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Thoughts as the UN Traffic Recedes

Those of us who live or work in Manhattan secretly dread it. UN Week. Every year around this time an amazing thing happens as the leaders of virtually every world country descend on the Big Apple. The good, the bad, the ugly, everyone from the residents of the axis of evil to mild-mannered Luxembourg, from the snappiest of three-piece suits to the silkiest of robes and turbans. And of course the US President. Amazing yes, but the traffic. As my grandmother, rest her soul, used to say, “Oy!” I give the NYPD tremendous credit for how they handle it. They set up special lanes for the motorcades that have semi-minimal impact as they go through. But there are times you just sit there. For 45 minutes. For the President to pass through. Mr. Obama apologized to the residents of New York for the difficulties. Whatever your political leanings, this guy likes New York, and that’s good and bad. He’s been here for several days. George Bush? He would jet in and out same day. It was a big deal for the guy to stay over. But enough about traffic.

The intractable Mideast crisis was center stage this week, as it usually is during UN Week. Qaddafi annoying everyone by talking 90 minutes instead of his alloted 15, having the nerve to interfere with lunch. Some called it rambling and eccentric, others said it was detailed and in-depth.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slightly softening his rhetoric and deciding not to mention his repeated assertion that the Holocaust did not happen and, oh yeah, Israel should be wiped off the map if at all possible, and oh yeah, we’re building nukes whether the rest of you guys like it or not. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu telling the delegates they should be ashamed for letting the other two guys in at all.

Where the Mideast problem goes a big chunk of the world economy goes. It’s mostly, well maybe almost all, about oil, for those of you who’ve been living under a rock. And yes, kind of a little about religion and ideology. A bunch of US Presidents have tried and failed to solve it, despite a few notable breakthroughs.  The moderate Arab states secretly are OK with Israel existing if both sides would just leave each other alone. But they do it secretly cause their whole oil cartel would fall apart if they upset the radical Arab states. And the moderates also know that any violence or nuking by the radicals also would destroy their trillion dollar enterprise because we would stop doing business with them and, well, maybe nuke them back.

So the good news is that no one has nuked each other, and the violence so far has been mostly limited to Israel and the Palestinians, not counting Iraq and Afghanistan for this purpose, although one can argue there is a connection. I am not an expert on this scene, I admit. But it seems to me that if Israel and Hamas can acknowledge each other’s right to exist in peace, and allow passage so that people of all faiths can visit their sacred sites, can’t that work? Israel should be able to defend its borders, and it’s not at all clear why they are required to give back land they rightfully possess. But if that’s what it takes to have a true, lasting peace, they should do it – the problem of course being once you give the land back, if things don’t work out violence continues and yet the land is gone. Unfortunately the Palestinians benefit in a way from the continued violence. Their Arab patrons keep giving them money and they can control their people more forcefully “in time of war.” Israel really does not benefit. Maybe we are close. Unfortunately I don’t think so, and the instability damages not only our psyche, but our ability to conduct commerce.