That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.
Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.
-Robinson Jeffers
It started with Israel, and then it came home. I realized that too many of us are succumbing to our basest instincts, and that in the long run, that will only make us part of the problem. And the world can't afford for us to be part of the problem. That might sound self-aggrandizing, but I do believe liberals and idealists are the only hope- if there is any hope- for the survival of our species.
Anyone who has spent any time on the I/P threads knows that the level of vitriol there is higher and more intense than on any other. Many of Israel's critics can't seem to distinguish between lambasting their government and questioning the humanity of the Israeli people. Anti-Semitism- open and veiled- is not uncommon. And it makes me wonder how many of the people making the most vicious comments want to be held to account for the Bush Administration's atrocities- or Reagan's- or Nixon's- or Johnson's. And I have seen Israel's defenders accuse Arabs of being little better than animals- not deserving of the same basic human rights we (used to) take for granted, and not undeserving of wholesale slaughter. And it sickens me.
All of it!
And I've said it before- EVERYONE who posts on the I/P threads needs step back, take a deep breath, and think about the fundamental reasons for all the animosity between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The animosity between US also deserves a great deal of self-reflection, but we must first try to walk in the shoes of the actual victims and perpetrators!
Modern Israel was established just three years after the Holocaust. That word has been so over-used and abused that its meaning no longer even registers on our emotions, but try to think for even a minute what it must have been like to arrive in Israel in the 1940s after having survived the most systematic genocide in recorded history! The fact is that we can't! It is unfathomable! And literally since the day the nation was born, it has had to fight for its very survival- held to absurd standards of behavior that no other nation on earth is held to, its very existence continually questioned, and subject to almost routine terrorist attacks.
And try to fathom what it's like to be a Palestinian- having lost your family's home, now in the third or fourth generation of living in a crowded slum where you have literally no hope for a better life, with thuggish gangs controlling your community and Israel regularly attacking you as they attack them! The Palestinians have been betrayed by literally everyone- Israel, the U.S., Europe, and the other Arab and Muslim states- who love to use Israel as a whipping boy for domestic misdirection, but do nothing to actually help the Palestinian people! Yes- for all the whining and crying and rending of clothes, the fact is that, on a humanitarian level, NOBODY has honestly stepped forward to help the Palestinians!
So, what we have is two peoples who have been unthinkably traumatized- terrorized, abandoned, and made so paranoid and reflexively defensive that to act with rationality and calm is almost impossible! And understandably so! But what makes it even worse is their enablers- in the U.S., in Europe, and throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds. Every time WE betray OUR personal prejudices, and rationalize inhuman behavior BY EITHER SIDE, we tell them that it's okay- that their insanity is acceptable! And they have very valid reasons for not always being capable of reason but WE DON'T! And what makes it even more infuriating is the level of ignorance about basic historic facts by even the most opinionated commenters ON BOTH SIDES of the argument! And I'm going to say this very simply and bluntly: ANYONE who doesn't believe in Israel's right to exist in peace, and ANYONE who doesn't believe the Palestinians deserve a viable, autonomous, independent state either doesn't KNOW the basic historic facts, or is so poisoned by their own prejudices as to be incapable of the humanity and empathy BOTH the Israelis and Palestinians need! WE are part of THEIR problem! It's not AIPAC or Iran or Syria- it's those of us who should be helping defuse the hatred but who are, instead, telling the haters that it's all okay!
But all of this is actually beside the point. Because the hatreds of the I/P war are not OUR primary problem. If you want to get to the REAL issues, our primary problem is actually global warming- and I'll tell you all now that ANY time I see a thoughtful diary on global warming I'm going to recommend it, because I see a few I/P's on the list every day, but it's quite rare when the most critical issue of our time shows up! But that's not what I want to talk about, either.
You see, I'm sick of the hatred. ALL of the hatred! Towards Bush, towards Lieberman, towards everyone! I'm full of that hatred, myself. There was a thread the other day where people were playfully discussing which members of the administration deserve capital punishment for their war crimes, and my initial reaction was to think of the medieval methods- hanging, drawing, and quartering or flaying alive or immolating. I HATE these people! They are causing so much death and destruction, they are inflaming the very worst in human nature in all of us, they are abandoning or punishing the world's most vulnerable, and they are threatening the very survival of our species!! They are deserving of hatred! They are gutless, heartless, and brainless, and there is no punishment too cruel for what they are doing! And I might hate the mainstream media even more!! BUT THAT'S NOT HOW I WANT TO THINK! Anger and hatred belong to THEM, not to us! And if we hate them, we are becoming like them! Hatred dehumanizes! And it's desperately important that WE, more than anyone in the current political dynamic, retain our humanity!
Many liberals oppose capital punishment- I do- and I mean that for even the most vicious criminals. I oppose capital punishment not only because it doesn't deter crime, and not only because it isn't applied rationally or fairly- I oppose it because it is immoral! I believe that killing people is wrong! I'm not particularly religious (in the traditional sense), but I do believe in the Sixth Commandment. There is no subordinate clause. There is no "unless" or "except." KILLING PEOPLE IS WRONG! And even if we make caveats about self-defense, they don't apply, because once someone has been apprehended, executing them is no longer self-defense! And executing war criminals is not self-defense! And hatred is not healthy- psychologically or politically!
And that's the point I want to make! If we survive the coming climatic cataclysm (which, hopefully, won't be climactic!), but continue to succumb to our hatreds, we still won't survive! Weapons of mass destruction will continue to proliferate. There will be more and more tensions around the world over land and water and food and religion. And the only way we will avoid self-annihilation is by changing hearts- beginning with our own! Hatred is our enemy! We must be smart, we must be wise, and we must be compassionate! Nothing less than the survival of our species depends on it!
Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.
-Martin Luther King, Strength to Love
Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.
-Jeffers