What a chatbot taught me about resolving the Israel-Hamas war (and making matzo balls)

Ingredients include contact, dialog, allies, trust and patience

Based on solutions that have been proposed before, AI provides answers to our biggest questions about the war. Photo by iStock

By David Cohen November 27, 2023

I asked my favorite chatbot, Claude.ai, two questions last week: How to make matzo balls from grits, and how to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The first was prompted by a Wednesday-night pantry search that revealed we were out of Streit’s Matzo Ball mix. Why my wife was planning to make matzo balls for Thanksgiving is a question beyond Claude’s capabilities. Claude did know how to make matzo balls from grits, but the recipe was too complicated, so I got up early Thursday morning, bought six boxes of Streits, and my wife made matzo balls for 25.

The second question grew out of a Zoom conversation about the Israel-Hamas war with 10 men I attended City College with six decades ago. We’ve been meeting online monthly since the pandemic. These reunions include reminiscences of our youth, restaurant reviews, and, as we’ve approached 80, our aches, pains and some serious health issues.

We rarely spoke about politics or religion until Oct. 7. But last Sunday I asked my college buddies if any of them had a quick and easy solution to the conflict underpinning the Israel-Hamas war. There were no responses.

The brutal and heinous attack by Hamas on Israel shocked and frightened all of us. I was frightened for the people abducted to Gaza, for the survival of Israel, and about whether this attack was a fuse that would blow up the Middle East and maybe the whole world.

I did some rudimentary research into the underlying conflict and discovered 100 years of tit-for-tat between Palestinians and Israeli Jews. I concluded that neither party had clean hands, and it was counterproductive to try to figure out who were the good guys and the bad guys. Each side had its own gored oxen.

Until both sides wanted peace, it seemed they would keep killing each other’s children and parents, justifying the slaughter based on history. I had a zillion questions: Are there legal ways to conduct war? How do we know if the rules are being observed? Is there room for different interpretations of the same facts?

How did leaders on both sides benefit from keeping the pot boiling? Shouldn’t safeguarding all the children, ours and theirs, be sufficient motivation to make peace?

And the big one I asked Claude.ai: How can peace come between Israel/Gaza in the current conflict in ways that are fair to both sides?

Here’s what came back:

I don’t have a definitive solution, but here are some ideas that could help bring more peace between Israel and Gaza:

Negotiate a long-term ceasefire agreement. This could involve Israel easing the blockade on Gaza in exchange for a halt to rocket attacks from Gaza. International mediators may be able to broker such a deal.

Work on meeting basic humanitarian needs in Gaza. Poverty and lack of infrastructure in Gaza contribute to the tensions. Improving electricity, water, medical care could reduce frustrations.

Encourage more contact and dialog between average Israeli and Palestinian citizens. Peace ultimately must come from the populations themselves desiring to live in harmony.

Leverage the international community to guarantee security on both sides. An international peacekeeping mission with forces acceptable to both sides could mitigate risks as other political solutions are pursued.

Develop economic ties and cooperation. The more interdependence there is between the economies, the more incentives there are to avoid conflict. Trade and employment across the border should be encouraged when politically feasible.
Build gradual trust with incremental ceasefire agreements. Shorter-term deals that hold could provide glimpses that peaceful coexistence is possible.

There are no easy answers, and passions run very deep. But creative diplomacy, humanitarian action, and people-to-people dialog may gradually move the situation in a better direction. Compromise and patience will be required on all sides.

Over the past four months, I have asked Claude to check the facts and balance in my essay and letter writing. I even had it produce the first draft of a speech I might give at a friend’s birthday party. I consulted Claude for marital advice and was advised to do more listening and less talking. I tested Claude’s ethics by asking it to write about a person and include some off-putting personal traits. The bot responded with a polite and clear refusal to engage without permission from that person. (AI companies have limited chatbots’ willingness to answer sensitive queries, including about the Israel-Hamas war.)

This was a much more challenging question, and, unsurprisingly, Claude was unable to come up with the “quick and easy plan” I had asked of my Zoom brothers. Like everything else chatbots produce, it is based on solutions that have been proposed many times before — which is to say, proposals that have been rejected by one or both sides, or that have failed or fallen short in their implementation.

But the straightforwardness and relative simplicity of Claude’s bulleted list encompasses a lot of wisdom.

Claude recognizes the difficulty of turning these enemies into allies. Claude acknowledges the need for the world community to support and monitor the process. Claude notes the importance of, via the peace process, improving the economies of both people. Claude recommends a series of incremental steps which, if successful, may build trust.

Claude advises contact, dialog — and patience.

My father lost his legs in the Battle of the Bulge. He did not hate Germans, but he did hate war. As in all good marriages, my wife and I have our tiffs, but we do treasure our mutual interdependence. In a marriage, this is called love. Among nations, when this interdependence exists, it provides security. And it could pave a path toward peace.

David Cohen is a retired New York City elementary school teacher who lives in Queens. He writes poetry and essays.

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