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Introduction and Commentary
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Let me re-iterate my background since I was first to jump in when this project was at its embryonic stage. I am Jewish by birth, born in Ramat Gan Israel, born to parents who lived in Europe during the war and so I am considered a child of holocaust survivors. I left Israel at the age of 4 but karma has it that I continue to visit Israel because my husband has family there. I speak both Yiddish and Hebrew and feel that I have a very good understanding of the Jewish psyche and yet my karma has been such that I was brought to Canada at an early age, I think to experience a bigger pond so to speak. I have been immersed in the teachings of the Tibetan since 1989 and since that time I have developed a much greater or more whole perspective/understanding of the “Jewish problem”. This subject matter is obviously a very sensitive to many and I hear hurt and defending in the tone of some of the emails. As we try to discuss, dialogue, debate, etc. it is important that we first, align ourselves, detach from that which we are trying to understand so that we can see it more objectively. How can we analyze something when we are in the midst of it? It is like trying to see the forest when we are standing in front of a tree - impossible. We have always been told that in order to address a particular vehicle one needs to rise above and see it from a higher perspective. Hurt feelings and sensitivities cannot bring any clarity to our dialogue. I suggest that in order for this project to proceed in a progressive and enlightening manner we cannot judge another even though the temptation may be there. That means we cannot label from where a comment is coming or that one couldn’t possibly understand because of..... whatever reason. This negates what is trying to be conveyed. Frankly, if there are some that are so identified that cannot remove themselves and stand at a vantage point where a greater perspective can be known then those are not ready for a group like this. Sorry. It will just muddy the waters. I am not pro or against the Jews or Palestinians. I often think about the seeming injustices and the suffering that both sides have and continue to live. I often feel that it is those who are NOT in the midst of things, often not of the same lineage that can do a better job at sorting out that which is actual because they do not have the filter system that will veto things that are not favourable and they are simply said, less biased. Our preferences, prejudices and programming are so under the threshold of consciousness that our responses are automatic. I think we can for a start catch ourselves when we feel the need to defend. There is nothing here to defend. It behooves us as esotericsts to look at all situations minimally from the world of meaning, quality, if not from the world of significances/causes. This means to find that which is esoteric, that which lies hidden and not so easily seen or known. That requires an asana that rises above the personality and let us not forget, it is only the personality that identifies itself as Jewish or otherwise. Let us approach this project as souls living as this or that, not the other way around. The other way around is the line of least resistance and we, unless we stay very conscious will give a knee jerk response and will fall into that groove where 99.% of all discussions take place. Let us stay high. Life is One, all Beings are One.
Hi
Abraham and everyone, I would ask you, what would a successful group look like in your eyes? How do you suggest that we work? What would you like to see happen?
Back I returned from Israel with my mind amush as my heart tries to understand the human plight epitomized by the conflict there. I continue to try to find a place of understanding - I feel greater compassion for all as well as a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. Israel is a nucleus of karmic threads that extend throughout the world. Yes, Israel became a nation by displacing those that were living on the land, regardless if the land was a wasteland or not. Zionism is despised and is wrong. Is it too much different however, than the colonization that took place a few hundred years earlier by England, France, Portugal and Spain? The fact is that after the Holocaust those eastern Jews who survived needed a place to live. My family was one of them. They spent some of their war years in Uzbekistan and returned to their homeland - Poland to BEGIN their life anew. That was impossible. Anti-Semitism was as bad as ever and after watching Jews being shot in the streets, my parents decided to move on. My mother contacted her sister (my aunt) who had escaped the Warsaw ghetto by climbing over the wall after her 6 week old child was murdered. She had found refuge in Paris. With one child my parents settled in until after one year the French government said that they didn't have the right papers, no right to stay and were thrown out of the country. With NO WHERE to go they ended up in Israel. Why? Because there was no other country would take them in. You couldn't go to North America unless you were sponsored. The world was not sympathetic to the survivors of the Holocaust. They did not open their arms and take them in. Instead, the displaced were put into barbed wire camps in Cyprus waiting to hear their fate once again. Interestingly, there were more infants born in that camp in Cyprus that for many years later in Israel, so strong is the instinctual need for self-preservation. Finally, the prisoners were given permission to set foot on a country that was given to them. How they could do this in good conscience is beyond me. How can a country survive that is built on a wrong foundation? I often think that the world secretly wished that we would destroy each other. How else could they have done what they did? I would argue that not all Jews necessarily needed Israel. Yes, it is in their history and part of their longing but I contend it was always a pipe dream. The world turned it into a reality by their spurning and shunning. The survivors could only turn to each other. They were forced to regroup, congeal and find solace, a sense of purpose and comfort with those who had lived a similar past. After their ordeal, the last thing that they wanted was to fight for the land that was given to them. They had no choice. The cycle of violence had begun. This was not out of their own volition. It was thrown upon them because the world did not take on right responsibility to care for members of humanity, their family, that needed help. Instead, the Allied powers found another way to get rid of them. Give them Israel, surround them with disgruntled Arabs and let them kill each other. The world helped create what in a sense is greater separatism that Israel displays. I think that now that the country has had one common purpose, basic 2nd chakra stuff. It has brought about a group soul that is whole and coherent. I can understand why people get this warm, fuzzy feeling when they come to Israel. I think that that is why many "make aliah" (Move to Israel) There is a very strong connection that survival has brought about - a brotherhood of sorts. It is brotherhood, rather an exclusive kind of brotherhood but nonetheless, there doesn't seem to be another kind of brotherhood anywhere else that could used as a model. Regardless, it is very tangible. I think that is why when one soldier dies or is kidnapped the entire country mourns. In the United States and in the Arab nations they become numbers. It is very different in Israel. When I was in Jordan speaking very openly with Renna, a Palestinian wife and mother of four, she told me that the reason that Arabs have large families is because they expect some of them to die because of war. That attitude blew me away - It is not at all the same reverence for life. Back to my story, - In Israel, my parents with one child, really tried to make a go of it. I was born there in 1949 shortly after Israel became a country. Bread lines and many other difficulties forced my parents to consider another place to live. My mother discovered a friend that settled in Toronto and since no one could enter the country unless they were sponsored and she was willing, that meant we could conceivably become Canadian. She became a cousin very quickly and the papers were started. Being sponsored was quite a responsibility. It meant that the sponsors were willing to guarantee that those coming into the country would not be a burden to the country. If they did become a burden, the sponsors were obligated to support them. I think that Australia at the time was open to them without sponsorship but somehow my mother felt is was too far away and chose Canada. England became our stop for a few months. Of course, England too was out of the question. We were not allowed to be there. My mother had a brother there who had left Poland in 1929 before the war. He married a non-Jew and eventually needed to transfer all his property to his wife during the war because at the time Jews were not allowed to own any property. We arrived via Greenland to Toronto in November 1953. Interestingly, when I was trying to leave Israel a few days ago I could not unless I got an Israeli passport on the spot. I was traveling with my one and only Canadian passport and it shows that I was born in Israel. It didn't matter what I said. They were firm. They made it for me right there and then, picture and all and 465 shekels later I was given the right to leave the country, not too soon I might add. I barely made the plane. Many discussions were had with Jordanians as well as Israelis about the conflict. Overall, I got the sense that Jordan is more optimistic about the peace than Israel. Yet, these are moderate Palestinians. The moderate voice, even though it may be the majority is not the voice that is heard or what is lived. The fundamentalists are running the show and that is a very scary reality. The wall, - I had seen pictures and read books and felt the inhumanity of it. Then, there, as I was looking at it, I began to understand its place and its need. Many lives have been saved and people live with less fear and more security. I am now of two minds or no mind. There is such an entrenched feeling of rightness about it all that Israelis have. I can understand why they feel that way. They have been put in a situation where they need to protect themselves. The world deemed it correct to give this land to the Jews. The Jews did not seize it. If the world had responded to their cries and needs at that time from a place of "I am my brother's keeper" we would not be in this situation now. It
has brought out the best and the worst in a group of people. I have no
answers. I feel less convinced of any stand that I have had in the past
and I stand nowhere right now - only with an open sadness for all. 3.
"There is such an entrenched feeling of rightness about it all that
Israelis have." Zionists put Israel citizens in this situation. They formulated the creation of the Jewish State on Palestine land; they were behind the Stern gang and co, atrocities in the 40's and 50's; they are behind the continuing theft of Arab land today (for Greater Israel); they are behind the genocide visited upon Palestinians, and the practise of apatheid to create a pure jewish State. The hatred and retaliation this has generated, and murder of innocent Israel's, I believe has been carefully cultivated by Zionists. "Steal the land, raze a village, destroy communities, debase, humiliate and murder people - and they will eventually strike back. When terrorist bombers come in, or missiles fall, the public naturally wishes to be protected. So most will give their support to any “tough” measures which the government decides to take ‘on their behalf’. By deliberately keeping hostilities on the boil, Israel will have further opportunity to expand its borders - the true Zionist goal! " Leoni Hodgson 'Promised Land.' 5.If
the world had responded to their cries and needs at that time from a place
of "I am my brother's keeper" we would not be in this situation
now." |