Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/author/tikkun-admin/page/36/)
On Friday, Israeli soldiers threw sound grenades at a group of European diplomats trying to deliver emergency aid in the occupied territories, pulled a French diplomat, Marion Castaing, from a truck and threw her upon the ground. The image below, of Israeli border police surrounding Castaing as she lay on her back, was taken by a human rights activist as other journalists, including those from Reuters, looked on.
As Bashar al-Assad proves, dictators who gas people to death still exist. So does a complacent international system. Why are some on the left, like Ian Lustick, more concerned with making sure a Jewish state doesn’t exist?
I had never told our young children about the terrorist attack that nearly took their mother’s life before they were born. Whenever they asked about her barely-visible scars, my answers were always vague, using the words accident and explosion to explain their existence.
They didn’t know this “accident” occurred in Israel. They didn’t know it was associated with a war, with a conflict.
However, with the publishing of my book – What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife? – I knew it was time to tell them. Better to hear from me, I thought, than from someone at school.
The beloved city, Israel’s capital, is besieged by Syria. No one is free. We are the walled city. We are its violent, deceitful citizens. O, dear people, you have been in thrall to fears, and for so long a time. In the Cross of Christ, come free and see in the present moment that what you fear does not exist. The violence of anger will move from your path and you, like the lepers, will become angels—messengers of good news to the city.
The Netherlands’ oldest engineering firm, Royal Haskoning, has canceled a massive water treatment project with the Jerusalem municipality after intense pressure from the Dutch government to do so. The reason: part of the plant would have been built over the Green Line, in Palestinian territory. According to Haaretz, the firm pulled out of the deal after strong pressure from the Dutch government, and released a statement detailing its refusal to violate international law.
AIPAC is taking an incredible risk by making an unprecedented full court press to get the bomb Syria resolution. Never in its history has it gone all out to achieve passage or defeat for anything not directly related to Israel. And, because Congress is snugly in its pocket on Israel issues, it rarely needs to fight. The Syria vote will be its test.
“So what do the rich do every day that the poor don’t do?” I read this in an article posted to a Facebook business group. I was deeply disturbed by this article because it failed to mention the socially constructed systems that perpetuate economic inequality. I didn’t want to rock the boat in this business group because it’s part of my professional network. But a louder voice spoke (before I could even reel her in!), reminding me of my morning prayer.
Check out Peter Beinart’s latest piece on the American Jewish community. It is brilliant. It is about the cocoon American Jews live in when it comes to the reality of Israel and Palestine. They know nothing and care less. And their leaders who do know intentionally work to keep them ignorant. Add to that a lot of bigotry and you have the self-described “pro-Israel” community today.
The result of the U.S.’s engagement with Egypt and Syria has been bad for the U.S. and horrendous for the Egyptians and Syrians. Bloody stalemate has become the status quo. What would happen if the U.S. exerted all of its diplomatic, moral, and economic force based on the principles of nonviolence? Politicians, policymakers, and the media never ask this question, and so the U.S. public never learns to ask it either.
Soberly seeing how dreadfully easily we Americans utterly lose our way, pray for solidarity, that all who have faith see that there are more with us than there are with them. And do not think that politics will ever cool that violence in our nature which underwrites all the powers of domination and oppression. Only the spiritual, with learner’s mind, can see the way. Only the spiritual recognize no division between loving God and opposing oppression with all our heart and soul and strength.