David Grossman describes his country as the one in a state of perpetual seizure. I call it a molecular fear. That would mean that fear had become a driving force, that it had taken control and a person or a nation had succumbed to animalistic mentality. Much of that fear comes from that dreadful pit with a stone and is transferred to the Holy Land. Grossman states that peace is now necessary not as a condition but as the only remedy; an average Israeli must experience the life under prolonged peace, so that that the nation has that positive experience. He insists on tikkun, the repair, the overhaul and retuning of the very character of the nation and people. Now, that I have quoted all that, don't we have something similar here, in the US?
In Israel it is only one, mostly irrational but at least historically justified fear of annihilation. It is directed at the Arabs right now and results in violent lashing out, paroxysms of hate on both sides, in killings and hypocrisy, in occupation with he denial of one happening, in racism and hysterical wave of religious purity. In here, in the US we have multiple of fears; most of which are illusory; we are afraid of the terrorists, of our bosses, of black people, of illegal aliens, of rich people, of poor people, of PETA, you name it. We thus lash at other people and other nations and because we are much more powerful than Israel, the amount of victims is much higher. So what is the connection between our fears and theirs? There is one; in both cases people are afraid of themselves. Deep down they know that they failed their own expectations and they are afraid to acknowledge that to themselves. All those people need help.
So now when we know all that it would be advisable to look at ourselves through other people's eyes. We could find out that our politics, propagated by the rulers of our country contributed a lot to the bleeding wound of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We can find out that through the years the INDUSTRY OF DEATH had been created when powerful organized crime (I mean ruling groups in our country and other involved) becomes interested in the perpetual conflict in that area. That industry cultivated the bastards on both sides and the appropriate media SOBs here to run that deadly show forever. That industry made sure that all honest people on all sides were targeted for elimination. That industry is still in full command and it is there for money and power. It doesn't give a damn about Jews or Arabs or whoever. The amount of blood money acquired by the groups and individuals due to that conflict is astounding. And all of that is done in the name of love. It is our industry; we benefit from it.
So we should always look inwards. We must remember that those are foreign people and we here must and should work on our side, not theirs. We must understand that we in most cases are the very obstacles those people try to avoid. Yes, Palestine deserves to be an independent state. But even Mr. Abbas mentioned that they petitioned because of despair. What is that despair based upon? I would say it is based upon the politics of the US which persistently not only orchestrates those fruitless negotiations but denies at the same time the right of the Palestinians to be on equal grounds. Hey, we should acknowledge that Hillary surely is not that intelligent as Abbas or Netanyahu, that she personifies the US hubris and that our warmongering and chest-punching does not bring peace anywhere. It brings only death. So maybe we should start from a clean slate and consider that what those people are doing to each other is not our business and that if we want to help we better ask first? And maybe we should start that new relationship with the following:
- Folks, we know your fears; here's how we deal with ours. Maybe our experience will help.
A lot of things can be done. We can campaign here for Palestinian people to be given a status of refugees if they ask for asylum here. We can and we should raise an issue of secularity, the separation of church and state as a paramount condition for the country to be called democratic. We can and we should support progressive Jewish and Moslem organizations here so that eventually they move together to the progressive cause. We must protest injustice and atrocities, push for Gaza to have full access to anyone who wants to trade with her and demand Israel to stop the blockade. We must do all that while remaining respectful and honorable friends or adversaries of the people, showing them all the time how imperfect we are and how we handle our own troubles here. Do we handle them well? I sincerely doubt that. We let our monsters roam around freely and they are in charge. Other people see that. Our credibility is very low.
So on this Jewish New Year I say Shana Tova from a secular Jew to all the equals of mine: to Jews and Moslems, Christians and Hindus, to Whites and Blacks and Yellow and Red people, to friends and enemies on equal grounds of our goodness and badness, of our fears and our vices. May your love be honest and forgiving, may your hate be real and justified and may respect towards another human being be your guide forever. We earned it, all of us; there is only one Earth and whoever gave it to us did not make preferences. No matter where we stand on it in reality it is a perpetual fall. Remember that. There is no higher ground. We have a lot of work ahead of us.
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