The States of the Arab region have begun reconciliation with each other and with their Turkish and Iranian neighbors in an attempt to ease regional tensions. Is it therefore, time to reconcile between them and their oppositions? Isn't it time to end the region’s internal conflicts so that we can launch a major reform process to begin a real renaissance that guarantees stability in the region? 

Conflicts generate feelings of guilt towards those who died and hatred as a result; they produce war economies and entrenched positions. Should one party end up victorious, it would have to pay the price of its victory and would most likely be forced to negotiate with the losers to avoid a return of the conflict. However, if conflicts did not result in a clear victor and loser situation, they continue because the vainglory of the conflicting parties prevents them from recognizing the absurdity of dragging on the war. 

Every society has its own traditions for ending conflicts. The Native Americans were wise and not vain. Once war became entrenched among them, they would initiate reconciliation and make concessions to devote themselves to preparing for survival in the coming winter. Their rituals proscribe digging a hole in which they bury their war axes and hatchets, as a symbolic gesture of ending hostilities. This is what most societies do in their own way. But it is difficult to come down from the tree of vanity if the disputing parties, governments and oppositions, believe that they can live on the tree for a while longer as a result of external parties’ support, parties that will eventually abandon them. But after thirteen years in our region, we are still clinging to the branches while the major powers around us are felling down the trees we climbed. How easy it is to stubbornly adhere to positions when the political actors are sitting in the diasporas or in the places of power, far from feeling the pain of the people! 

Political naivety on the eve of the Arab Spring generated false perceptions about the mechanisms for changing governance systems; young people expected that the revolution would be born from gathering in the squares without political structures that would negotiate with authorities on the path of reform. On the other hand, some governments thought that they would maintain their political status-quo, ignoring the depth of social transformations, especially among young people. The opposition movements did not produce mature political organizations and the governments did not undertake sufficient reforms. Conflicts raged and a perception was created that negotiations were futile and that dialogue was a betrayal to the cause. 

But the youth demographic bulge before 2010, which generated the Arab Spring, will soon be repeated with a new boom, at a time when the region faces challenges in meeting development goals and in absorbing the young people into their economy and body politique. The coming crises will make the previous ones seem like a walk in the park. Here we ask: Isn't it time for us to start reconciliation before more chaos irrupts? Isn't it time for political elites to launch reconciliation with their societies, and for governments to reconcile with their oppositions? 

To bury the hatchet and end grudges, we, the rulers and the ruled, should not wait for political transitions supported by the United Nations, which cannot even justify its own survival. And we should not expect in return that reconstruction funds will come to grant us stability. The big project for the region will not give us any of this. And whoever has not come to this conclusion yet, should have a closer look at what is happening in Gaza. Political changes will not come except after painful efforts at dialogue. And we must realize that the ladder for climbing down the trees of vanity will only provide the minimum level of our expectations at first. 

Let us begin by recognizing that we are part of single countries. No one will win; everyone is a loser when we continue our fight. We must look to the interests of our societies, instead of prolonging their pain. We need to protect what remained undestroyed, as it is the only resource available for recovery and return to life. We must realize that community recovery is the gateway to real change. But it will not come without an acceptable level of the rule of law and democratization, the latter of which requires two levers: a middle class that protects it, and institutions that regulate it. Reforming the relationship between the ruler and the ruled requires going beyond preconceived ideas. We must work to expand the safe space for dialogue to reach solutions, not impose them as preconditions. We will need a lot of confidence building measures. The first of which is to begin a painful and gradual path to uncover the fate of the disappeared and the release of the detainees and kidnapped, so that we can gradually reach practical solutions instead of scoring political points. 

We must search for our homelands in the ashes of war before they disappear completely off the maps. We must find our way to bury the hatchet.