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.
(Lisa Henson about her father) He admired the job of the man who walks along the road picking up trash with a long stick. He thought that guy had a great job, walking along with a stick, enjoying the road, and doing only good in the world, with hundreds of small actions.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
Some people like to read so many [Bible] chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!
Once you have accepted yourself, it's so much easier to accept other people and their points of view.
The most important thing is insight, that is to be - curious - to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does.
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