By JOSÉ LEON CROCHIK*
There seem to be consolidated and maddened judgments on all sides; its denial: overcoming the conflict, with the pacification of relationships, which is the negative of the conflict, has not yet appeared
Terror haunted Israel on October 7th: widespread murders, mutilated and burned bodies; reports of rape; humiliation of women; kidnapped people. As expected, the response was quick and strong. The unexpected horror generating the expected horror.
In the phrases and actions of Hamas and its supporters: exile of the Jews; in the massive attacks by the Israeli army: thousands of civilians – women, children, elderly people – massacred.
That there are Israelis, also in the government, who have genocidal intentions is difficult to doubt. Do all Israelis want this? Only an altered perception of reality can confirm this. Stating that all Palestinians wish the Jews to die can also only be a work of distorting reality.
In these cases, the differentiation that all people have internally is lost, which removes the possibility of understanding what is happening. Add to this the interests of the leaders involved on both sides to remain in power. It does not appear that Hamas represents all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip; this is also the case in Israel.
As if those directly involved in the conflict were not enough, there are those who have interests in regional dominance and others in the global domain, in the new composition of blocs that is being formed; there is interest from the arms industry; there is the interest of vultures who wait for the conflict to end to fly and eat the carrion that remains.
Those who are far from the conflict and are not directly or indirectly involved, instead of trying solutions to resolve it, act like fanatical fans of football teams, with the difference that their punitive hatred can now be fulfilled by satisfying their death wish. of others, considered as non-human; In this regard, the growth of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia is of no small importance.
What about the solution of two states, whose populations can live in safety, with due recognition of the right to existence of both? It is retaliated from all sides for millennial or secular reasons.
Exacerbated nationalism must be faced. The idea of land as a universal possession must be realized, but if there are limits to this at this moment, efforts can be made towards coexistence between two ancient cultures that have contributed a lot and will continue to contribute to everyone.
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno wrote: “The true madness (das Verrückte) consists of the impossibility of moving (Unverrübarkeit), in the inability of thought to reach this negativity, in which, unlike consolidated judgment, true thought consists.”[1]
There seem to be consolidated and maddened judgments on all sides; its denial: overcoming the conflict, with the pacification of relationships, which is the negative of the conflict, has not yet occurred. Where is the “true thought”, the one that seeks pacification, in which there are no losers? We should not return to the starting point of this conflict, but rather return to negotiations between the two States.
*José Leon Crochik He is a retired professor at the Institute of Psychology at USP and a visiting professor at Unifesp. Author, among other books, of Critical theory of society and psychology. Some essays (Junqueira and Marin). [https://amzn.to/47xsPud]
Note
[1] Horkheimer, M. & Adorno, T.W., Dialectics of Enlightenment. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar ed,. 1985, p. 181.
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