The Sum of All Fears & Middle East Peace

As the world continues to watch the Middle East mired in endless conflict and worries about irreversible escalation, I've been thinking about a Tom Clancy novel from the early 1990s. The Sum of All Fears was a classic Clancy techno-thriller about the struggles in the Middle East and a terrorist group's plan to draw the United States and Russia into a catastrophic nuclear war. However, the story began with some history from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and that is juxtaposed against a plan by CIA deputy director Jack Ryan and the National Security Advisor to establish a peace plan for the area centered on shared control on Jerusalem. 

Now, I don't mean to be glib or shallow or dismissive toward the complicated history of the state of modern Israel, the Palestinian people, and the relationship of the three major religions in the region:  Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, as I told one of my Jewish friends recently during a long discussion about the history of the land, I have hope and I do believe that someday there will be peace and peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, and that peace will be rooted in a sincere compact among the faiths and ethnicities around Jerusalem and the eastern Mediterranean, a compact that is rooted in similarities and an authentic desire to end conflict and provide safety and security for all the people of the land. 

What gives me renewed hope recently is the papacy of Pope Leo XIV.

In early 2026, Pope Leo began a tour of the Middle East and Africa with the specific intent to engage with people through a promotion of peace and unity. The Pontiff has been meeting with Muslim leaders and seeking to coordinate interfaith relationships. And, of course, he has been making headlines almost daily with his unwavering promotion of peace and love as the root and essence of Christ's message. My hope is reflected in that view and message, and I do believe that people of all faiths and backgrounds truly want peace in the land and are constantly committed to that. What has to happen is that the faith leaders as well as the politicians have to be willing to forgive and move beyond the past. And that is an incredibly difficult thing to do.

The "peace plan" in Clancy's novel, which is rooted in history and numerous other peace efforts that have sprouted and failed, focuses on the idea of turning Jerusalem into an independent city-state similar to the establishment of the Vatican, and for that non-nationalist entity "to be administered by a tribunal of Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox religious leaders, and secured by an independent contingent of the Swiss Guards."

I know. I know this sounds wildly naive and quixotic and completely unmanageable simply because so many efforts have been tried and have failed. But, like I said, I am hopeful. And I am hopefully not being dismissive or insensitive to the incredible pain and suffering that has governed that land for far too long.