Monday, July 21, 2014

Beauty and the Beast

It’s a war out there!

Let’s admit it. A large part of our nature is to view life in black and white terms. We’re uncomfortable dealing with shades of gray, especially if we are oblivious of the beastly black streaks besmirching our phosphorous-white, now gray armor. You don’t embrace the Beast, you shun it, deny the Beast is in you and kill it in someone else.
We crave the certainty of being in the “right” and will act in the interest of “the right” even if we have to use force, sometimes deadly force!

When others don’t see “the right” as I do, it is natural for me to see them not only as “wrong” but as “The Enemy” to be sidelined and not addressed as a fellow human being. It’s totalitarian. The Enemy is totally, completely wrong and deserves no sympathy whatsoever. Never. Ever. End of discussion.

It gets more complicated in Israel/Palestine.

If The Enemy’s view of “right” prevails and our existence/survival is at stake, we will destroy The Enemy with the only truly effective option left, the might of the military to make things right: rockets, missiles, tanks and guns! Both the Israelis and HAMAS (in Gaza) see their survival at stake and are using the world’s weapons to keep their vision of reality alive. HAMAS won’t stop shooting their pathetic, unguided rockets and Israel won’t stop building settlements on Arab land.

The Likud-led Israeli government rules all of the land. The HAMAS-led Gazans aspire to rule all the land. It is a mismatch. There are no people in the Israeli government working for an American or European-style democracy (one person, one vote, with liberty and justice for all). Israel wants Jews in the majority, with Arabs as a minority; HAMAS want a Muslim majority with Jews in the minority.

Many citizens of the world lament the lack of human rights for the original people of the land. Most are also outraged at the disproportionate response to HAMAS militarism in the death of so many women, the elderly and children in the killing of combatants. And that of course, is the fault of HAMAS as well.

Israel (and their Christian Zionist supporters) is deeply convinced that the only true face of Islam is the Extremist face. Any and all efforts by “moderate” Arab leaders to accede to Israeli demands are met with suspicion, further efforts to separate from them, divide them into warring factions, demonize and ultimately destroy them (if they will not be “pacified”). “They-are-only-intent-is-destroy-us” is so deeply ingrained in the Israeli psyche as to be virtually irremovable. Vulnerability can never be permitted. To give the Arabs any shred of credibility as to the rightness of their vision (say, of an autonomous Palestinian State) puts a hole in the dyke which, unchecked, will destroy Israel in the Deluge. The Extremist view of Islam is the only true view. “There are no moderates. There are none willing to share the land with us. Besides, it is all our land. All of it will be under our exclusive control, even the 20% of our citizens that are Arab Palestinian must remain second class citizens.”

Nothing that the US, the Russians, the UN or the Europeans have said or done in the last 60 years has changed this Israeli vision of what is “right”. And “by God” (yes, the religious dimension is at work too), “we shall defend ‘the right’”, no matter the cost in human life”.

What is further maddening is that basic US values are compromised as The US gives full, unqualified support to this Israeli ethnocracy, even though it has meant disenfranchising, degrading, and dehumanizing our other friends, the Arab natives.

Efforts to ethnically cleanse the One State of non-Jews seem to have failed, although our Israeli friends keep trying to make it work. “Be pacified or die” are the only two options they will consider. The Israeli military superiority will not bring about change. Dependent as they are on Israeli money to keep their seats, change will not come from the US Congress. The White House doesn’t even dare to threaten withholding our financial largesse, even though we should. No change coming from there. So the Palestinians continue to suffer. . .and resist, the vast majority, nonviolently, but unheeded by the opinion makers in our media. Support for the Israeli State is unwaveringly strong and unbending, despite cracks appearing in the Wall, the younger generation, Jews and Gentiles, here and around the world giving leadership.

There is no longer any chance for a Two State solution, with the two peoples living side by side in peace and security. That option came and went when Israel decided to colonize all the land after defeating the Arabs in 1967 and giving the middle finger to UN insistence on the rule of international law. Human rights are in.
This is why many of us now see the boycott, divestment and sanction movement (BDS) as about the only way to get the Israelis to open their State to their Arab neighbors. Even that option is iffy. Seven Nobel winners and a host of public figures in the UK are calling for “an international arms embargo on Israel” because of what’s happening in Gaza now. More entertainers, educators, pension planners and the travel industry will join the boycott. Only grass-roots efforts by hundreds, now thousands, of common people, banding together to identify and boycott companies that are profiting from the Occupation of historic Arab land will bring any significant change. It “worked” in South Africa and many believe it will work in Israel/Palestine.

The extremists on both sides now insist that Rachel and every mother must weep for their children (Jer. 31:15, Matthew 2:18). They must be sacrificed for the greater good (John 11:49, 50). Jealous Pharoahs and cruel Herods demand the death of children. What we need is more Shiphrahs and Puahs (Ex. 1:15-22) who refuse to kill the children (Breaking the Silence anyone?).

To see ourselves as The Enemy is impossible. It is this self-hating, self-righteous mask behind which the Phantom hides that must be peeled away. The major religions of the world (think Judaism, Christianity and Islam), declare that only love for neighbors in distress can unmask self-righteous hypocrisy. The Princess will need to kiss the Frog. Beauty will have to embrace the Beast. The Lamb will have to lie down with the Wolf. This truly is a tall order to fill. It goes against our “nature”. We will need a “second nature”, a rebirth.

When winning at any cost is the goal, no matter how many innocents are killed, you know that World Empire is dominant. When hearts remain cold, expect more violence. When hearts warm to the plight of neighbors in distress, expect justice. Without justice there will be no peace; without love there will be no justice. When we get in touch with the Beast in each of us, change has a chance. Respectfully, JRK