Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/politics/page/123/)
Posts about politics and social change, from a spiritual progressive perspective
In this hour of war, violence, and pain, we reaffirm the humanity and decency of all the people on our planet, and our ability to see the humanity and God-presence in all people on the planet. We understand that each of the many sides of the conflicts tearing our world apart today have their own legitimacy, but we also know that violence cannot be the path to a peaceful and safe world.
I keep wondering if this is all some test that God is administering to Jews. How will Jews behave when the shoe is on the other foot? – Now He knows. And we know too. If you defend this war, you are defending atrocities because, when it comes to Israel, you suspend all moral judgement. Fine. Just don’t think you are fooling anyone.
During all this, Israel’s leader, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly claimed to represent me, and all Jews, as Israel continues its brutal assault on Gaza, an assault which, as history shows, will neither achieve its strategic goals nor reap anything but heartache. – No, he does not speak for me.
Culture is the matrix of every humane society, the power-source of the imagination, empathy, creativity, and resilience needed to activate our innate capacity for moral grandeur and social healing. Begin to see culture clearly and everything changes from despair to possibility.
I’m struck by how Americans are indoctrinated into ignoring the most significant fact about Gaza. -It is under Israeli occupation, and has been since 1967. Bottom line: this war is the result of the occupation in general and specifically the suppression of the people of Gaza. It is a result of Netanyahu’s deceptions and his determination to never give up a single inch of land.
Speak up, you of Jewish faith or heritage, however religious or however secular, because you cannot stand by and watch and do nothing while a military acting in the name of your people destroys the cities and homes and clinics and mosques of a people who have already suffered far too much.
As a Jew, I admit to being uniquely invested in what’s occurring in Israel and Gaza – an investment sometimes cited to paint political discourse on Israel as niche. However, as an American citizen and a self-avowed progressive, I not only reject such notions, but hold that Israel is a core progressive issue which demands our broad attention.
For decades, Right-wing individuals and groups have thrown the term “socialist” in the face of their opponents as a means of discrediting their character, political ideas, policies and stances and swaying the electorate towards a conservative agenda. But some of the most successful economies combine elements of Capitalism with Socialism to create greater degrees of equity and lesser disparities between the rich, the poor, and those on the continuum in between.
The message to Hamas from Spiritual Progressives is this: Stop the attempts to bomb Israel. These acts are immoral, ineffective, and counter-productive toward the only legitimate goal: peace and openhearted reconciliation among the people of the region.
How will you, Israel, manage to rise from the ashes, if there is no soul searching? How if, as Uri Avnery reports, most of your media have ignored the event– or have hidden the details on the back pages? Where is the public outcry? AYECHAH?!