Is Critique of Israel Anti-Semetic or a Democratic Imperative? What is True?
I accidently ended up in media and embedded this image. I would say this is the core of my inspiration to write this blog. There are no mistakes.
For years I have heard and seen the Israeli government using anti-Semitism as a means of deflecting criticism they do not want to hear. My mind immediately goes to the Work of Byron Katie who teaches personal inquiry (looking within) and turning around judgements. It works on the basis of what you cannot own you will project outside yourself. Of course some things may be true when you honestly and peacefully sit with the inquiry. However, when we are in negative conflict with others projection happens. It is like a shadow cast over the other. It is not people that change it is our beliefs that change and then we see what we believe. Semitism has been used by Israeli elites to use the holocaust (the victim role) as a means of protecting itself from criticism when it engages in similar behaviours. Here is Byron Katie talking about The Work. Her wish is for all to find peace and healing.
I note the video is shutdown and when I went looking for videos of Byron Katie and Israel all shutdown. Such is the fear of truth.
I know I have to do this more as I am also caught in my story. So a timely reminder.
Human Rights Watch has documented extensive abuses of Palestinians. This is a people who are essentially monitored 24/7 and physically incarcerated by a wall which covers 15% of the land. They continue to build Israeli settlements to take over the land. Even Palestinians living in Israel do not have the same rights as Israeli citizens. This is oppression and discrimination taking place. This is how the seeds of a holocaust are indeed planted. These seeds are not fruits, they produce hunger and limitation. This will not cultivate peace building or conflict resolution. The adage ‘my way or the highway’ comes to mind. This is a no compromise, dominant position. The essence is superiority. Yet underlying this inner fortification and control is deep fear and insecurity. Always there is a mask. I know this as a clown. I can see beyond masks very easily.
Yes there are abuses from Palestinians. Yes there are radical groups. Yes others interfere (both sides). What is the mirror? What is being reflected back to Israel? Yes they fight back but what is the core grievance? What is the reflection? Why are they hurting? What are they suffering? Why do they feel oppressed? Why do they feel pressured to leave their homeland? Why do they feel they have no rights in their own country? I feel the mirror of the holocaust here. So what is deeply unresolved to repeat the same energetic construct that was used by the Nazi’s in Germany.
Now I say this with a deep sense of empathy for both sides. It is like any conflict where we are locked into battle with the evil other. There are many reasons given why they must be destroyed before they destroy. This is how fear works and operates. There are abuses on both sides justifying the pain and suffering as a means to punish the other, to make them pay. Of course pay back is common in the Arab world, it is masked by the idea of ‘honour’ yet in truth an ‘eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’, it only gives justification for more violence. Males all over the world are taught to defend their families, to fight back, to not be weak. All false teachings from a peace perspective.
Life is not a control state. Life is wild and free. The real life is coming and going with or without people noticing. Life is what is natural. Life is what responds. Life is life giving, all ways. So life will mirror back to you whatever you project. What ever you fight will return to you. These are universal laws not man made. So people can argue for generations, but ultimately nature wins. What you see in another is in yourself as the mind is a projector. Until we clear the lens of the projector we will believe what we see in the other is true. When you approach ‘the other’ with a clear mind and open to learning truth, you will never be blinded by projection. When you allow for humanity, allow for possibilities, drop the past and walk into the present open to the highest good for all sides, then something amazing happens. You see the goodness in the other. You never saw it before as you were seeing your own darkness projected. Of course this interplay is both sides believing in an enemy. It is never true. Never, not once. Fear is the only enemy and it is an energy field that people get caught up in when it is constantly repeated as a mantra, as truth. It is never true. Fear is false evidence appearing real. Only love is real and both Palestinians and Israeli’s have ancient teachers who have taught this. But we are assuming they want the conflict to stop.
No – there are those who do not want the conflict to stop. There are those who feed of what Eckhart Tolle terms the ‘pain body’. This is a collective pain body that permeates humanity. You can feel it intensely in conflict zones or protests or wherever anger, grief and guilt exist. Of course these unintegrated emotions will always be projected as they are unquestioned. People on both sides do not know how to move from the inner pain. So they believe if they kill or wound or harm the other, they will feel stronger. Again, another fake myth. They only accumulate more pain as guilt is there. They try and feel stronger, more powerful to remove the uncomfortable feelings which seek out an enemy. This is the real dynamic under the surface. This is the driver of the conflict. Most people do not know how to remove the deep pain. They are fighting as both sides are in deep pain and fear. They will say they are not in fear, they have courage. Courage is in truth an action that feels the fear and stands strong anyway, this is still fear but choosing to stand. Fearlessness has no fear whatsoever, it is an energy that sees through the bravado. Many of these wise teachers were fearless. They had a spiritual power that was the real protection. Many will say love is the protection, of course it is. You only need look at a loving parent, their love is the shield. So this is not a wooly statement. It is a fundamental insight into real power. So until people can sit with their pain without projection, without running away, without blame but deeply feel the hurt, it will remain trapped in the body. When you learn to release the pain through crying and anger and outbursts (without harm) you will feel the freedom that so many believe they can fight for. You cannot fight to be free. Freedom is an inner state. Nelson Mandela was free in Prison. When you feel free on the inside the outer world will manifest freedom as life is energy and emotion is e-motion (energy in motion). We feel this energy more acutely in groups, we feel it when we walk into a room, we feel it with friends and those who are not. It is very clear. So how you direct your energy changes your future. You have to decide the future you want.
If both Israeli elites and the Palestinian elites choose to continue to see their cousins as the enemy then the war will find reasons to justify keeping on. If they want to change the paradigm, change the track, they will envisage a different future. Whatever you think about you bring about. This is the law of attraction. We are always getting what we choose whether we like it or not, in this we call or co-create our reality. For myself I have no enemies. I am in a conflict presently but I have to say I feel the love for the others involved. I have seen the repression of myself and realised how I gave my power away by believing they had power and that I was powerless. There was secrecy where they would not enter dialogue, they would not resolve the conflict, they chose a path of power over (control) not power within. I understand this paradigm. Now are they the problem or is it simply beliefs driving their thinking that is in confusion. You can always tell confusion as there is conflict not love present. So in their confusion, in their belief that I am inferior, that I am weak they maintain a conflict that could be easily resolved with a sharing of power. It could be resolved very quickly if equality was the core value that drove their beliefs and actions. However, it is not. So my incredible teachers are showing me through my pain what real power is. I know it is love as the love is getting stronger, the more I am oppressed, the more love I feel as I reconnect to inner truth which is that I am equal and I have power. If I stay in a victim, hateful state then they win as a retaliation would occur. They then would say see this person is negative, this person is aggressive, this person deserves the harshest treatment. I will never go there as I truly feel love for them. How do you fight nonviolence? As Gandhi wisely taught the world nonviolence is the mirror to the other. It comes from great love to not hit back, Jesus would be in a chorus with me now. Turn the other cheek is rising up in my consciousness. Do not harm the other as they know not what they do. They are in ignorance. How can I hurt someone who really doesn’t know the truth, and the way and the life. It is not their fault they are reacting from what their colleagues taught them, their peers, their fathers, the whole masculine identity tells them to beat the other, to repress them, to scare them into submission. It is an old recipe that never works. It always cycles back as what you do to another returns to the self. This is a universal law. You cannot force universal laws to comply with human made edicts, again nature always wins. So the futility of fighting I can feel is to hurt yourself. There is a wonderful cartoon I will never forget, actually Byron Katie (thework.com) tells the story of the sign on the gate that says ‘this dog bites’. So the person goes in and gets bitten. Did the dog bite the person? Yes. What if the person goes back in to the yard and gets bitten? Was it the dog or was it they who bit themselves. They knew it bites and went in. They have bitten themselves. That is what happens in revolving door conflicts, you keep going back for more as the pain body is activated by negative thoughts that seek revenge, pay back and you again get hit hard. Why are you hurting yourself? Why do you feel the desire to do this? Is it to feel a little power, is it to show others you are brave or simply boredom as you cannot find your way out of mazes of abuse. There appears no exit. However, there is an exit coming up if you look. This is the exit of peace, forgiveness, love and truth. Actually it not only is a exit it is a bridge over troubled waters. It appears as if by magic when you change your thinking to the higher possibility of seeing yourself in the other, standing in their shows, recognising they are in fear, knowing they are stuck like you are. Who will be the one to take the initiative and stop the hamster wheel? Who will have the courage to stop first? This is how wars end. This is how peace seeds are planted. The wise gardener feels for the fertile soil of truth, understanding and reconciliation. S/he realises what they have in common. S/he sees the children suffering on both sides. S/he sees the example of adults teaching their children the same misconceptions. S/he realises when one loses all lose. There is no win/win when one loses. S/he comes to integrate that what s/he does to another returns to the self. S/he is hurting herself and love comes into the heart as s/he sees through the highest intelligence, that only love is real. S/he invites her friend (former enemy) to break bread with her family. S/he sees that the other is hungry for peace, hungry for rest, hungry for home. S/he is her brother and sisters keeper. How s/he treats them returns as the mirror of how they treat her. She realises the mirror is her own creation, do unto others as they would have done unto you comes into her heart. She feels for the sermon on the mount, she sees a lone character speaking only of love to crowds who can feel the truth in these statements. This wisdom appears human yet it is the heart of all that is opening to the realisation that only love is real. This is how the child becomes awakened to the maturity of wisdom. So I will finish this with a story for both Palestinians and Israeli’s to consider.
There is a grandfather and he has two wolves inside him. He speaks to his grandchild and explains one of the wolves is angry, violent, mean, cruel and vicious the other is kind, caring, gentle, playful and loving. He turns to the child and says the wolves are having a fight. Which one will win? The child believes the violent won will win. As the child has seen all the violent movies, all the violent stories where he has seen that always the most aggressive overpowers the weak. He chooses the violent one. Ah the grandfather says the one who wins is the one I feed.
So we all get to choose fear or love. Which world thrives? Which world is a fight to the bottom?
We are all at this choice point globally. We all get to choose what we feed. For me I feed love.
I love Palestinians and Israeli’s I love Israeli’s and Palestinians (note the order, equality is balance, neither is first or last, I hold hands with both as family).
Until Israel can move from repression to democratic discourse it will continue to see an enemy surrounding itself.
Until Palestine can move from repression to democratic (sharing power) discourse it will continue to see an enemy surrounding itself.
Democracy is not a western notion it is reflective of King Arthur’s roundtable, but I will let you research that. Here is my inspired poem to encourage you https://wpas.worldpeacefull.com/2012/03/finding-camelot-in-realising-the-roundtable-of-universal-love/ There have been stories in all countries about the power of equality and truth in noble service to peace. I felt inspired to add…
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” – they come in all shapes and sizes.
It stops when all choose. Today is Armistice Day 11/11 representing when war was stopped. It is 11:11 a frequency which in truth is about unity. New knowledge comes when we change frequency. Frequency raises (higher) the more we live unconditional love as reality. We are all at different frequencies (none better or worse, just different) that is why one person will say this is not true and another will say I resonate (get it). It is not about right or wrong it is about resonance (harmony) with inner truth. From a higher perspective all are loved equally. This is not idealism this is the reality beyond the veil of ignorance. Refer https://shantagabriel.com/the-1111-codes-of-perturbation-for-the-lightworkers/
Now back on earth let’s have a look at Human Rights Watch 50 Years of Occupation ….
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/04/israel-50-years-occupation-abuses
Israel: 50 Years of Occupation Abuses
Ramp Up Pressure for Accountability on all Sides
Unlawful Killings & War Crimes
Israeli troops killed well over 2,000 Palestinian civilians in the last three Gaza conflicts (2008-09, 2012, 2014) alone. Many of these attacks amount to violations of international humanitarian law due to a failure to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians. Some amount to war crimes, including the targeting of apparent civilian structures.
In the West Bank, Israeli security forces have routinely used excessive force in policing situations, killing or grievously wounding thousands of demonstrators, rock-throwers, suspected assailants, and others with live ammunition when lesser means could have averted a threat or maintained order.
Armed Palestinian groups also committed war crimes during these conflicts and at other times, including rocket attacks targeting Israeli population centers. Between the start of the first Intifada in December 1987 and the end of February 2017, attacks by Palestinians killed at least 1,079 Israeli civilians, according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.
Israeli official investigations into alleged security force abuses during the Gaza conflicts and in policing situations failed to hold the abusers accountable, with rare exceptions. Palestinian authorities have also failed to investigate violations and hold those responsible to account.
Illegal Settlements
Israeli authorities have since 1967 facilitated the transfer of its civilians to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In 1967, Israel established two settlements in the West Bank: Kfar Etzion and East Talpiot; by 2017, Israel had established 237 settlements there, housing approximately 580,000 settlers. Israel applies Israeli civil law to settlers, affording them legal protections, rights, and benefits that are not extended to Palestinians living in the same territory who are subjected to Israeli military law. Israel provides settlers with infrastructure, services, and subsidies that it denies to Palestinians, creating and sustaining a separate and unequal system of law, rules, and services.
Israeli authorities have expropriated thousands of acres of Palestinian land for settlements and their supporting infrastructure. Discriminatory burdens, including making it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in East Jerusalem and in the 60 percent of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli control (Area C), have effectively forced Palestinians to leave their homes or to build at the risk of seeing their “unauthorized” structures bulldozed. For decades, Israeli authorities have demolished homes on the grounds that they lacked permits, even though the law of occupation prohibits destruction of property except for military necessity, or punitively as collective punishment against families of Palestinians suspected of attacking Israelis.
For the last 25 years, Israel has tightened restrictions on the movement of people and goods to and from the Gaza Strip in ways that far exceed any conceivable requirement of Israeli security. These restrictions affect nearly every aspect of everyday life, separating families, restricting access to medical care and educational and economic opportunities, and perpetuating unemployment and poverty. As of last year, Gaza’s GDP was 23 percent lower than in 1994. Seventy percent of Gaza’s 1.9 million people rely on humanitarian assistance.
Israeli authorities have incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since 1967, the majority after trials in military courts, which have a near-100 percent conviction rate. In addition, on average, hundreds every year have been placed in administrative detention based on secret evidence without charge or trial. Some were detained or imprisoned for engaging in nonviolent activism. Israel also jails West Bank and Gaza Palestinian detainees inside Israel, creating onerous restrictions on family visits and violating international law requiring that they be held within the occupied territory. Many detainees, including children, face harsh conditions and mistreatment.