Hamas Surrenders, Netanyahu Resigns: A Perspective Shift

One role of the arts is to help human beings shift and adjust perspective. An example of this is the use of perspective by painters during the Renaissance, creating lifelike images via the illusion of depth and distance. In this case, however, we’re applying perspective to leadership, as inspired by an artistic and musical perspective. In 2021, Jewel wrote a piece, “Perspective Shifts for Wiser Leadership.” Read this quote and think about how it could pertain to the current war between Israel and Hamas:

Making a shift in perspective doesn’t always come easily or quickly. We become accustomed to certain thought patterns and modes of behavior that purportedly uphold our well-being and security. Drawing conclusions based on those patterns can shut the door to new possibilities. Our attachments can stagnate our growth. Perspective shifts require openness, flexibility, and engaging our imagination so that creative solutions can blossom.

Let’s say that you’re a diplomat tasked with coming up with recommendations. To ultimately mitigate and even resolve this seemingly intractable conflict, would not imagination, flexibility, and openness be foundational for engendering creative solutions?

Jewel concluded her essay by scaling wisdom from the personal to the national level:  

How do we know when we have stepped into the providence of wiser perspectives? Consider asking some soul-searching questions:

On a personal level: Did I bring a modicum of joy to someone’s day?

On an organizational level: Have I curated a culture of harmony, trust, collaboration, and values?

On a community level: Have I brought a glimmer of hope to anyone in need?

On a national level: How am I helping to fortify the security and well-being of this nation’s people?

Articulate your questions, welcome the perspective-shifting revelations, and lead from a wiser perspective.

Taking off from her last question, and closing sentence, I ask: has Netanyahu and his administration fortified the security and well-being of Israel? The horror of October 7th demolished the populist strongman’s claim of security and strength for the sake of Israelis. Likewise, has Hamas fortified the security and well-being of the Palestinians in Gaza? The death and destruction being rained on Gaza, as the IDF strives to destroy Hamas, points to NO.

As I said in my post on October 30th, “Tragic Complexities and No Good Choices”: “Since the incursion of Israel on Oct. 7th by a murderous death cult, Hamas, I’ve gone deep into the shed of study about the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and forces at play in the Middle East.” I’m well aware, therefore, of the conflicting historical narratives at play on the many sides of this Gordian knot. Yet, as I wrote in a 2022 essay, “Leadership Maturity: The Role of Perspective”: “While the historical background is a necessary context, the question becomes: what can we as individuals who work together toward common ends do to influence our histories today and tomorrow, in our own homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces?”

If we add “nations” to that inquiry, the application in the context of this post becomes clear.

I closed the essay as follows:

When we grow as adults, we should come to understand that most of our outcomes are a composite of our own actions, other people’s actions, and the cultural and social context. We co-create our fields of reality, so the notion that anyone is absolutely powerless or that someone else is in absolute control isn’t true or real. Gaining a wider and deeper perspective becomes a roadmap for a more integrated way of seeing, thinking, believing, and acting in the world.

When you shift and grow your perspective, you can change and advance your leadership capacity.

This perspective, then, is the basis of my proposals that Hamas surrender and Netanyahu resign, in that order. As pro-Israel analysts argue, a cease-fire keeps Hamas in power. No, I agree: Hamas has got to go. They remain committed to the destruction of Israel and the death of Israelis and seem not to give a shit about the people they are supposed to govern–the Palestinians.

If Hamas surrendered, the war would end and the humanitarian crisis would be abated. But Netanyahu must go too. He, for many years, was supportive of the funding and strengthening of Hamas for the very purpose of posing them as a counterbalance to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Such a divide-and-conquer tactic was intended to avoid the possibility of a two-state solution, and it backfired on October 7th. I agree with historian Yuval Noah Harari: Netanyahu must go.

As to what will and should occur after the war ends, there are proposals that I’m weighing and will likely comment on in future pieces. But for now, Hamas surrendering, and Netanyahu resigning would be good first steps.