Hiba Qasas

Because it doesn't work if you're being too moralizing from the beginning.

It becomes a question of competing over victimhood, which really we need to break because that's the dead end.

In the immediate emotionality of the conflict, usually the head is not very clear.

And you see it, again, that's why public opinion becomes very hard, and you start to see things like rallying around the flag.

So you start to see support to the war and the resistance.

So

Usually, no, people are not clear-headed in the context.

But I think this is where it becomes the responsibility of pragmatic leaders and moderates from both sides.

And this is where efforts like ours really matter, is to try and bring nuance and clarity and try and open political imagination.

It does take leadership, and that leadership needs to come from different levels.

And the absence of that leadership at the state level, it needs to come from the people.

And I argue that with the people here, I'm not only talking about the grassroots, but I'm also talking about the grass tops, the people with influence on power, on politics, on the economy, who need to come out and are part of the security establishment to say, look, the old security doctrine of defense, deterrence, quick, decisive action is not enough.

We need a political and diplomatic pillar.

If it's such a common playbook, it's becoming a lot more common now.

And I think we've seen a trend where war and violence is becoming more and more the choice.

We're living in one of the least peaceful moments in modern history.

We have the largest number of conflicts since World War Two.

So in a way, it's also an indication that we have not been successful at preventing conflict.

Right.

But now also what we're seeing, for example, with the choice around the war in Iran, you know, with the prolonged war in Gaza, when you're looking also at the breakdown of the ceasefire in Lebanon and the huge impact of that confrontation now between Hezbollah and Israel, which has displaced over a million Lebanese.