Silence has power. And we can choose how and when to use it. Staying silent amidst a divisive climate can provide a safe and convenient way to manage a potentially uncomfortable situation. It can help avoid social consequences when uncertainty, apathy, or overwhelm feel prominent. Not speaking up for injustice or oppression can signal social privilege when that personal choice to remain silent is based on feelings of indifference. Sitting in silence, when in reference to spiritual practice, is a different topic. Silence is golden and often in the silence, we come to our own understandings beyond the distractions of our material bound world of duality. Silence during meditation provides that space and time for a practitioner to experience a steadiness that opens one’s heart to their own universe – a universe that is surrounded by the 8 billion other universes of every individual soul. This silence has potential to be unifying while the previous silence supports the separation that is already so prevalent in our world.
Maintaining the status quo, another form of silence, was how I blended into the world around me as a young being. I figured I could just follow the template of social norms and get by with as little friction as possible. I was able to maneuver through my days, getting nearly straight A’s in school, passing enough, by acting like everything was ok. And, I recognized it offered ease for those around me, allowing people to assume nothing needed to change, all was “normal” and everything could go on without feeling concerned about disruption.
But inside, I was screaming to be heard. I was deeply suffering because I knew I was living a lie. I knew that I was gay and even after all the years of praying for it to go away, it didn’t. It was clear at age 16 that it was who I was and no part of me could come to terms with it or pretend I was straight. I didn’t see a world where being gay was ok. Suicide and running away became the plan. I ran away from Cincinnati to Atlanta, GA and only returned by what I’ve considered to be Divine intervention.
In the last 40+ years of my life, I’ve remained relatively silent about what’s happening in Israel/Palestine. My Jewish upbringing, community, and recent Jewish and Israeli friends reinforced a perception of what it meant to be Jewish and to have special connection to Israel. I felt I wasn’t in a position to question anything more beyond the most common facts: We uniquely suffered the Holocaust and then we created the land of Israel – a safe homeland for all Jews. Anything else was “too complicated” to understand as an American or conversely, what else do you need to know?! That’s enough! My Jewish friendships and Jewish homeland were to be the most sacred relationships above all. I was to support, protect, consider taking aliyah (eligible citizenship for any Jew) and maybe one day move there. It felt like a safe, reliable way to be an American Jew. I fully affirmed the right for Israel to exist and to defend itself against Arab terrorist organizations that seemed to unjustly want the death of Jews. At one point in my life, I even held the belief that Islam was a religion that was designed to be against the Jewish people.
2 years ago, a radical shift in perspective took me on a new course of what it means to be a Jew. In effect, it has been a liberatory process, providing me with a lightness from knowing the truth and commitment to my Jewish values that I never had so clearly. I moved away from a defensive, victim state of mind, to one moved from discernment, compassion, and deep reflection that is consistent with Yogic teachings and moral integrity. It has been a shift away from holding onto ancestral victimhood with loyalty, to one of releasing the Jewish fears that trauma had inscribed. It has been a strange understanding of freedom which compels me more than ever to fight for others’ freedom. And, especially those who I’d been taught to disregard and assume were all terrorists. It’s as though I feel a debt that I need to repay for all the harm of my cognitive dissonance.
The painful irony is that the catalyst was the horrific events in Israel/Palestine that were brought to a head on October 7, 2023. Had I not been confronted with my lack of full knowledge of this region, I likely would have clung to what I had been used to upholding as a Zionist Jew. In my silence, I was loudly upholding the story of being one of the chosen people and Israel as my homeland even though I have no ancestral connection there (my mother’s family is Ashkenazi from the country of Georgia). As a gay man, I can be accepted there (as of the early 1990’s) and be paid to move and set up a home just because I am Jewish (and this is also true for anyone who has converted to Judaism). The many Jewish groups and institutions I had been connected with seemed to fuel the passion of support for Israel at all costs. Through similar enthusiasm, I sustained decades long friendships with Israeli, American Israeli, and American Jewish friends who felt just as I did.
But because of what I consider an awakening to the full understanding of that region since deep diving into research after October 7, 2023, I have lost a few friends for now and more than having solidarity with Palestinians, I accept the joint struggle of speaking up for Palestinian rights. And because of this shift, my Jewish community has multiplied 10-fold as I’m now in the community of like-minded Jews who speak up for Palestinian liberation. It felt like making the shift away from “I, me, mine” in a defensive stance, to “us, we, ours” in the most uplifting spirit of collective action I’ve ever known. The majority of these new connections have been made through organizing with IfNotNow. Whether you’ve come to call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide or not, whether you blame Hamas or the nature of war, it is a clear fact that a large number of civilian children, women, and men have been brutally killed due to attacks from Israel. Massive numbers of their population are being starved and repeatedly displaced. 78% of the land has been destroyed by the IDF with US funding and there’s a long list of other disastrous effects. Here are 2 significant points noted from the UN Environment Programme as of 9/2025:
- Much of Gaza’s vegetation has been destroyed. Since 2023, the enclave has lost 97 per cent of its tree crops, 95 per cent of its shrubland and 82 per cent of its annual crops. Food production at scale is not possible. That comes as over 500,000 people in Gaza are facing famine conditions, with about 1 million others in a food emergency.
- Some 78 per cent of Gaza’s estimated 250,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed. This has generated 61 million tonnes of debris – about as much as 15 Great Pyramids of Giza or 25 Eiffel Towers by volume. About 15 per cent of this debris could be at relatively high risk of contamination with asbestos, industrial waste, or heavy metals if waste streams are not effectively segregated early on.
There is a death count that started after October 7, 2023 which is now over 66,000. But it’s been reported that the number is likely in the hundreds of thousands to account for those who are under the rubble and not included because they couldn’t be identified. These are facts that every news outlet acknowledges and it creates an opportunity for us to develop a mindset around it.
Do we feel that nothing can be done about it?
–Palestinians deserve this based on the killings that happened on 10/7/2023
–It’s not our problem here in the US
–It’s the consequence of war
–It’s the consequence of Hamas
–This happens across history so what’s the difference?
OR
Do we recognize this genocide is based on supremacy?
–This is a step in settler colonialism
–Israel has existed with this mission of Zionism since before it was even created
–It’s the first livestreamed horror we’re watching from our phones, it’s not an abstract crime
–The Palestinians in Gaza are the journalists and reporters, sharing 1st-hand
OR
It’s more than I can manage to think about, etc.
Though there is a sense that there’s nothing we can do and it feels hopeless when we hear aid is not making it in, there are many ways to show support that don’t involve protesting in rallys. I’ve concluded it’s better to offer hope by making donations of food and medicine even as they’re being piled up at the entry than there being nothing there. Having said that, you can view the report from the UN Monitoring and Tracking site to see what aid has been making it in. And with the current strategies with efforts for peace relations, as uncertain as they are, there is a higher chance that a greater amount of aid will enter without blockade.
From OCHA
UN Relief Chief warns that Gaza’s children are “trapped in a graveyard”. Nobody should be going through something like this. Donate directly to the Occupied Palestinian Territory Humanitarian Fund.
During my teenage years in Cincinnati, I am grateful that I didn’t take my life. I came to understand that what I was wanting to kill wasn’t my entire being, but an aspect of my thinking. How much of my discomfort involved a shift in thinking versus being an immovable reality? How had an accumulation of stories created my outlook, stories that weren’t even true? I believe my running away and suicide attempt have been two of the most significant learning moments in my life. There are many other wounds from my journey that I now recognize as gifts. I’m grateful to have been brought up by my mother and step-father – both Ashkenazi Jews, with influence from my biological father who is Japanese. My childhood was far from perfect but it’s what it was for me to become who I am. I feel blessed to be a mixed heritage, anti-Zionist Jew, gay man with a dedicated Yoga practice. It has informed me and provided me with a way to understand not only my own journey, but to open my heart to the journey of humankind. I give most of the credit for my compassion and empathy to some of the most difficult and most deeply challenging times in my life.
Staying silent amidst this genocide isn’t an option for me. But there was a time when I wasn’t ready to speak out, didn’t know to speak out, and silence was all I could manage. During my teenage years, silence was a conscious mode of survival. And with my current spiritual practices, silence as a practice for contemplation and insight, serves me to the extent that I can be resourced enough to help serve others. Active silence as a means to restore my connection to my own peace and clarity, is not a luxury. It’s a means to an end where service is the goal. Staying there too long can become a crutch and lend itself to inertia, tamas. Staying silent outside of mindfulness practice time, can turn into avoidance, escapism, and intentional or unintentional normalizing of a situation. As with many things, there’s a fine line and it is ultimately one we have either mindfully drawn or accepted having been drawn for us, consciously or unconsciously.
We are where we are with the current crises of our time, because of the stories we’ve been told and the stories we tell ourselves. Our eyes and hearts would certainly meet this differently if we were walking down the street and saw it without a prescribed context. With enough propaganda and indoctrination, someone holding up 3 fingers could convince you you’re seeing 4. So it takes some effort to see what your heart/mind knows is true. But once you do, you often can’t go back to seeing things the way you once did. Ignorance has been dispelled. At least that’s my case and a message that Daniel Maté shared on IG in Dec 2023 helped me have words for what I was going through.
After the events of October 7, 2023, I needed to gain a better understanding since I really knew only a very little. Who were the Palestinians? How long had they been in that region? What is the relationship actually like with Jews and how and when did modern terrorism begin? If the saying I was taught, “A land without a people for a people without a land” isn’t true, then what is the truth? For the last 2 years, I’ve been creating a document based on articles, videos, and snippets of info from mostly western, mainstream outlets. I needed to hear from sources that I had been trusting for years as an American Jew. I knew there was plenty of news coming from Arab resources, which I was also reading and following closely. But I began this document with my fellow Israeli, American Israeli, and American Jewish friends in mind. How would their ears hear this best? Every time I found a new link, I would ask myself, what could I show them to help them understand what is happening in the name of Jewish safety?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GRjUq-j_SV-2EIcitt7FMUkIEA7Wo4ewKUmPvCPgifk/edit?usp=sharing
This document is quite long with over 180 links to different articles and videos by historians and journalists, news stations and activists. It’s a rather big list but in no way covers every angle of this conversation. It does provide a way to navigate some parts of understanding where I was otherwise having a hard time accepting historical facts because it was often different than what I thought I had learned or simply, new information that was new to my ears. While you could toss this off as all propaganda or fake news is up to you. I’m not sure I would have been interested in finding out about all of this a few years ago myself! But I will also say, I might have been curious to know about this had someone offered all of this to me. And that was the motivation for sharing it with you.
By no means do I expect you to go through this link by link. Like any reference material, it’s here for you to pick through if the interest to do so is there or arises. It’s my personal findings while coming to terms with my role as a human witnessing an atrocity that was claiming to be in my name. I can confidently say, this genocide is not happening in my name. I feel better being able to call it what it is versus trying to scuffle around with justifying it as anything else. Again, that’s my story and it’s such a transformative one, that I needed to create a container that might help someone else’s transformation.
Oppression and supremacy rely on silence. In fact, it’s an expected outcome during strategic efforts to create confusion and spread disinformation. It’s a pattern that we have too many examples of. To remember that the gay rights movements began in the US in the 1920’s and only in 1973 did the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) diagnostic manual, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), change homosexuality from being labeled a disease. “Significant legal victories continued through the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas that decriminalized same-sex sexual activity nationwide, and the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that established marriage equality.” – Google.
Consider how things changed and how long our LGBT movement has taken even in our own country – “the land of the free.” Our trans community is now the target as history finds a way to repeat itself. Reflect on what’s happening now in our country where freedom of speech is being threatened and even tracking those who have been silenced or are now fearing to speak out. This reflection can provide more understanding of the power of silence and how it continues to be an effective tool for keeping things as the dominant political forces wish them to be. There’s nothing wrong with the system – it’s working just as it intended. It’s waiting to see if we’ll say anything or go along with it. Saying nothing helps the systems that never rests.
I’ve learned to move away from holding a right and wrong mentality with how folks show up for difficult situations. Our nervous systems have capacity to the extent that we’ve built skills to manage stressors which are abundant. Without Hatha Yoga and the full Yoga practices, I’m not sure where I’d be. With it, I feel reinforced, accepting of a slow unfolding path towards Samadhi, and challenged in healthy ways with practices for body, mind, and spirit. I can be empowered by being in silence so that I don’t have to suffer in silence. I have capacity to focus and concentrate my attention on uncovering misperceptions and disinformation which tend to naturally allow truth to rise to the surface. And as that happens, the actions that I wish to take become more clear. It’s still new in some ways, but I have witnessed courage, strength, and faith from Palestinians in Gaza and as I’ve heard it shared, they are teaching us how to live. When the genocide finally ends, what will remain in the silence?
New links from current news related to 2 years since October 7, 2023:
—
“It’s Not a Peace Plan”: Ex-Israeli Negotiator Daniel Levy on Trump Push to End War on Gaza
https://youtu.be/wENOPGVfhRY?si=Fb1nCYm1ecn5QPNr
‘Why Doesn’t It Add Up?’ Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan Explained | Christiane Amanpour Presents
https://youtu.be/zLutR0SuIYA?si=Pdv1fd81SMFSZ4Eo
How to make sense of the world after October 7th 2023 | Norman Finkelstein
https://youtu.be/_Xi-ObKoYiA?si=JgACNjjMRZIICZrE
Democracy NOW: Top U.S. & World Headlines — October 7, 2025
https://youtu.be/E_ATVyk7ksU?si=XOHoI-MX738bxPZs
Ariel view of Gaza before and after 10/7/2023
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPe3PV8DVdq/?img_index=1
Two Years of Loss: We tried to reach Gazans we interviewed over two years of war.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/06/world/middleeast/gaza-loss.html
