As I’ve been reflecting on current news and talking with friends, clients, students and fellow activists about the current negotiations happening in Israel/Palestine, my first and foremost response is that I’m very happy that in at least portions of Gaza, there has been a pause from the constant bombing, destruction, drone sounds and killings in Gaza. Though it’s also very clear to me this is not the end of this story, which I’ve come to more thoroughly understand did not start on October 7th. Since the start of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, Israel has continued to kill more Palestinians as noted on Facebook by members from Breaking the Silence – a group of veteran IDF soldiers founded in 2004 choosing to speak out against the Israeli occupation. To have a complete conversation about this, it is imperative that one knows that since the creation of Israel, Palestinians have without break, been dehumanized, displaced, and disregarded by Zionist and Israeli terrorism. (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Haaretz)
When a leader who is unapologetic about his colonial history declares peace for another country that’s also built on White supremacy (You don’t have to be White to be a White Supremacist: Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Jamall Bowman), a leader who’s been aiding a genocide with billions of US dollars, shouldn’t we pause to question the actual motive? When this could have been declared many, many months ago, aren’t you left asking why this long? And if the response has to do with Hamas being terrorists, it will require learning about Israel as a terrorist state (as noted with links in the previous paragraph) – not something I say lightly as it’s been a complete unlearning for me. When the pro-Israeli news outlets are putting all of their attention on the bodies of 19 dead hostages not yet returned during a genocide, which I do understand the importance of this, but while conveniently taking attention away as they continue to disregard the actual number of dead Palestinians over the last 2 years, doesn’t it seem powerful how our emotions can be guided? Behind this effort of a supposed peace, there is subtext that’s been in the works for over 130 years when the modern political Zionist movement was born.
Generally, if not always, this sort of announcement of peace by the one who has been complicit in war crimes, will always be one that has little to nothing to do with actually creating peace. In contrast, when a strong voice rises up that resists the oppressor, peace is always being sought with a near understanding that it must compromise versus have their side truly be seen or fully recognized. It’s like 2 people in a relationship where one always needs to be right and the other person is willing to sacrifice for the sake of the relationship. You have to wonder – are these 2 really in an equal relationship or is one deciding how it should be leaving the other voiceless? And if that’s the case, we must ask more of how did we get there. Think of the one constantly crying out for justice to sustain their land and life, versus the one who is endlessly working to conquer, industrialize, and infiltrate whether simply for expansion or as a premise of creating so-called peace.
It has always been more to do with figuring out what posture will shift the focus away from deceit in order to appease the general public to the point that they’ll anxiously await the return to status quo. I likely would have wished for a sense of ‘getting back to normal’ after any war which for me, meant not really understanding the full premise of a war. That’s where I was with most of the Afghanistan War (2001-2021) and Iraq War (2003-2011), and until two years ago, where I’d been with Israel’s apartheid system and brutal, strategic occupation of Palestinians in Gaza for decades. I was willing to turn away from a crime because it didn’t feel like it directly impacted me. I could keep living my day to day because of our system that has created the illusion of peace and safety by way of privilege and distraction.
Because we will forget, I make a vow to remember how all of what has taken place over these last 2 years has not occurred in a vacuum. It’s like making a marriage vow where each person makes effort to recall the significance of what unites them in the relationship and will aim to uphold that mindful space, knowing there will be tough times too. There is a Jewish tradition summed up in the word, Zakhor – “you shall remember”. It’s a practice that includes numerous things to remember as part of our identity and history as Jews and includes a range of remembrances from the weekly Sabbath to the WW2 Holocaust. Even though we also have the word, “Le’olam al tishkach,” which means never again after the Holocaust, which means never again for anyone, an extra reminder is needed: It feels apropos to now include the remembering of how a genocide could be justified in our name as it relates to a cycle of trauma having moved some Jews from victim to perpetrator.
I will not forget all the parts of this story that hold unresolved pain. I vow to see beyond a sense of instant gratification as it feels like our government is trying to neatly sweep things up with a so-called peace plan or even a ceasefire. At the same time, I am grateful some shift is happening – any movement generates hope. But the slow-moving genocide in Gaza that has sped up over the last 2 years, isn’t even a story that started in 1948 when Israel was declared a state. This isn’t a story where we finally claim there is one bad side and one good side. Nor is this a story where things can wrap up conveniently after all the years of war and destruction on this planet. These patterns of harm live in the memories that a patriarchy cannot let go of – a grudge that is not just decades or even millennia old, but one that has been growing and growing since maybe the first argument that was never resolved where escalating grievances led to the bewildering cascade of aggressions. We may not have a way for this large scale, ancient argument to stop right away. But, as it likely started from something small, we can start with small shifts by our own actions so we slow the diet of this hundreds of thousands of years old monster of harm. To me, that is what a number of Yogic scriptures are trying to help us understand, namely the Bhagavad Gita. The war is within the self and it will either transform and liberate us, or it will fester and destroy us.
When thinking about what others do or have done, we are biased by our own conditioning in a situation. We apply our own moral standards and become shocked by something that our life experiences can’t imagine. These clips helped me understand resistance movements best: (Malcolm X, Aja Monet)
If we have the mind-set that we must always pick the better of two or more sides, decide who we think has greater morality, then this story is endless. And what I’m coming to accept, is that that is what we have in this human journey. I just went to the Roxie last night to see “Orwell: 2+2=5” by director, Raoul Peck. It was a dense but illuminating film on patterns of harm where we think we hold the knowledge yet actually lack the insight into how massive corruption is. I don’t expect that the cycle of harm will change in my lifetime or many lifetimes. What I do expect is that more will happen to make us forget, make us remember, make us forget, and then make us remember until we might get so exhausted by this roller coaster of emotions that we stop thinking about it or we do whatever we can to attach to our most accessible comforts. It seems we lose faith that we can change something and then cling to whatever quality of life we get back to with the most ease. Because to actually put ourselves on the line for others who are being oppressed is too easily optional for most of us and not a requirement in our modern living. For the majority of my life, I had imagined it’s someone else’s job, not mine to worry about. And now, I see how I’ve benefitted from that. With all I’ve learned, I feel called as a Yogi and activist to dive in more fully to the movement for the liberation for all people, aligning with Mukunda – giver of liberation!
I’ve come to sense how the power of harm can work in silent ways: Through arrogance, entitlement, sense of impunity, lack of responsibility, feeling justified, indifference, apathy – these are intangible forces that often generate visible outcomes. I know I need to be careful of these things as well, thinking I know the end of the story. With personal reflection, it feels crucial that I process my reactions to things so I can learn to skillfully respond as I feel every action enters the vibrational field. I understand how telling a lie could get so complicated that it has to keep going. And then I can understand the same when having committed a crime against humanity that there can be no turning back.
That’s how I’ve learned to understand why a strategic and manipulative plan would need to be created to help direct the narrative away from criticism of the oppressor and back on the victim as the aggressor. Propaganda becomes the necessary means to ensure the public perception can help keep truth hidden and it has worked time and time again. I’m only now aware of it through critical thinking and meditation versus accepting each news article at face value as truth. I now understand why and how something needs to be hidden in order to maintain the facade of safety and security, two things that are the most sensitive to our well-being. So we’ll go along with the loudest, most charismatic, most confident voice even if it’s telling us lies. This is how DARVO operates and the psychological design Israel’s political scheme follows.
DARVO
From AI:
DARVO is a manipulative tactic used by perpetrators of abuse that stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. When confronted, the abuser will deny their actions, attack the accuser’s credibility, and reverse the roles by claiming they are the true victim. This helps them avoid responsibility, confuse the situation, and make the true victim doubt their own reality.
I know that so much of how this works is all about timing. In the same way that restorative Yoga and sound baths are having such popularity now, it wouldn’t have been the case 10-20 or maybe even just pre-pandemic as it is now. People are so much more receptive to this act of calming the nervous system because it’s become known, felt and appreciated in counterpoint to the stress of life and certainly the current stress of the horrors of this world, including the deep concerns coming from within our own country. Activists have been criticizing Zionism and Israel ever since they existed. But the timing of a larger collective response wasn’t there until major incidents. And with all we’re learning and seeing through social media, the likelihood of more and more people staying outspoken against the polycrises won’t likely go away.
So off we go, doing what we need to keep the day moving. What if it’s not as much about doing something that’s right or wrong, as it is a matter of a timing where our minds and hearts unite through inspiration. I’ve shifted my schedule to provide more time for research and writing in order to manage my anxiety. I also needed to come to terms with a story of my Judaism that could never make sense until I included efforts to support Palestinian liberation and speak against the apartheid state of Israel. During the first years of the pandemic, I learned that I need quite a lot of quiet time along with time for practice. Additionally, I need quality time with friends and nature, seeing art and beauty.
I’m grateful for the work I do. As I see it, I support bodies and nervous systems and encourage more kindness and joy into the experience of being on this planet. I’m part of an immense movement that reminds us that there is an abundance of Peace and Joy, Love and Light on this planet. It lives within each and every one of us, we just often are moving too fast, being too anxious or stressed, too depressed or misguided to find our unique connection. When we feel grounded, connected to this Earth, aware of the infinite space of the cosmos about and all around, we have more capacity to hear our own internal music. And then we tune into being of service to others when we can. At least that’s been my experience. When I’m able to focus on my personal grounding, I’ve felt my highest expression as being one of service.
Years ago, during a retreat at Spirit Rock, I created this bodhisattva vow which has remained a practice with me these 20+ years: ‘I vow to follow the holy unfolding of what is already in motion. I vow to see motion in that which seems is not yet unfolding.’ It reminds me to notice all that is already happening to support what my heart longs for in our human struggle and to move with that, while also reminding me that much is in motion, even for the better, but I just might not always make note or see it. It’s a vow of faith and trust that humanity is moving in the direction of our highest good at all times, but often our egos think it should be going differently. Hang in there. We forget that we have so much to learn and that though history tends to show us we forget what we’ve learned, we can aim to remember by making a vow.
Let’s stay connected,
Marc
