Oh, oh, oh... You are so appreciated for saying out loud what all of us need to hear. You are so uniquely qualified and studied to share your learned perspective and remind and guide. Thank You so much for ALL You do!
If I may share my perspective as someome who was given at birth the label 'Jewish' & 'Israeli', in my view the path forward out of this horror is not strictly in political arrangemnts (that's also important but secondary) but rather it lies in the heart of people, in the ability/capacity to see the humanity of another before viewing them as a label (palestinian, israeli, muslim, jew), as well as in coming to terms with and acknowledging the IMMENSE AND PROFOUND TRAUMA that each "side" has caused the other and in finding ways to heal together.
(and before I proceed I'd just like to say that unlike most Jews, I'm fully aware that the trauma that supremacist zionists immigrants caused the local people over the last century - in their brutal ruthless cruel project to disposses, throw out, annihilate, dehumanize and erase of the local people in Palestine - is many many orders of magnitude greater than the other way around (the trauma caused to the zionists immigrants by the resistence of the local people to being dispossesed, massacred, abused and driven out of their home). Some of it is detailed in this shocking documentary https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3psMGQE0iW4 which i can confirm is 100% true to reality based on my own personal experience in the Israeli military. And after watching that docu PLEASE don't miss this short video https://youtu.be/CSff-Ip1kZs?si=udYd0XxYz6kbcDMb that details the horrific TRUTH of what is being done, everything that the zionist billionaire-owned media never tells you.. please don't turn away, PLEASE watch this
This capacity mentioned above, to step out of one's bubble and hear/see the humanity of another before seeing a label (and the stories attached to the label), requires having CONTACT between the "sides" so that they may hear each other's stories and each other's pain, but this contact is prevented and denied becasue of the incredible dominance of the sectarian nationalist divisive ideology in both sides.
As someone who was given at birth the label 'Jewish' and 'Israeli' (but have already long ago seen through their inaccurate, distorting, corrupting, limiting, imprisoning, divisive, sectarian and God-denying nature) I notice that what allows this ongoing horror to happen (not only today but for more than a century now) is that there is such a total SEPARATION AND DISCONNECTION between the "sides" (this is one of the greatest successes of nationalism driven by the ultra-wealthy ruling class, to divide and tribalistically pit against each other those who for centuries lived together, before the introduction of the divisive nationalist mind virus to the region) SEPARATION AND DISCONNECTION so that people from both "sides" have no full understanding of the life experience & trauma experience of those on the "other side".
From what I see, this total DISCONNECTION is exactly what allows people to cheer when "our hero fighters" (whom the other side calls terrorists or invaders/dispossesors) murder, torture, oppress, abuse, slaughter and bomb "them", because each side says "they are evil people who only want to harm us, take our land and kill us/kick us out", and each side has countless examples of actions by the other side that are supposed to "prove" the supposed rightness of their claim.
Each "side" is enclosed and contained within its own SECTARIAN BUBBLE and tells itself its own story, about its trauma and difficulties, and is completely unaware of the life experience and trauma of the "other side".
And so, when the other side reacts (in what it calls self-defense) then the first side interprets it as an attack (becasue of its DISCONNECTION from the stories and sense-making of the other side) and tells a story that "those people on the other side" are evil monsters who only want to harm us for no reason.
It's quite amazing how similar the story that each side tells itself to the story that the other side tells itself, it is practically the SAME STORY - we are the victims here who are only protecting ourselves from the aggression of those evil people over there who only want to harm us and hate us for no reason. We have no one to talk to and negotiate with, they are not human beings, they are sons of Satan who hate us from birth, who only want to destroy us and take our land and kick us out - each side speaks the exact same stories!!
And all this lack of understanding happens simply because there is NO CONTACT between the "sides". This is the tremendous success of nationalism/tribalism, there is a complete disconnection, so that I don't hear the story that the other side tells itself and how they make sense of things, I don't experience their life experience, I don't know anything about their pain, I don't realize how much the story they tell themselves is the same as the story I tell myself, and therefore there is no possibility of experiencing the HUMANITY (the fear, the search for security) that motivates the other, just as it motivates me, and therefore also indifference to the trauma that the other goes through at the hands of "our heroic fighters"
It seems to me that the main engine that drives all of this is that people in the region (and especially Israelis) undergo a very deep conditioning/indoctrination from a very young age into a separative and SECTARIAN RELIGIOUS-NATIONALIST IDENTITY and learn to believe (contrary to what reality shows) that this separate and divisive identity is what will provide them with protection and security, even though it does THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!
This indoctrination into the separative exclucivist religious-nationalist identity is much more than just mental brainwashing, but it is mainly the conditioning the of the nervous system and emotional system into IDENTIFICATION with a nationalist-religious label which causes the emotions and the body to react very strongly to anything that they teach me is at odds with this identity.
Strong reaction that comes from the fact that the body/brain/nervous system has been conditioned to learn - through constant repetition in the first years of life (when the personality is formed), again and again and again, and without questioning - this is who I am, that I am this national-religious identity.
It seems to me that those who have fallen into the abyss of sectarianism/tribalism/nationalism (and especially those whose tribalism also involves divisive, excluding, supremacist and God-denying sectarian religious beliefs) have been conditioned to believe that their saftey & security will be found through group separation and exclusion and a sense of uniqueness from the rest of humanity (a feeling that is so deeply imprinted in those who believe that the label of "Jewish" is who they actually are), that security will be found through an attempt to ensure the safety of ONLY one group of people, only those who were born into the "correct" religious-national label (and anyone who was not born into the correct national-religious label can go to hell. She matters a little but not nearly as much as the Chosen People, the most valuable and important people in the universe). It sounds ridiculous, but this is a VERY common & mainstream worldview in the extremely nationalist, ethnocentric, fascistic & exclucivist Israeli society, and it plays a huge part in what brought about this conflict in the first place, since the very early days of sectarian exclucivist zionist nationalism, and its arrival in the middle east from (mostly) eastern Europe.
To me, this is precisely the blindness of the sectarian nationalist-religious identity: trying to create security ONLY for one group, only for a part of the whole (through division, exclusion, separation from the whole and working to secure the narrow interests of only one nationalist-religious identity), such an attempt - of trying to create security ONLY for the part and ignore what this does to the whole - such an attempt can NEVER ever lead to real security but exactly the opposite - this is the number one factor that creates constant conflict and INSECURITY!!!
TRYING TO CREATE SECTARIAN SECURITY (SECURITY ONLY FOR THE PART AND NOT THE WHOLE, ONLY FOR ME AND MY GROUP) IS THE VERY CAUSE OF INSECURITY!!!
In my understanding, tribalism/nationalism and sectarian divisive exoteric religion (which is the POLAR OPPOSITE of what God/Consciousness actually is) is the great disease and blindness of humanity. Is the most destructive and deadly invention that humans have ever invented (not because we are bad, but because we have not psychologically matured yet, and are still blind, and in our ignorance & blindness we believed that this is how we will find safety & security, without understanding what we are doing, without realizing that we are actually creating constant INSECURITY when we search for security through the sectarian divisive nationalist-religious identity, when we seek security only for the part and not for the whole).
To me it is absolutely clear that it is the number one cause of human division, separation, antagonism, hatred, conflict, violence, murder and war..
IMHO, the bloodshed can never stop and there will never be security for anyone unless we have the courage to step out of our sectarian bubble and actually listen and truly understand the profound trauma we inflict (this is true for both sides but especially so for Israelis who are incredibly brainwashed and ignorant of the UNSPEAKABLE HORROR CRUELTY INHUMANITY AND TRAUMA that supremacist right-wing zionist immigrants/colonizers inflicted and inflict on the local people.
Without feeling the pain endured and understanding what palestinians are actually reacting to, indoctrinated supremacist zionists will just continue with the murder, abuse, dispossession, cruelty, throwing-out, massacre and erasure of the local people, and keep telling themselves the story that 'they are hostile to us for no reason, simply becasue they are evil antisemite monsters by nature..'
Supremacist zionist immigrants? It amazes me how some of the biggest haters of Israel are Jews themselves- take Norman Finkelstein for example. The problem in the Middle East is not just about recognizing 'the other.' ISLAMIC EXTREMISM is at the heart of this problem (as well as the fact that the Arabs have NEVER acknowledged Israel's right to exist and initiated all the wars creating the refugee problem to begin with) and while Israel has its own ultraorthodox nationalists, we do not remove our shoes at the airport because the Jews are blowing themselves up or using their children as suicide bombers and martyrs. And NO, Israel’s behavior such as settlements on the West Bank, is NOT what explains the suicidal and genocidal inclinations of a group like Hamas. The Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad do. Just read Hamas' charter if you haven't already done so.
And they are just not coming for the Jews- Islamic extremists hate the WEST and all that we stand for. Remember 9/11?? Or the murder of the French journalists who dared to draw a cartoon of Mohammad? Or the murder of David Amess, the British politician? I could give many examples. Here is an excellent intelligent summary of the heart of the matter, long but well worth the read by Sam Harris:
When I read your message, this is the kernel of what I see.
"Without feeling the pain endured and understanding what Palestinians [and Israelis] are actually reacting to, indoctrinated supremacist Zionists [and Islamic jihadists like Hamas] will just continue with the murder, abuse, dispossession, cruelty, throwing-out, massacre and erasure of (the local people), and keep telling themselves the story that 'they are hostile to us for no reason, simply because they are evil Antisemite [or Muslim hating Jewish] monsters by nature."
I took the liberty of making a slight alteration in this paragraph so that it conveys the most valuable point you made. Learn to see the humanity, the brother or sister, in who I may perceive to be my enemy. Because in the end, we are all family anyway.
Thank you for all the hard work you did to deconstruct your own conditioning.
I remember doing a lot of that in my younger years as well. Be blessed.
My parents survived the Holocaust because they fled from Poland before the war, they fled from Poland because for hundreds of years, the Jewish people were not allowed to feel Polish but only unwanted. My parents lived in Belgium as probably undocumented immigrants and went into hiding after the Nazis attacked. Eventually they ended up in a South American country that allowed them to live there as stateless people because the government was antisemitic. However they and the other Jewish refugees lived there and settled there and eventually were granted citizenship. Except for a handful, my parent's large families who were not able to flee were "exterminated" for being Jewish. My parents had a severe fear of persecution which they passed on to me and which I tried to deny or diminish until last year when I traveled to Poland to a memorial ceremony to remember the 800 + Jews who were shot in a forest. My maternal grandmother for whom I'm named, her daughter (my aunt) and her 4 year old granddaughter (my cousin), sleep forever there. They were shot 50 at a time, and when I try to picture that, I cry inside. To stand in a forest and know what your fate was going to be.
While visiting Poland and realizing that most of the Jews who lived there were murdered, I began to feel and connect with my fear of persecution. The persecution of Jews was not invented by Hitler but his compelling arguments were so familiar, that it was easy to go along with the plan. In 1948, there was a rebirth of a process of returning to the homeland, and moments after the state of Israel was founded, neighboring Arab countries invaded with the plan to destroy it. This plan has not changed, and although it's a complex issue that has been going on for a while, Israel has reserved the right to defend itself. As many attempts have been discussed to have 2 states next to each other, allowing for Palestinians (which was the name of the region when the British ruled) to live in peace with Israel, all of them have failed. Human error, hatred, antisemitism, crappy governments and an a deep mistrust. The 2 and a half miles of tunnels Hamas have built under Israel using money donated to the people of the region to build and maintain an infrastructure doesn't build much confidence. Israelis don't want this war to go on, but Oct 7 2023 made a powerful statement. Killed in their homes, kept in captivity, raped and many videos sent by proud terrorists back to their families send a powerful message. Now curated lies by the media, protest marches by college students in the U.S. with signs "gas the Jews", Jews throughout the world attacked and insulted and the academic and journalist complicit words and actions tell us (tells me) the truth. We are not safe. My parents knew that and I didn't want to hear it. I hear it now. There are marches in our country in which white supremacists have Nazi flags and that's perfectly acceptable. I also know a few non Jewish people who are truly kind and thoughtful but are willing to keep silent when the survival of Israel is in peril.
The global chaos is very painful to watch, the suffering of so many is so great that we can't really find a solution except to pray and wipe the hatred from our hearts. The powerful continue to worship money and our country is torn by partisan politics without regard to "the people".
Thank you Marianne for your words and you have my endless respect and of course my vote.
"If anyone wants to support us getting there, I submit that the best way to do that is to bless us both."
There are brave Jewish and Palestinians people in Israel working on equality, peace, and safety for all right now. Standing Together is a grassroots movement that envisions a shared society.
Yes, it's an Israeli movement. At the top of the page when you click English it will translate the webpage for you. I would not know if there will be an American component. I only get the newsletter I signed up for.
Excellently written; -both intellectually astute and spiritually wise. Ms. Williamson once again, writing the Truth! I am Middle-Eastern American, and I stand with you, for peace for all!
In A Course in Miracles that God does not give us victory in battle; He lifts us above the battlefield. There, in that field above, Jews and Muslims have been friends for centuries and more.
Something I have heard said lately is "Never again means never again for anybody." We condemn Hamas for the terrorist attack on October 7th, just as we condemn the Israeli military for its war crimes.
Oh Marianne, thank God, I have been trying to get this across for years now. And yes, I almost always get shut down--from so-called progressives who think they are not prejudiced. Somehow a large part of the left thinks it has permission to be openly anti-Semitic, and those Jews who are confused or unconsciously self-hating help them. I know quite a few Jewish people who exhibit self-hating behavior, and many of them are fervent anti-Zionists. It's sad, the product of hundreds of years of persecution, until finally it gets internalized. Certainly, not all anti-Zionists are anti-Semitic, but the oft-repeated saying "It's not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel" has opened the gateway for all sorts of hatred to fly through. Jewish people are now blamed for the entire human condition; for being "colonialist" and "white settlers" when many of the accusers are themselves living on stolen land, in the same socioeconomic situation as the "Zionists" they revile.
The saddest thing, in all of this, is that the Palestinians, suffering decades of persecution and now in desperate straits, are being ignored or used as a political football by the many anti-Semitic anti-Zionists who care more about hating Jewish people than they do about caring for Palestinians. (I have witnessed this personally.) Let's pray these haters convert their resources to generate compassion and understanding for all sides.
A great example of holding respect for two sides of a complex issue and naming an underlying factor most will be unwilling to explore.
Just as, at some point, we all have to ask ourselves deeply, "am I a racist?" and be unflinching about the answer, the same question must be asked about anti-semitism. Most of us have been molded by cultural norms and tropes that for an underlying belief about "others".
Since October 7th I have read, listened and reeducated myself about the truth of the double standard all Jews are held to.
In the past I would have condemned the Jewish people for the absolute decimation and destruction they are perpetrating on the Palestinians.
Now my heart is broken for both and I can see that the political machine is doing what it does wielding its power to keep its power. We are not machines; we cry, we bleed and we love. I will not allow myself to become a pawn in the hatred that feeds the machine. ♥️
In the meantime, I’m encouraged by how many people are clearly unwilling to demonize or dehumanize either Palestinians or Jews. It says in A Course in Miracles that God does not give us victory in battle; He lifts us above the battlefield. There, in that field above, Jews and Muslims have been friends for centuries and more. May this horrible chapter in our history one day be seen as something terrible we went through but then made our way beyond. Thanks, Marianne for this statement of hope that Jews and Muslims can one day be friends again.
We have drifted into a multidimensional tribalism that is fear based. We need something that cuts through these barriers. Something that sits behind the fear that connects us. Pehaps something like a parable.
Mob mentality abounds. Same as always superiority feeds the ego. People forget Hamas was voted in. No excuses for Palestinian suffering but not excuse for flagrant Anti Semitism either. Thank you for your words. Much needed to be put down in writing.
Oh, oh, oh... You are so appreciated for saying out loud what all of us need to hear. You are so uniquely qualified and studied to share your learned perspective and remind and guide. Thank You so much for ALL You do!
If I may share my perspective as someome who was given at birth the label 'Jewish' & 'Israeli', in my view the path forward out of this horror is not strictly in political arrangemnts (that's also important but secondary) but rather it lies in the heart of people, in the ability/capacity to see the humanity of another before viewing them as a label (palestinian, israeli, muslim, jew), as well as in coming to terms with and acknowledging the IMMENSE AND PROFOUND TRAUMA that each "side" has caused the other and in finding ways to heal together.
(and before I proceed I'd just like to say that unlike most Jews, I'm fully aware that the trauma that supremacist zionists immigrants caused the local people over the last century - in their brutal ruthless cruel project to disposses, throw out, annihilate, dehumanize and erase of the local people in Palestine - is many many orders of magnitude greater than the other way around (the trauma caused to the zionists immigrants by the resistence of the local people to being dispossesed, massacred, abused and driven out of their home). Some of it is detailed in this shocking documentary https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3psMGQE0iW4 which i can confirm is 100% true to reality based on my own personal experience in the Israeli military. And after watching that docu PLEASE don't miss this short video https://youtu.be/CSff-Ip1kZs?si=udYd0XxYz6kbcDMb that details the horrific TRUTH of what is being done, everything that the zionist billionaire-owned media never tells you.. please don't turn away, PLEASE watch this
This capacity mentioned above, to step out of one's bubble and hear/see the humanity of another before seeing a label (and the stories attached to the label), requires having CONTACT between the "sides" so that they may hear each other's stories and each other's pain, but this contact is prevented and denied becasue of the incredible dominance of the sectarian nationalist divisive ideology in both sides.
As someone who was given at birth the label 'Jewish' and 'Israeli' (but have already long ago seen through their inaccurate, distorting, corrupting, limiting, imprisoning, divisive, sectarian and God-denying nature) I notice that what allows this ongoing horror to happen (not only today but for more than a century now) is that there is such a total SEPARATION AND DISCONNECTION between the "sides" (this is one of the greatest successes of nationalism driven by the ultra-wealthy ruling class, to divide and tribalistically pit against each other those who for centuries lived together, before the introduction of the divisive nationalist mind virus to the region) SEPARATION AND DISCONNECTION so that people from both "sides" have no full understanding of the life experience & trauma experience of those on the "other side".
From what I see, this total DISCONNECTION is exactly what allows people to cheer when "our hero fighters" (whom the other side calls terrorists or invaders/dispossesors) murder, torture, oppress, abuse, slaughter and bomb "them", because each side says "they are evil people who only want to harm us, take our land and kill us/kick us out", and each side has countless examples of actions by the other side that are supposed to "prove" the supposed rightness of their claim.
Each "side" is enclosed and contained within its own SECTARIAN BUBBLE and tells itself its own story, about its trauma and difficulties, and is completely unaware of the life experience and trauma of the "other side".
And so, when the other side reacts (in what it calls self-defense) then the first side interprets it as an attack (becasue of its DISCONNECTION from the stories and sense-making of the other side) and tells a story that "those people on the other side" are evil monsters who only want to harm us for no reason.
It's quite amazing how similar the story that each side tells itself to the story that the other side tells itself, it is practically the SAME STORY - we are the victims here who are only protecting ourselves from the aggression of those evil people over there who only want to harm us and hate us for no reason. We have no one to talk to and negotiate with, they are not human beings, they are sons of Satan who hate us from birth, who only want to destroy us and take our land and kick us out - each side speaks the exact same stories!!
And all this lack of understanding happens simply because there is NO CONTACT between the "sides". This is the tremendous success of nationalism/tribalism, there is a complete disconnection, so that I don't hear the story that the other side tells itself and how they make sense of things, I don't experience their life experience, I don't know anything about their pain, I don't realize how much the story they tell themselves is the same as the story I tell myself, and therefore there is no possibility of experiencing the HUMANITY (the fear, the search for security) that motivates the other, just as it motivates me, and therefore also indifference to the trauma that the other goes through at the hands of "our heroic fighters"
It seems to me that the main engine that drives all of this is that people in the region (and especially Israelis) undergo a very deep conditioning/indoctrination from a very young age into a separative and SECTARIAN RELIGIOUS-NATIONALIST IDENTITY and learn to believe (contrary to what reality shows) that this separate and divisive identity is what will provide them with protection and security, even though it does THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!
This indoctrination into the separative exclucivist religious-nationalist identity is much more than just mental brainwashing, but it is mainly the conditioning the of the nervous system and emotional system into IDENTIFICATION with a nationalist-religious label which causes the emotions and the body to react very strongly to anything that they teach me is at odds with this identity.
Strong reaction that comes from the fact that the body/brain/nervous system has been conditioned to learn - through constant repetition in the first years of life (when the personality is formed), again and again and again, and without questioning - this is who I am, that I am this national-religious identity.
It seems to me that those who have fallen into the abyss of sectarianism/tribalism/nationalism (and especially those whose tribalism also involves divisive, excluding, supremacist and God-denying sectarian religious beliefs) have been conditioned to believe that their saftey & security will be found through group separation and exclusion and a sense of uniqueness from the rest of humanity (a feeling that is so deeply imprinted in those who believe that the label of "Jewish" is who they actually are), that security will be found through an attempt to ensure the safety of ONLY one group of people, only those who were born into the "correct" religious-national label (and anyone who was not born into the correct national-religious label can go to hell. She matters a little but not nearly as much as the Chosen People, the most valuable and important people in the universe). It sounds ridiculous, but this is a VERY common & mainstream worldview in the extremely nationalist, ethnocentric, fascistic & exclucivist Israeli society, and it plays a huge part in what brought about this conflict in the first place, since the very early days of sectarian exclucivist zionist nationalism, and its arrival in the middle east from (mostly) eastern Europe.
To me, this is precisely the blindness of the sectarian nationalist-religious identity: trying to create security ONLY for one group, only for a part of the whole (through division, exclusion, separation from the whole and working to secure the narrow interests of only one nationalist-religious identity), such an attempt - of trying to create security ONLY for the part and ignore what this does to the whole - such an attempt can NEVER ever lead to real security but exactly the opposite - this is the number one factor that creates constant conflict and INSECURITY!!!
TRYING TO CREATE SECTARIAN SECURITY (SECURITY ONLY FOR THE PART AND NOT THE WHOLE, ONLY FOR ME AND MY GROUP) IS THE VERY CAUSE OF INSECURITY!!!
In my understanding, tribalism/nationalism and sectarian divisive exoteric religion (which is the POLAR OPPOSITE of what God/Consciousness actually is) is the great disease and blindness of humanity. Is the most destructive and deadly invention that humans have ever invented (not because we are bad, but because we have not psychologically matured yet, and are still blind, and in our ignorance & blindness we believed that this is how we will find safety & security, without understanding what we are doing, without realizing that we are actually creating constant INSECURITY when we search for security through the sectarian divisive nationalist-religious identity, when we seek security only for the part and not for the whole).
To me it is absolutely clear that it is the number one cause of human division, separation, antagonism, hatred, conflict, violence, murder and war..
IMHO, the bloodshed can never stop and there will never be security for anyone unless we have the courage to step out of our sectarian bubble and actually listen and truly understand the profound trauma we inflict (this is true for both sides but especially so for Israelis who are incredibly brainwashed and ignorant of the UNSPEAKABLE HORROR CRUELTY INHUMANITY AND TRAUMA that supremacist right-wing zionist immigrants/colonizers inflicted and inflict on the local people.
Without feeling the pain endured and understanding what palestinians are actually reacting to, indoctrinated supremacist zionists will just continue with the murder, abuse, dispossession, cruelty, throwing-out, massacre and erasure of the local people, and keep telling themselves the story that 'they are hostile to us for no reason, simply becasue they are evil antisemite monsters by nature..'
Supremacist zionist immigrants? It amazes me how some of the biggest haters of Israel are Jews themselves- take Norman Finkelstein for example. The problem in the Middle East is not just about recognizing 'the other.' ISLAMIC EXTREMISM is at the heart of this problem (as well as the fact that the Arabs have NEVER acknowledged Israel's right to exist and initiated all the wars creating the refugee problem to begin with) and while Israel has its own ultraorthodox nationalists, we do not remove our shoes at the airport because the Jews are blowing themselves up or using their children as suicide bombers and martyrs. And NO, Israel’s behavior such as settlements on the West Bank, is NOT what explains the suicidal and genocidal inclinations of a group like Hamas. The Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad do. Just read Hamas' charter if you haven't already done so.
And they are just not coming for the Jews- Islamic extremists hate the WEST and all that we stand for. Remember 9/11?? Or the murder of the French journalists who dared to draw a cartoon of Mohammad? Or the murder of David Amess, the British politician? I could give many examples. Here is an excellent intelligent summary of the heart of the matter, long but well worth the read by Sam Harris:
https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-bright-line-between-good-and-evil
Hi Head and Heart:
When I read your message, this is the kernel of what I see.
"Without feeling the pain endured and understanding what Palestinians [and Israelis] are actually reacting to, indoctrinated supremacist Zionists [and Islamic jihadists like Hamas] will just continue with the murder, abuse, dispossession, cruelty, throwing-out, massacre and erasure of (the local people), and keep telling themselves the story that 'they are hostile to us for no reason, simply because they are evil Antisemite [or Muslim hating Jewish] monsters by nature."
I took the liberty of making a slight alteration in this paragraph so that it conveys the most valuable point you made. Learn to see the humanity, the brother or sister, in who I may perceive to be my enemy. Because in the end, we are all family anyway.
Thank you for all the hard work you did to deconstruct your own conditioning.
I remember doing a lot of that in my younger years as well. Be blessed.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you for articulating what I've been feeling.
Brava.
My parents survived the Holocaust because they fled from Poland before the war, they fled from Poland because for hundreds of years, the Jewish people were not allowed to feel Polish but only unwanted. My parents lived in Belgium as probably undocumented immigrants and went into hiding after the Nazis attacked. Eventually they ended up in a South American country that allowed them to live there as stateless people because the government was antisemitic. However they and the other Jewish refugees lived there and settled there and eventually were granted citizenship. Except for a handful, my parent's large families who were not able to flee were "exterminated" for being Jewish. My parents had a severe fear of persecution which they passed on to me and which I tried to deny or diminish until last year when I traveled to Poland to a memorial ceremony to remember the 800 + Jews who were shot in a forest. My maternal grandmother for whom I'm named, her daughter (my aunt) and her 4 year old granddaughter (my cousin), sleep forever there. They were shot 50 at a time, and when I try to picture that, I cry inside. To stand in a forest and know what your fate was going to be.
While visiting Poland and realizing that most of the Jews who lived there were murdered, I began to feel and connect with my fear of persecution. The persecution of Jews was not invented by Hitler but his compelling arguments were so familiar, that it was easy to go along with the plan. In 1948, there was a rebirth of a process of returning to the homeland, and moments after the state of Israel was founded, neighboring Arab countries invaded with the plan to destroy it. This plan has not changed, and although it's a complex issue that has been going on for a while, Israel has reserved the right to defend itself. As many attempts have been discussed to have 2 states next to each other, allowing for Palestinians (which was the name of the region when the British ruled) to live in peace with Israel, all of them have failed. Human error, hatred, antisemitism, crappy governments and an a deep mistrust. The 2 and a half miles of tunnels Hamas have built under Israel using money donated to the people of the region to build and maintain an infrastructure doesn't build much confidence. Israelis don't want this war to go on, but Oct 7 2023 made a powerful statement. Killed in their homes, kept in captivity, raped and many videos sent by proud terrorists back to their families send a powerful message. Now curated lies by the media, protest marches by college students in the U.S. with signs "gas the Jews", Jews throughout the world attacked and insulted and the academic and journalist complicit words and actions tell us (tells me) the truth. We are not safe. My parents knew that and I didn't want to hear it. I hear it now. There are marches in our country in which white supremacists have Nazi flags and that's perfectly acceptable. I also know a few non Jewish people who are truly kind and thoughtful but are willing to keep silent when the survival of Israel is in peril.
The global chaos is very painful to watch, the suffering of so many is so great that we can't really find a solution except to pray and wipe the hatred from our hearts. The powerful continue to worship money and our country is torn by partisan politics without regard to "the people".
Thank you Marianne for your words and you have my endless respect and of course my vote.
*Heart *Tears *Prayers
"If anyone wants to support us getting there, I submit that the best way to do that is to bless us both."
There are brave Jewish and Palestinians people in Israel working on equality, peace, and safety for all right now. Standing Together is a grassroots movement that envisions a shared society.
standing-together.org
Unfortunately, the link is in Hebrew as this is an Israeli movement.
Please let us know if or when there is an American component to this movement.
Yes, it's an Israeli movement. At the top of the page when you click English it will translate the webpage for you. I would not know if there will be an American component. I only get the newsletter I signed up for.
Thank you for this information. I really appreciate it.
Excellently written; -both intellectually astute and spiritually wise. Ms. Williamson once again, writing the Truth! I am Middle-Eastern American, and I stand with you, for peace for all!
In A Course in Miracles that God does not give us victory in battle; He lifts us above the battlefield. There, in that field above, Jews and Muslims have been friends for centuries and more.
Something I have heard said lately is "Never again means never again for anybody." We condemn Hamas for the terrorist attack on October 7th, just as we condemn the Israeli military for its war crimes.
Oh Marianne, thank God, I have been trying to get this across for years now. And yes, I almost always get shut down--from so-called progressives who think they are not prejudiced. Somehow a large part of the left thinks it has permission to be openly anti-Semitic, and those Jews who are confused or unconsciously self-hating help them. I know quite a few Jewish people who exhibit self-hating behavior, and many of them are fervent anti-Zionists. It's sad, the product of hundreds of years of persecution, until finally it gets internalized. Certainly, not all anti-Zionists are anti-Semitic, but the oft-repeated saying "It's not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel" has opened the gateway for all sorts of hatred to fly through. Jewish people are now blamed for the entire human condition; for being "colonialist" and "white settlers" when many of the accusers are themselves living on stolen land, in the same socioeconomic situation as the "Zionists" they revile.
The saddest thing, in all of this, is that the Palestinians, suffering decades of persecution and now in desperate straits, are being ignored or used as a political football by the many anti-Semitic anti-Zionists who care more about hating Jewish people than they do about caring for Palestinians. (I have witnessed this personally.) Let's pray these haters convert their resources to generate compassion and understanding for all sides.
A great example of holding respect for two sides of a complex issue and naming an underlying factor most will be unwilling to explore.
Just as, at some point, we all have to ask ourselves deeply, "am I a racist?" and be unflinching about the answer, the same question must be asked about anti-semitism. Most of us have been molded by cultural norms and tropes that for an underlying belief about "others".
Since October 7th I have read, listened and reeducated myself about the truth of the double standard all Jews are held to.
In the past I would have condemned the Jewish people for the absolute decimation and destruction they are perpetrating on the Palestinians.
Now my heart is broken for both and I can see that the political machine is doing what it does wielding its power to keep its power. We are not machines; we cry, we bleed and we love. I will not allow myself to become a pawn in the hatred that feeds the machine. ♥️
In the meantime, I’m encouraged by how many people are clearly unwilling to demonize or dehumanize either Palestinians or Jews. It says in A Course in Miracles that God does not give us victory in battle; He lifts us above the battlefield. There, in that field above, Jews and Muslims have been friends for centuries and more. May this horrible chapter in our history one day be seen as something terrible we went through but then made our way beyond. Thanks, Marianne for this statement of hope that Jews and Muslims can one day be friends again.
God bless you always.
Thank you Marianne for your wisdom, your heartfelt message and unwavering humanitarian spirit. People are people. I bless you both.
We have drifted into a multidimensional tribalism that is fear based. We need something that cuts through these barriers. Something that sits behind the fear that connects us. Pehaps something like a parable.
Mob mentality abounds. Same as always superiority feeds the ego. People forget Hamas was voted in. No excuses for Palestinian suffering but not excuse for flagrant Anti Semitism either. Thank you for your words. Much needed to be put down in writing.