The Virtue of Self-Criticism

Self-criticism is one of the most vital qualities that an organization can possess. If a corporation, military unit, civil organization, or even a state ever wants to improve itself and its place in the world, self-criticism is essential. If an organization is comfortable with "business as usual", it will never get better. If it downplays internal weaknesses or simply tries to blame outsiders, it will stagnate or decay.

Healthy, vibrant, learning organizations continually examine themselves for opportunities to improve. Good leaders cultivate this mentality in their subordinates. They invite feedback, have suggestion boxes, and write after-action reports to discover lessons learned. They deliberately seek out points of weakness and develop strategies to strengthen them. Healthy organizations take responsibility for their mistakes and weaknesses; even if they are subject to forces outside their control, they always try to maintain excellence in those areas that ARE under their control. Good leaders stimulate debate and seek out different viewpoints, because they know that good ideas are more likely to win in a free intellectual marketplace.

The United States government has a lot of internal dysfunction, but one of its greatest strengths is its open, transparent, democratic culture. It's easy to take this for granted. We are bombarded with so many news broadcasts, radio programs, blogs, and kitchen-table political conversations that we lose sight of how rare and marvelous this is. Since moving to Jordan, my appreciation for our democratic culture has grown tremendously. One of my Arab classmates was amazed when he read Stephen Ambrose's Rise of Globalism for class; he couldn't believe American authors could write books so critical of their government (the book is balanced and quite tame). Although our country certainly has its problems, our open intellectual marketplace is a tremendous asset in keeping government accountable.

The Israelis share this strength. They have a self-critical culture that encompasses a rich diversity of opinions; the Israelis have a saying that anywhere you find two Jews, you'll find three opinions. I'm always impressed reading Israeli newspapers, because the debate there about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is even more critical than it is in the United States. If you read Haaretz today, you'll find a storm of controversy around the Biden visit and around the East Jerusalem construction plan. Israel has produced some fantastic historians, who are willing to question traditional biased narratives and admit Israeli wrongdoing where it's due. Israel has a vibrant civic society with platforms all across the political spectrum.

The single greatest cultural weakness I've seen in Jordan is the total absence of this self-criticism, especially when it comes to foreign policy. Every Jordanian and Palestinian I know sincerely desires peace. They know that Israel is here to stay and they are willing to coexist. Nearly everyone points me to the Arab Peace Initiative. Every one of my Jordanian colleagues sincerely believes that the Arab world has extended peace and is fully ready to embrace a comprehensive peace deal, if only the recalcitrant Israel was willing. The problem, they emphatically tell me, is Israel. If only the US could pressure Israel to stop building settlements and get serious about negotiating, there would be peace in this region... we promise. And then, they say, all the other problems of the Middle East like Iran and Hamas and Hezbollah would go away. I hear this same impassioned speech from government officials, university professors, classmates, and friends. They earnestly believe it.

There is some merit to what my Jordanian colleagues say; there are real obstructions to peace on the Israeli side. But the glaring omission in this Arab narrative is any responsibility for the broken peace process on their own side. There is no self-critical analysis and no admission of fault. It occurred to me recently that, after 11 months in Jordan, I have not heard a single Jordanian admit responsibility for the failure of the peace process, with only one exception: most of them recognize that suicide bombings were immoral and a catastrophic idea.

When Jordanians tell me that the Arab world is ready for peace--if only Israel was willing--I always challenge this. What if Israel stopped building settlements and agreed to negotiate tomorrow, I ask? Who is Israel supposed to negotiate with? There is no unified Palestinian government as long as Fatah and Hamas are divided. The situation might be ripe for peace in the West Bank (that's a big maybe), but it certainly isn't in Gaza. Even if the world created a Palestinian state tomorrow, Hizballah and Hamas would not disappear overnight. The crisis with Iran is only tangentially related to Palestine. Israel doesn't want to negotiate partly because it doesn't believe a serious peace deal is possible under these circumstances. The Arab world needs to be having critical internal debates about these issues, but I don't see this happening from where I'm sitting.

This self-criticism is equally absent from the study of history. My Jordanian colleagues know all about the suffering in Gaza and historical events like the massacres of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila, but they know virtually nothing of Arab aggression and atrocities against Jews. During one classroom discussion I was shocked how little my classmates knew about the 1967 war. Most of them knew only that Israel launched a surprise war against the Arab world. They had no knowledge of Nasser's expulsion of UN peacekeeping forces from Sinai or his closing of the Straits of Tiran, which backed Israel into a corner where war was inevitable. Historical distortion exists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is particularly bad on the Palestinian/Arab side.

My Jordanian colleagues have big hearts and sincerely desire peace, but the myopic focus on Israel blinds them to issues on their own side. The Arab world needs to get past the blame game, and critically examine its own weaknesses and obstructions to peace.