Read the introductory chapter of Avishai Margalit’s On Compromise and Rotten Compromises.
“… rotten compromises are not allowed, even for the sake of peace.
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I see a rotten political compromise as an agreement to establish or maintain an inhuman regime, a regime of cruelty and humiliation, that is, a regime that does not treat humans as humans.
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I believe that beyond the ambivalence toward compromise and the spirit of compromise lurks a deep tension between peace and justice. Peace and justice may even demand two incompatible temperaments, one of compromise for the sake of peace, and the other of a Michael Kohlhaas–like bloody-mindedness, to let justice prevail, come what may. In the Hebrew Bible peace and justice live in harmony: “justice and peace kissed” (Psalm 85:11). By contrast, for dark Heraclitus, peace and justice live in disharmony: “Justice is strife.” The Talmud recognizes the tension between the two: “When there is strict justice there is no peace and where there is peace there is no strict justice.” The spirit of peace, for the Talmudists, is the spirit of compromise as manifested in arbitration; the spirit of justice— “Let justice pierce the mountain” —is manifested in trial.
Moses, in the eyes of the rabbis, incarnates the spirit of justice, and his brother Aaron incarnates the spirit of compromise and peace. Moses is admired. Aaron is loved.”
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