economic bombastic campaign, as a metric, can not be overly underestimated, but I will try.
Having worked on reservations and developed relationships with many there, one thing is very obvious and that is that the wounds can be created very quickly but that it takes many, many generations for them to go away. When the Israeli Gestapo removes Palestinian homes because “they were blocking the Israelis view” and then killed the “terrorist” whose home had just been leveled because he was shooting his rifle at the tanks and dozers what we have is one “terrorist” dead dozens more created. The intense hatred that has been generated will not be dissipated by mowing down more houses – quite the contrary.
You make a keen observation and an important point. That is the impossible key. By looking at the maps and the incremental continuous expansion of Israel, logic dictates that eventually Israel will overtake all of Gaza and the interior Palestinian territories.
When that happens, Israel would then be attacked from bordering states. Whether we like it or not, Obama shows no sign of unwavering, full support of Israel.
Every dead terrorist is fertilizer for many more.
No. There’s plenty of responsibility to go around. The members of the Arab League fund, directly or indirectly, Hizbollah and Hamas while we provide Israel with military aid. I actually put more of the responsibility for the current situation on the US for not exerting its influence in a different and more constructive manner after 1967. I remember the attitude in the military at the time. The military was all for Israel taking over the entire region, not just Palestine.
BTW Caroline Kennedy gave another non-interview. This one with the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12…..=1&hp
And when you mention that to the Sunday night crew they say what?
Just to show how irresponsible the Palestinians are. I bet not one of the 280 Palestinians who have been killed will admit it was their fault for getting themselves killed. As for the Israelis, I think it shows their maturity and restraint that they held off on these strikes until they would have the biggest impact on their national elections in February.
I don’t know that I’ve put it to them quite that way. Needless to say I’ve got issues with most of the governments involved. Like the US it seems to be a really steep hill to get people elected, or to make policy, outside of the fear paradigm. We took what would have been a complicated police matter and turned it into a war, based strictly on the fear factor. I’m certainly open to any suggestions on how to do away with that paradigm in order to end the multiple conflicts we see now. As you said, I sure didn’t see any of the Arab countries screaming about the attacks in Mumbai.
SouthernDragon (at #21) is right: there’s all kinds of responsibility to go around.
I’ve suggested, half-seriously, half-facetiously, that we (the US) should have made Utah available as a Jewish homeland post-WWII. We could have easily absorbed the influx, it would be just one more diverse community among our many, and we could have avoided 60 years of bloodshed. I’m sure this wouldn’t satisfy hardliners and religious fanatics, but such people will NEVER be satisfied and will spill rivers of blood trying to achieve unattainable goals…as we’ve seen.
Of course, Egypt…or Saudi Arabia…or any number of other countries could offer the same to Palestinians if they so chose. Clearly, Saudi Arabia, with its immense wealth, could accommodate them with only a trifling effort.
In the beginning I felt that Israel was only doing what it had to do to protect its land and people. The dynamic seems to have changed over time and it looks as if Israel wishes to take all the Palestinian land. I fear that if Israel succeeds it will sow the seeds for all out war in the ME and that Israel will not survive.
Love CK’s bipartisanship and compromise on health care position. CK sez, health care should be affordable.
Hell, that’s a done deal. It is already affordable for her.
Utah’s too cold and there’s no oceanfront. /s
The Miracle Of ‘67 was really a defeat, like Ia Drang it led to the double down strategy to inevitible defeat. SSDD.
Yes, everything is affordable for her and that apparently includes a Senatorship.
But there is the Great Salt Lake, sort of like the Dead Sea with coyotes.
A war between the Utah Jewish homeland and the Mormons would indeed be interesting.
mmm. I don’t agree, Hugh. ‘Affordable’ carries the connotation that she would have to pay for the Senate seat – that’s not true. She wants it to be GIVEN to her. Slight difference there. :)
Well, ignoring the reality of the “cycle of violence” and putting the blame on one side ain’t gonna cut it but beyond that better people than us have tried without much luck.
Ah Hah! The fish were just an excuse. Hope you had a nice quiet time.
*stands aside to leave room for decorous modicum of discrete mayhem*
as long as there are people, there will be war. simplistic, but can you argue?
There is an inherent contradiction in states having a “special” character and being democratic. Those who do not partake of the specified specialness will always be partly or wholly disenfranchized. They will not have equal protection of the laws. They will not have equal rights and responsibilities. This is true whether a state is defined as Jewish or Moslem or Arab or white or Christian.
I think those that have tried had their own national interests at heart rather than the well being of all. We long ago forfeited any right to be called honest mediators in the Middle East. As have the Arab countries.
Good point.
Delurking to laugh. Exceptional verbalizationalismality! *g*
would experts claim there are many variations of “war”? or is that just an erroneous perception on my part?
hee hee. ya think so do ya? read from top of the post. don’t breathe until you get to the end.
Now. One question. What did you just read, and what did it say?
*lowly scientific-type minimalist impersonator goes off to hide in corner reserved for dunces*
Using Cuba as an example I’d say we’ve waged economic war on Cuba since 1959. That’s not counting the Bay of Pigs and the missile crisis so well understood by Dana “Suicide Blonde” Purina.
aw heck, Hugh. That was indeed a classic. ;->
The specialness is often elusive and unattainable as the rules are flexible and typically change when an outcast State appears to be nearing the goalpost.
i’m late to the thread and haven’t read the comments yet. my introduction to samuel huntington came from reading his 1975 essay on the crisis of democracy (short version – there was too much of it). i do not think he was an admirable man and i do not grieve his passing.
One could surmise that if the tables were to be turned and Gaza was a ghetto filled with Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinians were flying American provided and supported F-16 fighter jets over Gaza and killing civilians and police and then claiming they were not going to stop doing so until Gazan Jews fully prostrated themselves to Arab Palestine whims and desires some commenters here at FDL then would be tooting a different tune.
Too bad SOS Condi Rice does not have family in Gaza. Perhaps then she would be less willing to aid and abet G.W.Bush WH Arab Palestinian policies.
Same situation for coming Obama WH. Turn the tables. See where you are at then.
There surely are no fully blameless good guys in this conflict but Israel is getting lots of help from Americans to do what I as one American do not think we should be helping Israel do which qualify as war crimes. See Juan Cole’s comments at http://www.juancole.com for today in reference to this being so.
I’d have given them Nevada. Larger, possibly more water, fewer Mormons.
thuggery by any name is not popular in our household, not that that helps find solutions for centuries of same in myriad forms.
if i had my way, this would be a perfect world.
but then we’re back to wrangling over the definition of “perfect”.
which of Jesus’ noble reported utterances shall we haul out to faun over and then ignore, substituting abject shame and blame in its place?
WSJ reports that Hank Paulson is the Business Person of the Year.
Well, he certainly gave us the business. No one can deny that!
Collective punishment alone is considered a war crime under international law. The US is an accomplice before and during the fact. The UN, by its inaction, is as well.
Homes on Lake Tahoe have a view to die for.
heh. is that award a measure of nobility or sheer impact upon stability?
all i see is an upended applecart surrounded by smashed fruit.
JHFC.
yes. next move on our chess-board world?
what would sarah
dohave done?i shall at the very least be thankful for small favors.
Word. WSJ offers up the Audacity of Brass Balls as big as two great planets.
Top Israeli papers are more willing to criticize the attacks than is our TradMed.
Buah should appoint John McCain as a special envoy so he can go over and tell them to knock this shit off.
By the way, I think Condi has midwifed a stillborn.
-G
Dear puppies. I trust you.
I’m off to wash my hair.
Have the world fixed, upright, and happy by the time I return, please.
depression? moi? not the half of it.
silly as it sounds,
P. E. A. C. E.
which one?
Buah, should be Bush, shoe target guy.
-G
I wish I had a workable answer to that question. How does one overcome 80 years of violence, distrust and tension? How does one deal with “national interests” when those interests are, perhaps, one of the biggest problems?
Triplets; )
-
LOL and not in a good way.
Honest, I’m not trying to make light with this. Far to the contrary.
Optimist: It hasn’t yet been done.
Pessimist: It can’t be done.
Opportunist: I’ll make it work for me.
Realist: [soup du jour]
In addition to the problems posed by national interests, there is the influence of interests to whom conflict is lucrative.
Yep. War is good business. For a select few.
Teddy’s upstairs with Caroline!
maybe a workable answer could come from people like jeff halper and ghassan andoni? i’d at least like to see that course be given a try.
btw, i listened to kinzer talk about rwanda yesterday (book tv). thought you (and other pups) might like it.
Does anyone believe Isreal will exist in 50 years? I once thought it might become a viable nation, but over the past decade have come to believe it is doomed.
We need to start thinking about this eventuality.
my addled, sad brain is not up to this task.
too many centuries strongly indicating the terrors of inevitability.
so i’ll let you who SHOULD and CAN hash over the horrific problems with promise of great wisdom emerging, take hold of the collective FDL strength.
and i will wash my hair. *sigh*
Thank you all.
So would I. Very courageous men, those two. I’m willing to support any non-violent solution.
I’ll go watch Kinzer. When you brought it up yesterday it had already started and I didn’t want to get there after the movie started, so to speak.
You got through the comments in pretty good time, btw. *g*
I’m not completely convinced the U.S. will exist in 50 years. I’m fairly confident that I won’t.
And, most remarkably, such ‘influence’ is NEVER examined.
I recall when someone here raised the question of what holdings members of Congress might have in the ‘interests’ of such ‘influence’ … the question was met with resounding indifference.
Although, in a dictatorship or banana ‘republic’ such a ‘response’ is not surprising, and is even ‘wise’, in an ostensible ‘democracy’ [in fact, one where a President had brought to the people’s attention, the Miltary-Industrial-(and, originally, “Congressional”) Complex], it is not certain that this is the best of all possible responses …
I guess that we shall simply have to trust that our leaders would never, ever, seek to enrich themselves on the blood and destruction of other human beings.
I’ve said for a long time if you want to know the actual motivation behind any government policy, find out who profits from it. There is precious little altruism in the corridors of power.
Riiiiight. Snark becomes you.
Right on.
i know i’m like a broken record pointing to the peacemakers – but i don’t think nations are people with responsibility for their individual actions (although we, me included, seem to want to describe them that way) or that they are best characterized by their political leaders. that is the path to despair (a pox on both their houses) or idealizing one side and demonizing the other (black hats and white hats). it’s hard to see past the “two sides” frame, but i want to try because i don’t actually buy it…. and people like halper and andoni are examples of an israeli and a palestinian who defy the “sides” classification.
The clear implication of that statement is that they’re all Arabs anyway, so it doesn’t matter where you put them.
this is how i end up with eyes so strained i can barely read. time to give them a rest…
I couldn’t resist, SD, what with America being so ‘exceptionally’ different from every other nation or empire, and so on.
By the way, your comments, as always are steller, but on this thread they are shining most brightly. (And I mean that, very sincerely, SD)
;~D
I can’t argue with that. You might find this interesting. It’s a link from this site.
That’s quite a compliment. Thank you. When I push my anger aside I can actually think like a rational human being. Sometimes.
thanks – will book mark for later (really do need to give my eyes a rest soon). left wing anarchists are in my corner of the political spectrum (anti-authoritarian and community oriented)
second that.
Had I known that I’d have turned you onto the site earlier. Just the word anarchist scares the hell out of a lot of people. Simply because they don’t know what it is.
re 88, you guys are makin’ me blush.
The People in Gaza elected Hamas. The US encouraged elections, and did not like the result. The Government of Isreal imposed a blockade, and the people of Gaza are close to starvation, after 60 years of transferring land from the Palestinians to Isrealis (see Siun’s very descriptive map).
You make a comment about Isreali haters? That’s an inflammatory statement designed to limit and frame the discussion. Have you anything more protuctive to write.
Raven, rerhaps you could discuss the transfer of land from Plaestinian control to Isreali control, expecially in the West Bank after 1967?
Excuse me professor.
Are you suggesting that because a government is legitimately elected, then that government’s action are legitimate? or that other people should be required to suspend judgment of the actions of that government?
But the Herzlian Zionists wanted to reclaim the pre-Diaspora homeland on religious grounds. They’d pretty much developed the forces to fight against the British Palestinian Authority in the waning days of WW2 and had already launched the revolt – with assassinations, bombings, and attacks on British military installations and Palestinian villages by 1946.