Hiba Qasas

They're no longer relativized pain.

That's what's still made possible.

But let me be clear.

The reality continues to be brutal.

Both people are trapped in deep insecurity.

And Israelis and Palestinians feel existentially threatened.

And my people, Palestinians, continue to live the reality of occupation, settler violence, devastation in Gaza, and the threat of annexation in the West Bank.

And the whole region, the Middle East, is at a crossroad.

It either stays locked in a perpetual state of confrontation and different wars, same wars, I dare say, with different names, or it moves into a new logic of new political security and cooperation framework and stops exporting this whole instability to the rest, to all of us, to the rest of us and all of us.

But I would argue that that can only happen if we resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because it's the key fault line that continues to fuel radicalization.

So my lesson is this.

In a transactional world, the antidote to might is right is not idealism.

It is not moralizing.

It is principled pragmatism.

It is launching coalitions of the willing,

around enlightened self-interest that can advance peace and security.

If you want humanity, you have to earn it.

But start with self-interest.

Self-interest, transaction, recognition, and then the return of humanity.

Wherever conflict rules, stare that room until humanity rises.