The last weeks have been an eon. It’s exhausting. Hate is exhausting. Everyone’s truth ricocheting around endless distorted mirrors is exhausting. 

Why are we so consumed since the first photos of young people feeling the Supernova rave? Because to quote a friend from Cape Town, Che, of the original peoples of Southern Africa, “This is not just another war in the Middle East, in Palestine, this is a big one…we are all part of this war.” More from Che here. He’s right, every word. This is a wake-up call. 

If you feel turned around, with daily life on hold, ragged and worn through, you’re not alone. It’s taking me ages to land this article on this slippery slope and disappearing ground. It’s a fine needle I’m trying to thread, that is faithful to the Dharma, opening middle ground for some sanity to enter. 

It’s challenging to process the political posturing and the cacophony of hurt, rage, and anguish, but the real pain is being felt by those directly impacted. The families engulfed in the terror of Hamas’s attack and the dread and fear the hostages feel ripped from their homes. The mind-numbing catastrophic destruction of Palestinian life buried under the falling stones of bombed buildings.  

There are moments in history, like now, when we stand at the edge of an abyss. At such times, we need to be more than a spectator. When Hamas detonated the horror of their atrocities, they let loose a monster vortex that now threatens to consume the world in a ruinous conflagration. 

As said by Yuval Noah Harari, the “aim was not to just to destroy Jewish communities but to assassinate any chance of peace.” Netanyahu has the same goal. For years, as reported in many mainstream Israeli news outlets, like the Times of Israel, his policy has been to strengthen Hamas, divide Palestinians, undermine secular Palestinian representation, and nurture Settler violence in the occupied territories while utterly destroying any possibility of a two-state solution.

It should be no surprise that this cynical alliance would ignite a firestorm. Nor should it be surprising that this many-headed-hydra born of ethnic cleansing, historical violence, and ongoing oppression can be contained. Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek political commentator, said, “Our governments allowed successive Israeli governments to believe that, instead of a Peace Treaty, Israel can contain the Palestinians behind fences and a whole architecture of Apartheid.”

On October 7, the luxury of that perverse arrangement ended. When Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, pronounced, we are fighting human animals and are acting accordingly, to justify a siege of Gaza that ended access to electricity, food, fuel, water, and sanitation to 2.5 million people, a cold stone dropped into my heart. This statement opened the abyss wider. A dread, reluctant to name, began to take shape.

When the Israeli State demanded over a million people leave their homes with no safe passage and nowhere to go while bombs rained down, the abyss gave up its ominous foreboding. We witnessed a grave crime against humanity with Hamas, but as each day passes, it’s hard to doubt the Israeli government’s genocidal intent. 

The UNRWA (U.N. Relief & Works Agency) report that Gaza’s last seawater desalination plant has shut down. Six water wells, three pumping stations, and one water reservoir serving over a million people are also out of action. A report from the World Health Organization speaks of those on the ground facing unbearable choices. With over 60,000 displaced people and fuel gone, they are scrambling to squeeze the last drops of fuel from wherever they can. Does the fuel go to desalinating plants so people have a little more water, for food, for emergency rooms in hospitals running on a wing and a prayer while treating horrific wounds? 

We have already passed the cliff edge. We are now collectively careering towards the ground, said Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO. He also talked about the unbearable choice of who gets what when the US-Egyptian negotiated 20 trucks of aid, which he said, should be at least 2000 trucks.

Naila Farouky, CEO of the Charity Arab Foundations Forum, speaks what many feel and are now saying: it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Gaza and its inhabitants will be wiped off the face of the earth. And I promise you, if this happens, we will collectively never recover. Not only Palestinians or Arabs – but all of us, the entire world, will never recover from the stain this will leave on our human history. 

In the spiel of media and hostilities on social media, it’s rare to see an exploration of how collective trauma in this region continually energizes cycles of violence, bringing us to this calamity. The ageless persecution of Jews culminating in the unfathomable enormity of the “Final Solution.” The shocking devastation of Palestinian life in the Nakba and the severe oppression of their rights, all continues to turn this odious wheel of diminishing options. 

It doesn’t help when governing bodies and media weaponize the pain of generational trauma to keep people locked into fear, division and hate. The idea that you can only be pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian, each without care for the other, forsakes both populations by generating unnecessary oppression, explosive acts of brutality, and endless cycles of harm. It also belies the truth of our shared humanity and the creative possibilities that could enable a more beautiful, mutually respectful, open, and vibrant society. 

However, without healing deeply rooted generational trauma wired into our nervous system, we are susceptible to the response of flight, fight, and freeze. In part, because of this, the activation of fear and loathing by the Hamas attack enables the worst impulses to dominate. Taking advantage of this dynamic, ruthless leaders easily manipulate citizens. While the West, particularly the U.S., U.K., and French governments, can moderate Israel’s response by demanding a ceasefire, they abstain, plunging us all into a treacherous betrayal of our shared humanity. We must, therefore, amplify the call for sanity and reason to prevail. 

Israeli and legendary Haaretz journalist Amira Hass, in an interview on Democracy Now, calls to “stop the carnage in Gaza.” She said the Israeli public is “drunk with the will to take revenge” spurred by “an extreme fascist messianic religious settler right-wing party” who seeks to crush the Palestinians. The recent extreme far-right swing in the Israeli political scene has paved the way for this destruction of Palestinians. Statements in the Knesset, like “the children in Gaza have brought this upon themselves” (Meirav Ben-Ari), normalize this fascistic stance. 

Since March, even though hundreds of thousands of Israelis tried to stop this “beyond extreme” coup by Netanyahu, they have not yet succeeded. Instead, they are now potential targets.  Proposed regulation in the Knesset would allow arrests of civilians who “Harm National Morale” for posting pro-Palestine content. It will enable police to arrest civilians, remove them from their homes, or seize their property. It also allows police to arrest journalists, halt media broadcasts, and confiscate a media outlet’s output. Prosecuting dissenting Israeli citizens would further isolate Palestinians and distort media coverage within Israel. 

When governments and media don’t state the obvious, it confuses, gaslights, and undermines our collective ethical gage. Our brain also disassociates when something shocking happens, like the slaughter unfolding in Gaza. Even though we know what’s happening, it is hard to grasp what is happening. There’s a gap in our ability to truly comprehend the nature of an atrocity, even as we see it unfolding. This defensive neurological wiring is also partly why populations become frozen or get caught up in genocide even when it’s in their midst. Those who speak out help break the spell of collective amnesia—speaking out in the face of attempted destruction of Palestinian life and the assumption that all Israeli’s and Jews support this, helps break the spell of a narrative that violence is the only way. 

It is possible to choose a different path. In this YouTube clip, “Little Rock,” an extraordinary 19-year-old and survivor from Kibbutz Beeri, where Hamas slaughtered over a hundred neighbors and destroyed the community. She calls for her government to stop hostilities and engage in a political process. Her message is simple and trustworthy. Stop the Bombing of Gaza. Exchange Prisoners Now. Sit Down for Peace Talks.

The Buddha, before his enlightenment, after exhausting pathways available to him, pondered, “Might there be another way?” How much suffering can we all take in this world before we look beyond division and hatred? Instead, might there be a middle way? Might there be a different story, a new story we can co-create?  

Jacob Argamani, a man who has lived in South Israel his whole life and whose daughter, Noa, was abducted from the Supernova Festival, cried out in agony, “Let us make Peace with our neighbors in any way possible. I want there to be Peace; I want my daughter to come back. Enough with the wars. They too have casualties, they too have captives, and they have mothers who weep. We are two peoples to one Father. Let’s make real Peace.”

Exploring a middle ground and aiming for Peace is not a betrayal of alliances but the only real way forward to save our collective moral souls. At least for the children’s and grandchildren’s sake so they don’t become perpetual pawns in this blinding, vicious, sadistic, cruel carnage that offers no viable future other than deepening cycles of death and bloodshed. 

In President Biden’s address to the nation, he said, “We are at a global inflection point that is bigger than party or politics.” We all recognize this truth. To navigate a global inflection point needs wise leadership. We are exhausted by sociopathic, self-serving leaders. They generate and feed off dividing people. Yet, to undermine their power, we also need to resolve our own divisions. Yuval Noah Harari offers a cautionary warning of the danger of such populist leaders.   

It’s very clear to most Israeli’s, this goes way deeper and longer. We’ve had a strong man populist leader Benjamin Netanyahu who built his career on dividing the nation against itself, for years. On attacking State institutions and that oppose his policies, and on spreading conspiracy-theories, labelling the serving elites of the country as deep state traitors; and this over many years corroded the basic institutions of the State.

This is why now the State has been missing in the hour of greatest need of the citizens. People in democracies all over the world should learn the lessons from our tragedy. If you allow your country to be divided against itself to such a degree, there could be a very, very high price to pay for it.” (Full interview here) 

So, where does this leave us? The way of the Dharma is a path of non-violence and non-harming. Sometimes, this is interpreted as quietism, as if there’s some injunction against speaking out strongly in the Buddhist code. On the contrary, the Buddha frequently challenged and argued down those with distorted and harmful views. He mediated between warring parties, and on one occasion, he tried to stop a neighboring army from destroying his people. He did not succeed. But the point is, he tried. The Dharma obligates us to try and bring Peace. 

While outcomes are beyond our control, if no voices call for peacefully brokered solutions, the violence will only get far worse. In one of the most densely populated areas in the world, where nearly half the population are children, we can’t stand quietly by while indiscriminate bombing kills innocents, strengthens Hamas, protects Netanyahu’s disastrous rule, and drags the Western alliance into moral defeat and a far larger conflict. 

We can challenge media euphemisms like “collateral damage” and influential outlets like the New York Times and their narratives covering for war crimes. Gaza hasn’t “fallen” into a humanitarian crisis – it was pushed. People haven’t “fled” their homes – they were ordered out. Supplies aren’t “dwindling” – they’ve been cut off. Language matters in times like this. Intention also matters. The deep intention of compassion that Buddhist practice is predicated upon us working against extremism and militant violence on all sides.  

Not everyone will agree with walking the middle way, but now is the time to speak out for those who do or usually look on quietly from the sidelines. After so much erosion of ethical leadership, we must defend international law. In particular, at this time, the guidelines set out by the Rome Statute’s accountability for genocide and crimes against humanity that are liable for prosecution at the Hague. We, the everyday people, need our voices heard. And we need to listen to the voices of those most vulnerable to violence to stand for them when they cannot stand for themselves. 

Here in the U.S., Democracy hangs by a few threads. Republicans have allowed themselves to become a theocratic cult intent on overturning democracy, which the Democrats face in the November 2024 elections. Within this context, it pains me to criticize President Biden. A lot hangs on his shoulders. America is clawing itself back from its own abyss while fighting a proxy war against Putin, who is intent on undermining Western democracies. 

However, I see Biden’s visit to Israel as a tragic lost opportunity. What was needed, and what I believe the world calls for, is the U.S. to demand a complete ceasefire. The opportunity to shift the dial toward a safer world was there, not through bombs, but by inviting a collaborative multi-partnered humanitarian response to alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza. To bear-hug Netanyahu rather than reprimand him set a terrible precedent.

Listen to what Netanyahu really thinks of America here. He takes America for a fool, and the President obliged.

To return to Che’s wise words. The Palestinian-Israeli dynamic, and all of us, are in a much bigger story shaped by a 500-year-old Euro-centric project of brutal colonization and the systems it birthed that profoundly shape us all. From Che, let us be witness to the fruits of a system that is rooted in Destruction and Domination and bring this awareness to the garden of life to cultivate new old ways of being that is rooted in something else.

The old new way requires we enter a radical shift of ontology. That is a different way of looking, being, and responding, which is happening already. This new story has many names, but one important facet is “resistance.” 

Currently, with 400+ US congressional staffers are passing around a letter urging their bosses to call for a ceasefire. Author and columnist Caitlin Johnstone comments there’s a silent mutiny brewing in the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza actions, mainstream reporters have been refusing to parrot Israel narratives, and the streets are full of pro-Palestine demonstrators. This is different. I know it’s against the law to express any kind of hope on Twitter, but what we are seeing right now is a deviation from the usual script.

On the world stage, demonstrations have erupted worldwide, including across the West, calling for a ceasefire and dignity for Palestinians. In Spain, Ione Belarra, the social rights minister, suggested the Spanish government should bring Netanyahu — and we need to also include the leaders of Hamas that ordered their horrific attack — before the international criminal court to face war crimes charges.

A few days ago, Jewish Voice for Peace demonstrated at the State Capitol with a clear message, “Not in Our Name.” As reported, “Hundreds of American Jews are holding a sit-in at Congress — and we won’t leave until Congress calls for a ceasefire in Gaza,” As thousands of US Jews protested outside, over 350 were inside, including two dozen rabbis, holding prayerful resistance. 

The cosmopolitan tradition of Jewish social justice advocacy of Tikkun Olam, “to intend to repair and improve the world,” is deeply rooted in the soul legacy of Judaism. At the same time, the brutality we witnessed from Hamas does not represent the true heart of Islam. This beautiful word is these days mostly defiled for political expediency, but it actually means Peace. 

To deviate from the script means we citizens, who share the same humane values for all, must forge a different path from the endless cycles of violence forged by a global Apartheid that sacrifices peoples, countries, and our beautiful Earth to benefit a wealthy minority.

However, the ultimate Apartheid is the one we generate against the sensitivity of our own heart. Our true heart where all resides to be known, understood and loved.  

Let us reclaim what we can, our hearts, our humane values, our commitment to peace, as we walk the middle way with the lamp of love in our hearts through this valley of death. Let’s hold this light and call for a political settlement, as in Northern Ireland and South Africa, to end this horrific round of violence.

We are a people who only demand our freedom and our rights; this is the least that any human beings on the face of the earth can demand. 

If I die, remember that I—we—were individuals, humans.

We had names, dreams, and achievements, and our only fault was to be classified as inferior.

My battery is about to die again.
Pray for us.
Said Shoaib, Gaza.

Demand a Ceasefire:
Sign the petition here

Call Your Political Representatives:
Via Jewish Voice for Peace or call your Senator (Phone numbers here).

If outside the U.S., please call your local M.P. or political representative to demand a ceasefire now. Thank you!

Make a Donation:
Defense for Children – Palestine.

Bring Them Home Now, support for families of hostages. https://stories.bringthemhomenow.net/


Thanissara, October 20, 2023