In his extraordinary biography of Isaiah Berlin, Michael Ignatieff says that, at the end of his life, the great philosopher of liberalism felt a single regret: he had never publicly expressed what he thought about Israel and the political commitment that could ensure its future peaceful existence. Feeling that his life was ending, he wanted to make peace with himself and on October 16, 1997, he dictated to his secretary a letter that he sent to his best friends in Israel, Avishai and Edna Margalit. On the same day of Berlin’s death, November 5, Professor Margalit, by telephone, asked the philosopher for permission to make the letter public in the form of a statement. Berlin authorized him to do so shortly before entering the hospital where he would die a few hours later.
The document is clear, brief and is titled Israel and the Palestinians. It was first published in Hebrew, along with the news of his death, on November 7, 1997, in what is still today the most serious and impartial newspaper in Israel, Haaretz, and reads as follows:
“In view of the fact that both parties begin by claiming full possession of Palestine as a historical right; and in view of the fact that neither of the two requests can be accepted on the ground of realism or without grave injustice, it becomes evident that compromise, that is, partition, is the only correct solution, in accordance with the Oslo guidelines – for whose acceptance Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish fanatic.
Ideally, what we are asking for is a relationship of good neighbors, but given the number of chauvinistic fanatics and terrorists on both sides, this is unworkable. Therefore, the solution has to lie somewhere along the lines of some reluctant tolerance, for fear of something much worse – that is, a savage war that can inflict irreparable damage on both sides. As for Jerusalem, this must remain the capital of Israel, with the holy sites of Islam as extraterritorial sites under Muslim authority, and a small Arab quarter, with a guarantee from the United Nations to preserve this position, by force if necessary. ”.
The greatest historian and philosopher of liberalism of the 20th century, Isaiah Berlin (Russian, English and Jewish), wanted this letter to be his last will, the last document he wrote in life, and the final clause of a kind of ideological testament in the issue that mattered most to him: the peaceful and free coexistence of irreconcilable ideas or positions. Not all thoughts can become compatible somewhere in between; “Atheists and believers do not agree on a demigod,” but both can coexist if they tolerate the idea that they do not share.
More than a quarter of a century has passed since Berlin’s letter and the philosopher’s endearing recommendation was not only ignored by Israel, but also by those who defended similar positions within the Peace Now movement (the writers Amos Oz and Abraham Yehoshua, among them, already deceased) are today a small minority in a country almost completely dominated by the intransigent ideological right or the extreme religious and fanatical right. Today in Israel Rabin’s assassins govern, to a certain extent.
Israel and its leaders, as well as the Palestinians of Hamas, have taken the path of war, intransigence, total absence of political commitment and terrorism. This has led to what Isaiah Berlin already predicted if the two-state agreement was not reached: “a savage war that can inflict irreparable damage on both sides.” The savage war is in progress and the irreparable damage has already been done. What seemed unthinkable, a pogrom in Israel, has happened; and also the most shameful and irreparable thing on the part of the Israeli army: the unjustified and unjustifiable murder of thousands of Palestinian children who cannot be accused of being terrorists.
