One of the lessons learned in the Middle East is to never try to anticipate the other side's moves.
Interpretation
Understanding others' intentions is complex; it's best to remain flexible and open-minded.
This quote by Ehud Barak emphasizes the importance of not making assumptions about how others will react or what their next actions will be, particularly in high-stakes situations like those often found in the Middle East. It suggests that predicting others' behavior can lead to misunderstandings and strategic miscalculations, and that the ability to adapt and be responsive is crucial in navigating complex interactions.
In practice
During a negotiation workshop, this quote could be shared to emphasize the importance of being adaptable.
In Israel, there is a peace camp that can convene 200,000 people in central square of this city, on very short notice, and there is a major movement among academics, politicians, thinkers, and public leaders for peace, even at a painful price. On the Palestinian side, you can find them individually here and there, but there is no public movement.
If Israel does not find the way to disengage from the Palestinians, its future might resemble the experience of Belfast or Bosnia - two communities bleeding each other to death for generations.
There is a thin line between peace of the brave and peace of the hostage... between compromise - even calculated risk - and irresponsibility and capitulation.
Israel is much more effective when the Israelis are convinced that we are on the moral high ground: that we are acting not just out of might, but also out of right.
As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.
I cannot penetrate the soul of Arafat. I cannot know in advance whether, behind all the masks, he's the kind of leader who can reach an agreement or whether he wants to be the Moses of the Palestinians, staying in front of the river and not crossing into the promised land.
Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.
We frequently find that the influence of good women is underrated. It is an influence that is often subtle but yet has tremendous consequences. One woman can make a great difference for a whole nation.
The third class consists of men to whom nothing seems great but reason. If force interests them, it is not in its exertion, but in that it has a reason and a law. For men of the first class, nature is a picture; for men of the second class, it is an opportunity; for men of the third class, it is a cosmos, so admirable, that to penetrate to its ways seems to them the only thing that makes life worth living. These are the men whom we see possessed by a passion to learn.
Creditors have better memories than debtors.
Enlightenment is not an attainment; it is a realization. And when you wake up, everything changes and nothing changes. If a blind man realizes that he can see, has the world changed?
Thought-habits can harden into character. So watch your thoughts.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.