One of the things that concerns me with the
world today is people’s lack of perspective: I’ve seen people focusing on
trivial family get-togethers when hundreds were dying nearby in bushfires,
relationships ahead of committing less than an hour a week to doing psychic
work for peace – let alone the lack of activism (you can always write to, or go and talk with, your local MP – in this
nation, at any rate). People who are focusing on spirituality seem to
always focus on the personal, and fail to accept the true responsibility that
comes with such work.
Fortunately, there a few … but we could do
with more.
Additional
commentary on Israel and Palestine
The world has failed many people over the
past two millennia: one of those groups of people is the Jewish peoples, who
have suffered a diaspora at, initially, the hands of the ancient Roman Empire, blame
and persecution by neochristians
(until the 1960s), and pogroms
and general anti-Semitism.
This reached a peak in Germany in the 1930s
and 40s, where the pogroms escalated into the Holocaust.
There are suggestions that the Allies knew
of the Holocaust earlier
than generally
credited – at least one person, Polish soldier Witold
Pilecki, broke into a
concentration camp, and sent back intelligence
on what was happening. How far up the chain of Allied command that and similar information
went, I don’t know: in any case, it would have been one aspect of a war where
other millions were dying – notably, on the Eastern Front, leading to competing
pressures for resources. Be that as it may, when the fog of war cleared, it
became clear that the Holocaust was a terrible evil that had been committed
amongst other terrible evils. The world owed its victims a debt, and that debt
led to the foundation of Israel.
Now, with hindsight, the foundation
of Israel was flawed (does hindsight
ever show anything else?) – Palestinians left
/ fled, depending on which accounts you read: massacres
were committed on both
sides, and those working for the foundation of Israel had committed acts of
terrorism.
Of those who fled / left, quite possibly many expected to be able to return
when the surrounding nations “drove
the Jews out” of the proto-state of Israel, but that didn’t
happen: Israel won that
war – and every war since.
Initially, that was probably due to
chutzpah and the motivation of the terrible evil of the Holocaust, but, as war
has become more and more rapidly technologically advanced, Israel has had a
powerful, unyielding backer: the USA.
Israel is not going to go away, it is
fanciful to think it would, and it is unjust to contemplate such
without also contemplating a credible way of ensuring protection for Jewish
people everywhere – and the cessation of Israel would be a powerful negative
event leading to massive anti-Semitism everywhere.
However, there is an inherent injustice
in the creation of Israel (which itself came
about to address an injustice): the fate of the people who were living in
that region which became Israel. Most of those people are what we term
Palestinians, but (a) there were actually some Jews already there (some
remained despite the Romans, others gradually returned over the years), and (b)
not all Palestinians left / fled.
Those who fled / left have suffered
since – the inherent uncertainty of being a people dispossessed, the
temporal and spiritual poverties of being torn away from a lifetime’s work,
possessions and community meaning, and the violence of the past six decades.
Over this time, Israel has become more
hardline. Although I do not endorse it, I can understand that given the damage caused by the constant threat
of destruction ... which also applies to the Palestinians. Judaism is a religion
which, infamously, includes the phrase “an eye for an eye” - the phrase which
Gandhi famously commented “only made the whole world blind”; the phrase which
inspired those who sought retribution,
including killing, against Germans after the war. In the last couple of
decades, that phrase seems to have become “take
the others eye before losing your own eye”, and the actions being taken
by Israel now threaten the very existence
of the Palestinians – thus causing the Palestinians to react, in
essence, much as the Israelis did in the late 1940s. The difference is that the
Palestinians don’t have the same powerful, militarily fluent backers, and actions
of the Israelis, deplorable and abhorrent though they are, are not the same as those of the Holocaust:
Palestinians are not being gassed and burned at the rate of thousands a day.
It was not always such a despairing mess.
The times of Anwar
Sadat
and Yitzhak
Rabin
were moments of hope, times when the region balanced on the precipice of hope
… and fell back into calamity.
I mourn for some of the lost opportunities
from that time – for instance, the joint Palestinian and Israeli patrols, which
I heard about in a radio interview with an Israeli soldier who had served on
them.
However, there were important principles
established then – not the “land for peace” principle, but the benefits that
come from the – possibly pragmatic – acceptance of Israel’s existence. Even if
one doesn’t accept Israel’s right to
exist, there is an undeniable historicity about the nation’s existence – and
that isn’t likely to change. Even the rise of China does not threaten the USA’s
support of Israel, and thus Israel’s continued existence. (What do people who consider Israel should cease to exist think would
happen? Millions descended from those who fled pogroms and the Holocaust would
return back to the nations where their forebears came from – knowing no one,
having nothing there, and probably not even speaking the language??
It would make the current refugee crisis look particularly tame. Or are they so
unutterably stupid as to think Jewish people would stay, despite fear of
retribution and practical issues such as who lives where???)
Given Israel’s continuing existence, there
is an imperative to find a more just (or
possibly less unjust) solution for the Palestinians – who are a group of
people that, as with all populations, it seems, have grown in number. The only
viable solution I can see for that is the proposed two state solution – but, as
with Syria, the atrocities (on both
sides) must stop first.
Are other solutions more spiritually
desirable? Unquestionably, yes. Will they as quickly stop the massive
build-up of pain, suffering and long lasting,
self-perpetuating damage? Sadly, no.
Peace is necessary to stop the
acceleration of damage, and start the healing process which may, in a century
or two, lead to a better solution.
There are an enormous range of issues to be
solved for that to come into existence:
- the pain of violent abuse, felt on both sides;
- the desire for revenge, felt on both sides;
- grief and mourning for loss of loved ones;
- grief and mourning for loss of land and all that goes with it (mainly on the part of the Palestinians, but Judaism is a religion which has an emphasis on remembering events thousands of years ago, and thus actively remembers the loss of the diaspora two millennia ago);
- the funding and other assistance that would be required for a second state, a Palestinian nation, to come into existence; and
- other issues.
That latter issue is where I consider the
rest of the world, being every nation that has ever had the problem of or
tolerated anti-Semitism, has a moral duty to become involved. Those nations
have failed in their duty to prevent anti-Semitism, and aren’t – as with many
such problems – likely to fix such problems in the near future (partly because few acknowledge their duty
in such matters, nor that such problems exist), so they have a debt of
guilt towards the formation of Israel, and thus the creation of the
agglomeration of problems that is “the Palestinian issue”. Those nations should
provide the support, money and capability building and anything else needed, to
create a viable Palestinian nation.
This would probably require something along
the lines of the following:
- intense negotiations with the Palestinians to get formal abandonment of the aim to destroy Israel, even if it is based on acknowledgement of the ongoing historicity of Israel’s existence (would a regional Truth and reconciliation process, perhaps under the auspices of the UN, help with the healing necessary as part of this process?). This, given the assurances that Israel would have to provide, may become a circular argument / chasing one’s own tail exercise, unless a third party makes the announcement, or both announce the necessary acknowledgements and actions at the same time;
- Israel gets out of Gaza and the West Bank, and international peace enforcers (since peacekeepers have been shown – particularly in Rwanda, but also more recently in Africa – to be useless [bl**dy useless, in the case of Rwanda – and I would like to word that more strongly]: what is needed is something more along the lines of the Australian-led force in East Timor. These peace enforcers would probably be mostly from nations with a neutral history – perhaps Asia, South America and some African nations – provided they were strong enough to fight the Israeli army, if needed) take on security responsibilities for both sides;
- the occupied / disputed territories are resolved; and
- the international community takes on the twenty or so year – minimum - commitment necessary to create a viable, healthy Palestinian nation.
Additional commentary on violent extremism
A US-based and –biased set of groups have analysed events and actions, and, in
some very comprehensive reports here and here
(one more to come as I write this)
that I am still reading, argue (amongst
other things) that:
(i) current terrorist groups are also insurgencies (agreed),(ii) are the greatest threat to world order and thus are an existentialist threat (past policies and actions have also created situations of injustice and inequity which contribute to the appeal of these groups, and these aspects also need to be considered – which is the major failing of this set of reports),(iii) Russia has undermined the Vienna Framework (agreed),(iv) a Salafi base in Syria is a major threat, but cannot be attacked directly as that would alienate Sunnis who need to be included in post-war society (agreed: I would like to see more commentary on the damage that can be done by wording, including vigilantism and fear and discrimination inspired by people like Trump), and(v) that the USA needs to take a stronger leadership role (maybe – that depends on how well the USA would consider the genuine interests of the rest of the world, including those who have been alienated and disempowered, how well it would comply with international law – particularly international humanitarian law, and how well it would overcome the profound problem of the myth of “American exceptionalism”. I consider there are benefits – particularly in the long term – by working under the UN umbrella – if that can be done [which Russia is trying to stop], and this is where the exercise’s admitted focus on US interests starts to shift the results away from what benefits true, inclusive and genuine democracy and humanity towards US comfort. I also consider the fundamental scepticism in the report of success against terrorist/insurgent groups is poorly justified – the War on the Rocks blog has had some good articles on that);
Additional commentary
I recently posted a link
about the appalling levels of gang-related violence in El Salvador. I am
continuing to work on that problem, and, in case anyone would like to help,
have the following outcomes from divinatory work: the desire for safety and
security and stability is there, but despair is inhibiting efforts towards
this. Patience, persistence and an unstoppable slow-burning determination to
“do right” will enable this nation to achieve the improvement so many of its
people desire. Any who wish to lead must only do so if they have the trust of
the people.
[1] BPM = Balanced Positive (spiritually) Mature. See here and here for more on this.
[2] Please see here, here, here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is
no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted
changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately
after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix
Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga
... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this
site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue
(see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me
for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are,
to meditate-clear for peace), and here
for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend
learning how to flame, ground
and shield, do alternate
nostril breathing, work
with colour, and see also here and be
flexible.
The real dividing line is not between
Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who
believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.
- If your “gut” (your instinct/intuition) is telling you something is wrong, but logic and the available evidence is saying otherwise, the proper conclusion to draw is that you need better, more personally credible evidence. Your “gut” could be wrong, right, or missing the nuances / “shades of grey” . So could the available evidence.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...
Tags: activism, discrimination, energy work, magick, meditation,
nonviolence, peace, society, violence, war,
First published: Laugardagr, 23rd January, 2016
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's
and other minor matters): Saturday, 23rd January, 2016
