Beautifully and skillfully said CJ. As a Jewish Israeli, I know from my own personal experience with the unbelievably cruel, inhumane, violent, ruthhless & arrogant supremacists in the israeli government exactly who the actual N*zis are here..
I know intimately their insane supremacist beliefs and ideology,
Beautifully and skillfully said CJ. As a Jewish Israeli, I know from my own personal experience with the unbelievably cruel, inhumane, violent, ruthhless & arrogant supremacists in the israeli government exactly who the actual N*zis are here..
I know intimately their insane supremacist beliefs and ideology,
I know the false nationalist mythologies and stories of morality that they tell themselves (and hammer into our head) over and over and over again from birth, inside the SRCTARIAN BUBBLE that the vast majority of supremaciat zionists (and their gullible misinformed fans across the world who blindly repeat their false slogans) are hermetically closed in,
I know the fake nationalist "god" that their fearful violent brain invented for itself to justify their brutally cruel inhumane (and anti-God) project of dispossesion against the local people,
I have seen with my own eyes and am intimately familiar with their century-long brutal ruthless cruel traumatizing project to disposses, eliminate, throw out, take over, dehumanize and ERASE the local prople in Palestine (you can see much of it in great detail in this shocking documentary https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3psMGQE0iW4 which I can confirm is 100% true from my own personal experience),
I know how they corrupt & twist the Holocaust to justify the UNSPEAKABLE INHUMANITY AND GENOCIDAL HORROR they are inflicting on the local people in Palestine, and to silence anyone who dares mention what they are doing (labeling as an 'antisemite' and 'Hollcaust-denier' anyone who dares point out their GENOCIDE against the local people, anyone who stands for human dignity and exposes their life-destroying dispossesion & erasure project and security-destroying nationalist sectarian ideology of "it's either us or them")
'Antisemite' is another term the cynical supremacist zionist murderers, abusers & torturers completely corrupted, twisted, turned on its head and emptied of meaning, and are cynically using it as a political weapon to attack and silence those who expose the profound unspeakable horrific inhumanity criminality and cruelty of their erasure project against the local people (cynically and manipulatively claiming that such a person supposedly hates Jews for pointing out this genocidal horror).
Pretty much anyome who isn't a right-wing Jewish supremacist or who blindly supports right-wing Jewish supremacists is today labelled an 'antisemite' by their cynical PR and censorship machine
PPS. I'd also highly recommend listening to what this wise Jewish Holocaust survivor has to say about the right-wing zionist aupremacists and their similarity to the European right-wing fascism tha persecuted Jews, about their cynical corruption and political weaponization of the Holocaust to justify a genocidal dehumanization and dispossesion project against the local people in Palestine, and about what the term "Never Again" actually means. https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1718048169781797080?t=IPJzkf9jdqFvMABvfW5ung&s=19
PPPS. I mentioned above that their actions and ideology not only do not and cannot bring about safety & security (for anyone, neither Jews nor Muslims nor anyone else) but is actually the very cause of INSECURITY. I have a lot to say in that regard, and I think that is the root issue (and the root solution) that sectarian nationalists are unable to see. A lot to say about this but space here is limited so I'll do that in the comment/reply below
God bless you for being a rare human that can cut through all the BS you were undoubtedly indoctrinated with your whole life! It must be lonely. I know it is for me, and I'm not even Jewish.
To continue from above, with regard to why the sectarian exclucivist ethnocentric nationalist approach cannot brimg security and actually must bring about INSECURITY, as we see all around us. In my perspective (which is of course only partial and limited, as all perspectives are), 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 unlike most Jews, I am fully aware and acknowledge that the trauma that supremacist right-wing zionists caused palestinians is many many orders of magnitude greater than the other way around)
All of this requires having CONTACT between the "sides" so that they may hear each other, each other's stories and each other's pain, but this contact is currently 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', I am noticing that one of the main things that allows this ongoing horror to happen (not only today but it has been going on for more than a century) is that there is such a total SEPARATION AND DISCONNECTION between the "sides" (this is one of the greatest successes of nationalism/sectarianism, to separate people) so that people from both "sides" have no full understanding of the life experience and trauma experience of those on the "other side".
From what I see and feel, this total DISCONNECTION is exactly what allows people to cheer when "our hero fighters" (whom the other side calls terrorists or invaders/occupiers) 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 evil 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 our side..
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 I can't help but notice that all this lack of understanding happens simply because there is NO CONTACT between the "sides". This is the tremendous success of nationalism/tribalism/sectarianism, there is an almost 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" (who in the eyes of the "The other side" are murderous terrorists/invaders/oppresors).
It seems to me that the main engine that drives all of this is that almost all the residents of the region 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!! (In a moment I will say why 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 (this label equals me. This is me, This label is where safety and security is to be found), which causes the emotions and the body to react very strongly to anything that might disrupt this identity/label.
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, therefore anything that questions or does not identify with this national-religious system of ideas is immediately perceived as a threat to my very existence, because I am this identity/the nationalist-religious label, this is me, this is where safety and secur8ty is at..
It seems to me that those who have fallen into the abyss of sectarianism/tribalism/nationalism (and especially those whose nationalism/tribalism also involves divisive and God-denying sectarian religious beliefs) have been conditioned to believe that 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 everyone 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 worldview in the extremely nationalist, ethnocentric, fascistic and exclucivist Israeli society (which is much more fanatically tribalstic and nationalist than Jews outside israel), and I think it plays a huge huge part in what brought this conflict about in the first place, since the very early days of sectarian zionist nationalism.
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 not only 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 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 naiveté 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..
Great comment. I would like to maybe add that there must be some constructive way forward to deal with the trauma that is inflicted on the victims. Something other than perpetuating a cycle of fearing and dehumanizing the other side. Because there are people who live in conditions where there is (or has been) the real threat of someone wanting them dead. I think it's important to recognize that in some cases, there are people who have experienced genuine mortal fear that someone wants to kill them. Or they have come face to face with those who tried to kill them. This needs to be worked with somehow. I spoke with a vet who felt this way in Iraq. Tim O'Brien wrote about this experience in Vietnam. A person who truly is in a situation where someone wants to kill them is probably not going to think about holism. They are going to be radically separated from their enemy regardless of how they got in the conflict. (And their fear is used as a political tool to motivate people to go to war) The fear and the need to defend oneself is going to stick with them a long time, unless there is some way to work with it. There have to be some ways to facilitate moving from fear, anger and hate for the "enemy" and toward positive contact with each other.
Yes, absolutely. Thank you for putting it so skillfully and clearly. That is indeed the key first step. If there is no healing for the traumatised nervous system then we can forget about people having a higher or more wholistic perspective. Fully agree with on that. Absolutely necrssary.
However, to be honest, I am not very optimistic that even if this healing happened that there would be a real change of course because besides this immediate trauma that you mentioned, the society in israel is totally and hermatically enclosed within its own sectarian bubble and hears ONLY its own story, with zero awareness of the life experience and pain of the 'other side'. ZERO!! Palestinians don't even register as having any real human existence to the vast majority of israelis. On the very rare occasions that their existence is acknowlegded it is only as an infinitely evil villain cartoon character, a monstrous terrorist who only want to destroy us. And "they are all like that'..
Not only is their existence not acknowledged, but obviously there is no knowledge whatsoever of their stories of how they make sense of reality and how they view the zionist arrogant and violent and inconsiderate and unfriendly and hostile arrival in the middle east..
In my view, things cannot not change unless there is a very deep awakening in the Israeli psyche from the separative, divisive, self-righteous and tone-deaf spirit out of which israelis operate and in which they are enclosed. This separative self-righteous tone-deaf ethnocentric supremacist arrogant and dismissive spirit will NEVER provide them with security, no matter how many times they tell themselves that they are the victims and the righteous ones, becasue this nationalist self-absorbed tone-deaf arrogant separative divisive excluding and supremacist spirit is exactly what DIVIDES them from the organic indigenous culture and land that they invaded and claim as their own, and this spirit is exactly what keeps them as a FOREIGN ELEMENT in the middle east, an unintegrated unorganic element, a seperative arrogant antagonistic invasive foreign element, that has to always live behind walls and fortifications and billion-dollar weapons and massive surveillance and oppression apparatus against the very neighbourhood that they parachuted/instilled themselves into, imposed themselves into in an UNORGANIC manner, in a hostile, insensitive, arrogant, unfriendly, supremacist invasive and aggresive manner. They will NEVER ever find security as long as they operate from this sectarian antagonistic supremacist psychology towards the very region they invaded, psychology which israelis are deeply indoctrinated into from birth.
In an ideal world I envision a healing process in which israelis awaken out of this deep hypnosis and sectarian bubble, and deeply apologize to native people (authentic and heart-felt apology) for what they have done to them at that period in the 20th and early 21st centuries when they were profoundly unconscious and under the spell of the trauma and nationalistic separative supremacist ideology. And after deeply apologizing, sincerely and from the heart, and asking for forgiveness, the israelis might then humbly and respectfully ask the local people if they'd be kind enough to allow them to stay and live together as equals on this land..
This humble and respectful question (if we are allowed to share this land with you locals, since we have come here in distress and escaping persecution, and in return for allowing us to live together with you on this land, we will work together with you to bring the gifts of both our people for the mutual benefit of all of us) this human approach should have been done from the very first moment, rather than the violent supremacist taking-away brutally invasive and hostile antagonistic approach that guided the zionists from the start) but the zionist psyche was unfortunately too immature traumatised neurotic and undeveloped to do that at the time and brought about this colossal disaster to the land.
The way out of this is obviously to mature and heal from the traumatise neurotic violent psyche that the zionists came with to this land and to atart a new chapter in our relation to the native culture and to the land, a new sane healed mature open hearted culture of respect, learning and sharing, but unfortunately it seems like iaraeli society is moving in the exact opposite direction.
It is becoming more and more rabidly fascistic, militaristic, religiously extremist and nationalistic by the day. With each passing day Israelis are becoming more and more hermatically enclosed in their own nationalist-religious bubble, more and more rabidly right-wing, the dehumanization of palestinians is becoming more extreme with each passing day (vast majority of Israelis are simply not able to comprehend palestinian suffering or have any empathy or compassion towards them, the hatred is becoming more and more extreme by the day). Israeli society is getting more and more violent, more nationalistic, more extreme, becoming more entrenched in its own historical narrative & its own self-victimization, more fascistic (people are now arrested for liking posts on social media that depict palestininas as human beings and not as enemy monsters. Wrining or liking such posts is criminalized as "terrorism" and condemned as 'leftist traitors' and can lead to 10 years in prison. This is how fascistic israeli society is becoming, nothing other than hate towards the palestininas is allowed. Humanity, empathy and compassion is criminalized).
If I am completely honest, it is very hard for me to have much hope that change and transformation can willingly happen from within Israeli society. It seems to me that the shift to the nationalistic-religious right wing fascism in Israeli society (which happened slowly over the last 30 years but greatly accelarated in the last 6-7 years) might have now gone beyond the point of no return.. the separative nationalistic-religious indoctrination is so deep and the entrenchment in its own narratives is so deep that to me it seems that the only way change and awakening might happen is NOT through sobering up and awakening to reality out of the hypnosis in the Israeli psyche (it seems we’ve gone past the point already where this is possible) but rather it seems to me that the more likely scenario and course of events to happen now is that the sobering up and reckoning might happen only AFTER the major major catastrophe that the fascist-religious maddness is leading israeli society into (catastrophe of the nature of either becoming themselves the perpetrators of a Holocaust, or bringing about a nuclear world war, or something of this sort, something akin to the catastrophe that lead to the sobering up of the German psyche after WWII. The german psyche was also on an unstoppable nationalist frenzy of being deeply entrenched in its own narratives and its own sense of righteousness, so braimwashed and hypnotised by its own narratives of ‘it’s either us or them’ that it went beyond the point of no return, and the sobering up could happen only after a major catastrophic climax (that the nationalist/tribalist frenzy must lead a society into).
When I see the level of nationalistic-religious brainwashing and dumbing-down and emotional manipulation going on in Israeli schools and media (you can see it also in many commet sections, how extremely deeply brainwshed heart-corrupted cruel and entrenched Israelis are in their own narratives of self righteousness and being the victim, their level of hypnosis and devotion to the "it's either us or them" ideology is simply beyond reach) when seeing all this then i’m afraid that israeli society is also beyond the point of no return and is on a collision course with an inevitable catastrophe.. only then might the sobering up and reckoning happen, if there’s anyone at all left by then…
I'm really NOT optimistic at all that there can be an awakening in the deeply indoctrinated self-assured arrogant, sectarian and supremacist zionist psyche.. The societal trends and cultural zeitgeist in Israel indicate to me that the likelihood of a catastrophe is much higher than a maturing and healing and awakening from the "it's either us or them" trance.
It was interesting to read your perspective from in Israel. Although, I am sorry to hear how bad it is. I had hoped some Israelis were moving away from the hardline attitude. The atmosphere is here is maybe not exactly like over there. But it is "fascistic, militaristic" and entrenched in a (destructive) narrative. We have big corporations and all kinds of smaller companies feeding off contracts and grants related to "homeland security." All of them are dependent on "enemies within" to make money. If they can't find any terrorists, these interests apparently have no problem cannibalising the lives of innocent citizens. Their careers in "domestic intelligence" or "homeland security" depend on enemies. Charges of terrorism are being used to silence constitutionally protected speech. Innocent people are having their lives destroyed. A college student was charged with terrorism related crimes for peacefully handing out animal cruelty flyers. A non-violent 11-year old was put in solitary confinement on terrorism related charges based on gossip from another elementary school kid. This was the "evidence." He did not actually do anything.
It seems that everywhere in the west there seems to be regression to infantile fascism and religious-nationalist supremacism. I won't say anything here about the spiritual and psychological aspect of this, becasue that can easily fill up a whole book, but will just say on a more superficial level that it seems to me that this supremacist religious-nationalist fascist movement (and even neo-nazi movement, in the case of israel) seems to have two components, economic (by the corporate-capitalist empire and its NeoConservative/Zionist military-industrial complex, which benefits from a constant state of hatred and war and therefore funds and arms the warmongering religious-nationalists & supremacists all over the world) and cultural (the actual religious-nationalist supremacist fascists on the street and flooding social media and in militaries and in parliaments. Supremacist NeoCon Zionists and NeoCon Christian Zionists seem to be at the heart of this movement. A small number of them stirring this ship from positions of power in the economy and govt and media, and a huge number of them enforcing the religious-fascist cultural zeitgeist in tje militaries and on the streets and on social media and zionist-christian "alternative" media.
Historian and economist Michael Hudson recently suggeated that we are back at the age of the crusades (only with much more deadly weapons this time) that were very similarly guided by economic empire's interests pushing a religious funtamentalist zeal, for their geostrategic and geopolitical aim. For example here
And the insightful, wise and heart-based Caitlin Johnstone is out in the trenches and breaking down all the cynical emotional manipulations and propaganda tricks that the supremacist religious-nationalist fascists and their warmongering empire are using to push this anti-life fascist wave everywhere. For example https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/
This video does a good job of breaking down the very powerful neo-nazi movement in Israel. He speaks mostly of the political aspect of it, but it has also very deep and widespread roots in israel society, and its talking points are indeed now the mainstream discourse in Israel. The situation is actually much worse then what he depicts in tne video since they are now actually forming the governemt (the video was from before that happened), have cancelled all judicial oversight over them (literally can do whatever they wish with complete impunity) and are openly hunting down '"eftist traitors" in the streets, stealing homes abd land openly, and slaughtering non-jews by the thousands.. this is the mainstream of israeli society and politics now. Voices like mine are a tiny tiny miniscule minority in a huge fascist religious-nationalist wave..
You are welcome. And if I may add one more link - this is really a MUST-SEE powerful eye-opening video to understand Israeli mentality (the video is from a few years ago, things are actualy even worse now). It is an interview/testimony by an Israeli soldier of the mentality and indoctrination with which Israelis enter the military (which is compulsary for all of society), of what the Israeli army does to the local people of palestine, of how dispossesion, violence, dehumanization & ERASURE of Palestinians is institutionalized & systematic. Quite a profound and eloquent testimony. Very highly recommended!!
Beautifully and skillfully said CJ. As a Jewish Israeli, I know from my own personal experience with the unbelievably cruel, inhumane, violent, ruthhless & arrogant supremacists in the israeli government exactly who the actual N*zis are here..
I know intimately their insane supremacist beliefs and ideology,
I know the false nationalist mythologies and stories of morality that they tell themselves (and hammer into our head) over and over and over again from birth, inside the SRCTARIAN BUBBLE that the vast majority of supremaciat zionists (and their gullible misinformed fans across the world who blindly repeat their false slogans) are hermetically closed in,
I know the fake nationalist "god" that their fearful violent brain invented for itself to justify their brutally cruel inhumane (and anti-God) project of dispossesion against the local people,
I have seen with my own eyes and am intimately familiar with their century-long brutal ruthless cruel traumatizing project to disposses, eliminate, throw out, take over, dehumanize and ERASE the local prople in Palestine (you can see much of it in great detail in this shocking documentary https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3psMGQE0iW4 which I can confirm is 100% true from my own personal experience),
I know how they corrupt & twist the Holocaust to justify the UNSPEAKABLE INHUMANITY AND GENOCIDAL HORROR they are inflicting on the local people in Palestine, and to silence anyone who dares mention what they are doing (labeling as an 'antisemite' and 'Hollcaust-denier' anyone who dares point out their GENOCIDE against the local people, anyone who stands for human dignity and exposes their life-destroying dispossesion & erasure project and security-destroying nationalist sectarian ideology of "it's either us or them")
'Antisemite' is another term the cynical supremacist zionist murderers, abusers & torturers completely corrupted, twisted, turned on its head and emptied of meaning, and are cynically using it as a political weapon to attack and silence those who expose the profound unspeakable horrific inhumanity criminality and cruelty of their erasure project against the local people (cynically and manipulatively claiming that such a person supposedly hates Jews for pointing out this genocidal horror).
Pretty much anyome who isn't a right-wing Jewish supremacist or who blindly supports right-wing Jewish supremacists is today labelled an 'antisemite' by their cynical PR and censorship machine
I know who the ACTUAL Nazis are..
PS. The wise and brilliant Chris Hedges wrote about exactly this much better than I ever could. This is a MUST-READ piece https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/exterminate-all-the-brutes
PPS. I'd also highly recommend listening to what this wise Jewish Holocaust survivor has to say about the right-wing zionist aupremacists and their similarity to the European right-wing fascism tha persecuted Jews, about their cynical corruption and political weaponization of the Holocaust to justify a genocidal dehumanization and dispossesion project against the local people in Palestine, and about what the term "Never Again" actually means. https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1718048169781797080?t=IPJzkf9jdqFvMABvfW5ung&s=19
PPPS. I mentioned above that their actions and ideology not only do not and cannot bring about safety & security (for anyone, neither Jews nor Muslims nor anyone else) but is actually the very cause of INSECURITY. I have a lot to say in that regard, and I think that is the root issue (and the root solution) that sectarian nationalists are unable to see. A lot to say about this but space here is limited so I'll do that in the comment/reply below
Chris Hedges' piece is excellent.
God bless you for being a rare human that can cut through all the BS you were undoubtedly indoctrinated with your whole life! It must be lonely. I know it is for me, and I'm not even Jewish.
To continue from above, with regard to why the sectarian exclucivist ethnocentric nationalist approach cannot brimg security and actually must bring about INSECURITY, as we see all around us. In my perspective (which is of course only partial and limited, as all perspectives are), 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 unlike most Jews, I am fully aware and acknowledge that the trauma that supremacist right-wing zionists caused palestinians is many many orders of magnitude greater than the other way around)
All of this requires having CONTACT between the "sides" so that they may hear each other, each other's stories and each other's pain, but this contact is currently 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', I am noticing that one of the main things that allows this ongoing horror to happen (not only today but it has been going on for more than a century) is that there is such a total SEPARATION AND DISCONNECTION between the "sides" (this is one of the greatest successes of nationalism/sectarianism, to separate people) so that people from both "sides" have no full understanding of the life experience and trauma experience of those on the "other side".
From what I see and feel, this total DISCONNECTION is exactly what allows people to cheer when "our hero fighters" (whom the other side calls terrorists or invaders/occupiers) 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 evil 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 our side..
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 I can't help but notice that all this lack of understanding happens simply because there is NO CONTACT between the "sides". This is the tremendous success of nationalism/tribalism/sectarianism, there is an almost 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" (who in the eyes of the "The other side" are murderous terrorists/invaders/oppresors).
It seems to me that the main engine that drives all of this is that almost all the residents of the region 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!! (In a moment I will say why 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 (this label equals me. This is me, This label is where safety and security is to be found), which causes the emotions and the body to react very strongly to anything that might disrupt this identity/label.
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, therefore anything that questions or does not identify with this national-religious system of ideas is immediately perceived as a threat to my very existence, because I am this identity/the nationalist-religious label, this is me, this is where safety and secur8ty is at..
It seems to me that those who have fallen into the abyss of sectarianism/tribalism/nationalism (and especially those whose nationalism/tribalism also involves divisive and God-denying sectarian religious beliefs) have been conditioned to believe that 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 everyone 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 worldview in the extremely nationalist, ethnocentric, fascistic and exclucivist Israeli society (which is much more fanatically tribalstic and nationalist than Jews outside israel), and I think it plays a huge huge part in what brought this conflict about in the first place, since the very early days of sectarian zionist nationalism.
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 not only 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 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 naiveté 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..
https://oneworldrenaissance.com/2021/01/23/holism-fragmentation-and-our-endangered-future-a-new-vision-and-a-new-hope/
Great comment. I would like to maybe add that there must be some constructive way forward to deal with the trauma that is inflicted on the victims. Something other than perpetuating a cycle of fearing and dehumanizing the other side. Because there are people who live in conditions where there is (or has been) the real threat of someone wanting them dead. I think it's important to recognize that in some cases, there are people who have experienced genuine mortal fear that someone wants to kill them. Or they have come face to face with those who tried to kill them. This needs to be worked with somehow. I spoke with a vet who felt this way in Iraq. Tim O'Brien wrote about this experience in Vietnam. A person who truly is in a situation where someone wants to kill them is probably not going to think about holism. They are going to be radically separated from their enemy regardless of how they got in the conflict. (And their fear is used as a political tool to motivate people to go to war) The fear and the need to defend oneself is going to stick with them a long time, unless there is some way to work with it. There have to be some ways to facilitate moving from fear, anger and hate for the "enemy" and toward positive contact with each other.
Yes, absolutely. Thank you for putting it so skillfully and clearly. That is indeed the key first step. If there is no healing for the traumatised nervous system then we can forget about people having a higher or more wholistic perspective. Fully agree with on that. Absolutely necrssary.
However, to be honest, I am not very optimistic that even if this healing happened that there would be a real change of course because besides this immediate trauma that you mentioned, the society in israel is totally and hermatically enclosed within its own sectarian bubble and hears ONLY its own story, with zero awareness of the life experience and pain of the 'other side'. ZERO!! Palestinians don't even register as having any real human existence to the vast majority of israelis. On the very rare occasions that their existence is acknowlegded it is only as an infinitely evil villain cartoon character, a monstrous terrorist who only want to destroy us. And "they are all like that'..
Not only is their existence not acknowledged, but obviously there is no knowledge whatsoever of their stories of how they make sense of reality and how they view the zionist arrogant and violent and inconsiderate and unfriendly and hostile arrival in the middle east..
In my view, things cannot not change unless there is a very deep awakening in the Israeli psyche from the separative, divisive, self-righteous and tone-deaf spirit out of which israelis operate and in which they are enclosed. This separative self-righteous tone-deaf ethnocentric supremacist arrogant and dismissive spirit will NEVER provide them with security, no matter how many times they tell themselves that they are the victims and the righteous ones, becasue this nationalist self-absorbed tone-deaf arrogant separative divisive excluding and supremacist spirit is exactly what DIVIDES them from the organic indigenous culture and land that they invaded and claim as their own, and this spirit is exactly what keeps them as a FOREIGN ELEMENT in the middle east, an unintegrated unorganic element, a seperative arrogant antagonistic invasive foreign element, that has to always live behind walls and fortifications and billion-dollar weapons and massive surveillance and oppression apparatus against the very neighbourhood that they parachuted/instilled themselves into, imposed themselves into in an UNORGANIC manner, in a hostile, insensitive, arrogant, unfriendly, supremacist invasive and aggresive manner. They will NEVER ever find security as long as they operate from this sectarian antagonistic supremacist psychology towards the very region they invaded, psychology which israelis are deeply indoctrinated into from birth.
In an ideal world I envision a healing process in which israelis awaken out of this deep hypnosis and sectarian bubble, and deeply apologize to native people (authentic and heart-felt apology) for what they have done to them at that period in the 20th and early 21st centuries when they were profoundly unconscious and under the spell of the trauma and nationalistic separative supremacist ideology. And after deeply apologizing, sincerely and from the heart, and asking for forgiveness, the israelis might then humbly and respectfully ask the local people if they'd be kind enough to allow them to stay and live together as equals on this land..
This humble and respectful question (if we are allowed to share this land with you locals, since we have come here in distress and escaping persecution, and in return for allowing us to live together with you on this land, we will work together with you to bring the gifts of both our people for the mutual benefit of all of us) this human approach should have been done from the very first moment, rather than the violent supremacist taking-away brutally invasive and hostile antagonistic approach that guided the zionists from the start) but the zionist psyche was unfortunately too immature traumatised neurotic and undeveloped to do that at the time and brought about this colossal disaster to the land.
The way out of this is obviously to mature and heal from the traumatise neurotic violent psyche that the zionists came with to this land and to atart a new chapter in our relation to the native culture and to the land, a new sane healed mature open hearted culture of respect, learning and sharing, but unfortunately it seems like iaraeli society is moving in the exact opposite direction.
It is becoming more and more rabidly fascistic, militaristic, religiously extremist and nationalistic by the day. With each passing day Israelis are becoming more and more hermatically enclosed in their own nationalist-religious bubble, more and more rabidly right-wing, the dehumanization of palestinians is becoming more extreme with each passing day (vast majority of Israelis are simply not able to comprehend palestinian suffering or have any empathy or compassion towards them, the hatred is becoming more and more extreme by the day). Israeli society is getting more and more violent, more nationalistic, more extreme, becoming more entrenched in its own historical narrative & its own self-victimization, more fascistic (people are now arrested for liking posts on social media that depict palestininas as human beings and not as enemy monsters. Wrining or liking such posts is criminalized as "terrorism" and condemned as 'leftist traitors' and can lead to 10 years in prison. This is how fascistic israeli society is becoming, nothing other than hate towards the palestininas is allowed. Humanity, empathy and compassion is criminalized).
If I am completely honest, it is very hard for me to have much hope that change and transformation can willingly happen from within Israeli society. It seems to me that the shift to the nationalistic-religious right wing fascism in Israeli society (which happened slowly over the last 30 years but greatly accelarated in the last 6-7 years) might have now gone beyond the point of no return.. the separative nationalistic-religious indoctrination is so deep and the entrenchment in its own narratives is so deep that to me it seems that the only way change and awakening might happen is NOT through sobering up and awakening to reality out of the hypnosis in the Israeli psyche (it seems we’ve gone past the point already where this is possible) but rather it seems to me that the more likely scenario and course of events to happen now is that the sobering up and reckoning might happen only AFTER the major major catastrophe that the fascist-religious maddness is leading israeli society into (catastrophe of the nature of either becoming themselves the perpetrators of a Holocaust, or bringing about a nuclear world war, or something of this sort, something akin to the catastrophe that lead to the sobering up of the German psyche after WWII. The german psyche was also on an unstoppable nationalist frenzy of being deeply entrenched in its own narratives and its own sense of righteousness, so braimwashed and hypnotised by its own narratives of ‘it’s either us or them’ that it went beyond the point of no return, and the sobering up could happen only after a major catastrophic climax (that the nationalist/tribalist frenzy must lead a society into).
When I see the level of nationalistic-religious brainwashing and dumbing-down and emotional manipulation going on in Israeli schools and media (you can see it also in many commet sections, how extremely deeply brainwshed heart-corrupted cruel and entrenched Israelis are in their own narratives of self righteousness and being the victim, their level of hypnosis and devotion to the "it's either us or them" ideology is simply beyond reach) when seeing all this then i’m afraid that israeli society is also beyond the point of no return and is on a collision course with an inevitable catastrophe.. only then might the sobering up and reckoning happen, if there’s anyone at all left by then…
I'm really NOT optimistic at all that there can be an awakening in the deeply indoctrinated self-assured arrogant, sectarian and supremacist zionist psyche.. The societal trends and cultural zeitgeist in Israel indicate to me that the likelihood of a catastrophe is much higher than a maturing and healing and awakening from the "it's either us or them" trance.
It was interesting to read your perspective from in Israel. Although, I am sorry to hear how bad it is. I had hoped some Israelis were moving away from the hardline attitude. The atmosphere is here is maybe not exactly like over there. But it is "fascistic, militaristic" and entrenched in a (destructive) narrative. We have big corporations and all kinds of smaller companies feeding off contracts and grants related to "homeland security." All of them are dependent on "enemies within" to make money. If they can't find any terrorists, these interests apparently have no problem cannibalising the lives of innocent citizens. Their careers in "domestic intelligence" or "homeland security" depend on enemies. Charges of terrorism are being used to silence constitutionally protected speech. Innocent people are having their lives destroyed. A college student was charged with terrorism related crimes for peacefully handing out animal cruelty flyers. A non-violent 11-year old was put in solitary confinement on terrorism related charges based on gossip from another elementary school kid. This was the "evidence." He did not actually do anything.
Amazing and horrifying!!
It seems that everywhere in the west there seems to be regression to infantile fascism and religious-nationalist supremacism. I won't say anything here about the spiritual and psychological aspect of this, becasue that can easily fill up a whole book, but will just say on a more superficial level that it seems to me that this supremacist religious-nationalist fascist movement (and even neo-nazi movement, in the case of israel) seems to have two components, economic (by the corporate-capitalist empire and its NeoConservative/Zionist military-industrial complex, which benefits from a constant state of hatred and war and therefore funds and arms the warmongering religious-nationalists & supremacists all over the world) and cultural (the actual religious-nationalist supremacist fascists on the street and flooding social media and in militaries and in parliaments. Supremacist NeoCon Zionists and NeoCon Christian Zionists seem to be at the heart of this movement. A small number of them stirring this ship from positions of power in the economy and govt and media, and a huge number of them enforcing the religious-fascist cultural zeitgeist in tje militaries and on the streets and on social media and zionist-christian "alternative" media.
The brilliant theologian and investigative journalist Chris Hedges wtote about this extensively, for example in this book https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/American-Fascists/Chris-Hedges/9780743284462
And I also very highly recommend his substack
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/israels-final-solution-for-the-palestinians
And https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/israel-and-the-rise-of-jewish-fascism
Historian and economist Michael Hudson recently suggeated that we are back at the age of the crusades (only with much more deadly weapons this time) that were very similarly guided by economic empire's interests pushing a religious funtamentalist zeal, for their geostrategic and geopolitical aim. For example here
https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/why-us-support-israel-geopolitics
And the insightful, wise and heart-based Caitlin Johnstone is out in the trenches and breaking down all the cynical emotional manipulations and propaganda tricks that the supremacist religious-nationalist fascists and their warmongering empire are using to push this anti-life fascist wave everywhere. For example https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/
This video does a good job of breaking down the very powerful neo-nazi movement in Israel. He speaks mostly of the political aspect of it, but it has also very deep and widespread roots in israel society, and its talking points are indeed now the mainstream discourse in Israel. The situation is actually much worse then what he depicts in tne video since they are now actually forming the governemt (the video was from before that happened), have cancelled all judicial oversight over them (literally can do whatever they wish with complete impunity) and are openly hunting down '"eftist traitors" in the streets, stealing homes abd land openly, and slaughtering non-jews by the thousands.. this is the mainstream of israeli society and politics now. Voices like mine are a tiny tiny miniscule minority in a huge fascist religious-nationalist wave..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YMlt9Si9Ti8
Plenty more to say, but I have to go now :-)
Thanks for the links.
You are welcome. And if I may add one more link - this is really a MUST-SEE powerful eye-opening video to understand Israeli mentality (the video is from a few years ago, things are actualy even worse now). It is an interview/testimony by an Israeli soldier of the mentality and indoctrination with which Israelis enter the military (which is compulsary for all of society), of what the Israeli army does to the local people of palestine, of how dispossesion, violence, dehumanization & ERASURE of Palestinians is institutionalized & systematic. Quite a profound and eloquent testimony. Very highly recommended!!
https://youtu.be/FkxJd88xkBU?si=Nla3CQ4m0zp7KfFX
Please write more. Your views and lived experience are vital for this moment we are in.