Conflict

Thinking about Israel gives me a headache most times, but I found a Reddit post interesting. It was a list of all the places in the Middle East where Jews were cleansed from. Does that give Israel the right to cleanse their space? 

Iran isn't even listed there, they kicked out 60K Jews in 1979 (Wikipedia).

Nothing gives anyone a right to kill anyone in my opinion, but I'm a peace lover, I'm not going to do any killing, but I'm not the only type of person in the world, and who knows how I develop under different circumstances. What do you do with all the people who feel the urgent need to protect their kind, however they define their kind, and how they define protect?

When they launched missiles and killed over a thousand people, given the history of Israel and the Jews on this planet, you might imagine that there would be a retaliation, considering it's within their own country. They don't have to go to war with another country, there is war within their country. They want to win the war. So they smash the opponent to smithereens. You can't say the Palestinians didn't bring it on themselves, if someone punches you, you try and stop their ability to punch you. I walk away, but some people want to root out the problem, and that might be killing them. 

They say an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. Tit for tat is what you do ethically, with occasional positive and good thrown in to try and break the patterns. Patterns of kindness can be developed. What if there was a ritual of giving your different neighbors gifts?

The people who left Iran who were Jewish, some settled in Long Island New York. Their descendents are doing well. They live in a nice affluent neighborhood. Not sure you can say life is better outside of Iran, nobody wants to be forcefully moved, they've had to switch from Farsi to English. The problems of Long Island are still problems, no place is perfect. Great Neck and Kings Point isn't a bad place to live. I have a friend in Iran and life is hard there. Parents kill their daughter once a month, the women were hanging out with a man, and they decide to murder them. There's weird violence that confuses me, and I'm not sure I understand the country. Wanting to understand a country and culture is important to learning. I don't really know the other countries on that Reddit list of places where Jews have been driven out. You can't say things aren't connected if you can see this treatment of Jewish people leads to that treatment of Palestinian people. If you want peace, don't oppress or treat anyone poorly. One problem about groupthink is that you want revenge on people who hurt your group. Tit for tat. 

People rail in America about identity politics, but show me a place in the world where identity isn't a factor in a war? Identity can form around sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, regionalism, even a neighborhood. Who are you and what is important to you?

So my question is if your people were driven out of 10 places, can you drive people out of one place that is the one place you want to feel safe, within the one country where being you is more than OK? It's OK to be Palestinian in Israel, as long as you don't launch bombs. There are many Palestinians in Israel who tend to Jewish kids, that do all sorts of positive and productive things for Israel without warning, but there is external support for making problems, and launching missiles, which exaggerates a problem. It is a kind of anti-semitism to have all these attack groups surrounding Israel. The Hezbollah in Lebanon. It's not official policy to allow them there, but they don't really have the will power to root them out of there, and if you somehow lost a family member, you might be radicalized, and plot against Israel. The endless war of tit for tat goes on forever. How do you make steps towards peace if there are literally many groups that keep launching bombs at you. Iran shoots of missiles and they don't even share a border with Israel. Everyone can justify violence, because look at history and x, y and z! How do yo justify peace, it looks weak, it looks like you're ignoring provocations! Which side am I talking about? That's exactly it, you can't really stop the war if you can't stop seeing how each side is being provoked. They are locked in a cycle of wars. If you're a soldier, a killer, you're going to just keep fighting. All these stories of people suffering in Gaza, who refused to leave, how can you blame them for feeling aggrieved. You erase the ability to launch missiles within Israel, but how to you erase the revenge someone wants to get for all the family they lost? I would just move, but people don't want to move. I'd rather live on Long Island, than live in a war zone. Supposedly there are a lot of Palestinians who live in Chile. 

You move to another country and there's the same problem. In NYC the Jews and the Palestinians are in conflict. My Afghan friend follows the plight of the Palestinians and the whole Muslim against Jews thing is fueled by the religious wars. My friend doesn't shot anyone, he lives his life, but there's a conflict inside him, maybe he passes it onto his kids, maybe they secularize. My stepfather is a secular Jew, I went to a passover once, went to camp Shalom, but I don't feel Jewish. I don't feel Baptist or Episcopalian either, I'm Buddhist. Now the Buddhist have a right to be upset at the Muslims who destroyed Nalanda, but then when great Islam empire was cut into in Iran, that is what kept Rumi moving eastward from the rampaging armies of Genghis Khan who was nominally Buddhist. Genghis Khan was Tengrism, a indigenous Shamanistic religion. When you look at the history of the world, you see religions rise and fall, wax and wane. The really good religions don't really sustain themselves long, everything has to get watered down and confused.

There's still Protestant versus Catholic in America. People want to purify a country, make it all just one thing and they think that will solve all the problems. Where is the country where everyone is supposed to get along? Is it America? Right now we have a white supremacist regime. No country stays the same, things always change. America was a quite stable example of a democracy, but it's rotted from within. The open society will always be susceptible to external and internal regression. At present the Jewish people feel safe enough from two sieg heils by Musk, to keep driving their Teslas. When I go for a walk in the Jewish neighborhood, I see lots of Teslas. They admire Musk, he is a great businessman. They admire the right, they want less taxes. A nice sweet father in the park, doesn't really think Trump killed 400k people with his inaction around Covid. "Maybe" he says skeptically. 

The divide between conservative and progressive in America has led to lost friendships for me. I haven't quit being friends with anyone because of their religion, but because of their politics. I even have lots of right wing friends, but Trump has brought out something that is unacceptable to me. I quit going to a AA meeting because 5 guys talked like Trump lovers before a meeting, and I just don't feel like expressing myself in recovery in front of Trump lovers.

I knew a Serbian girl who married a Serbian soldier to perpetuate the culture. In Wisconsin. America is remote enough to not have all out war between opposing sides, but we grow cultures that cling to past grudges. Many people let go of that stuff, let go of culture, just join the great materialism scramble of capitalism in secular America. That is a vapid choice, too, doesn't have the meaning of a deep culture. I wish I had more Buddhist culture. Today is Vesak Day, and I'm just going to go about my usual day, even though it is the high holiday of Buddhism. I'll meditated for 2 hours, and read some Dharma and blog about Buddhism, but I'm not connected to a sangha, and there is no gathering ritual I will take part of. I'll text my Buddhist friend in Iran. It's a strange old world. 

I don't have a religious culture, and a group that has people killed, and is at war with others. I have a vague affinity for other Buddhists, I don't like what China did to Tibet, but I don't hate Chinese people. I don't like the Muslims destroying Nalanda, but I have a Muslim friend, have had various Muslim friends. I had a Muslim friend from Sri Lanka, who moved away. 

Honestly comparing myself to the experience of an Israeli, I have to say I'm not sure I know what it's like. I know there are many Israeli and Jewish people who don't agree with what Netanyahu is doing. It's hardly a group of people who have a uniform way of thinking.

Today I meditate on compassion. Compassion might be an ingredient for peace. Not compassion for who, but a universal compassion. Maybe religion and spirituality were meant to be a private thing. Trying to present a public facing spirituality that can be used in the machines of war is just a capitalist creation. Any religion worth its salt would be all about peace.