Statement on Palestine/Israel

On the Middle East… Diplomacy and Astrology…

I didn’t feel like I had the energy to weigh in. Not with loved ones on the ground. But seeing the social media “one siding” of the issue, I thought I’d give it a try.

I’ve seen a lot of both side—sing this issue.

And it just can’t be approached from that lens.

It really has to be understood in both the historical and modern context.

And when we factor in all of these things, we realize it’s hard to have a “side”.

The best side, the strongest side to choose is that of peace and flourishing for all. This is really hard that is when you have stake here. The impulse is to only back your side because survival of your whole people depends on it. I don’t expect people with a stake to not choose sides. The following is for everyone else…

My husband happens to be in the West Bank right now. He left just before Tanner’s birthday to get loved up by family. He’s still there.

They are all terrified.

First a few notes;

In the time I’ve spent as an American in Israel, I’ve found it to be an open, welcoming, secular country. It’s clean, it’s has a good economy, and is very modern, with lots of opportunities for its citizens. It’s got Great night life, abundant restaurants, shopping, and luxury, hotels. Along with gorgeous nature sights to visit.

Palestine is slightly different. It is overly welcoming and hospitable. The people are beyond friendly. It is not clean, because it lacks infrastructure and has almost no economy. The nature sites have largely been usurped by the expanding occupation, so tourism doesn’t really exist.

Palestine looks like a ghost country. It does not appear to be thriving.

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Politics and Life from a Palestinian perspective:

The majority of Palestinians don’t support Hamas.

The reason Hamas has any popularity anywhere (mainly Gaza) is because they are the only people who haven’t given up on Palestinians.

The Palestinian cause, in most everyday Palestinian’s mind is a two state solution which has been completely abandoned.

Living in the occupied territories is a lot like living in the Jim Crow south.

I’ve lived it.

I’ll tell you, it’s completely degrading and dehumanizing way to live. The level of constant hyper vigilance necessary to navigate life, unimaginable. The daily humiliations, unconscionable. The void that is the future, despairing. The right to self determination; non existent. Human rights violations happen so frequently, I’m not sure anyone is even documenting them anymore. It’s just the norm. They certainly don’t get picked up on the national News anymore.

Living this way, And leaving this question of a two state plan open while settlements continue to be erected on Land that would be Palestinian if a two state solution were reached, is an anti-peace, pro violence, move on Israel’s part. It is inflammatory.

When a Palestinian in Gaza looks out from behind the fence of their open air prison at a community that was induced to come and live on land that belonged to their family members in this lifetime, it inspires hate. In fact it doesn’t just inspire hate, it also inspires hopelessness. And I’d think the mix of hate and hopelessness that breeds desperation, is the opposite of what you’d want to inspire in a population you are trying to cultivate safety with. But we know that this is deliberate.

At this point, I actually know quite a few Palestinians who would like to just be absorbed into the Israeli state. Simply so they had the right to self determination and their children had a Future. They are so tired of this story. They’d like to have access to the bustling economy many of them contribute towards.

On the Israeli side, Palestinian rhetoric and actions by extremist is so abhorrent and terrifying, and the erratic nature of their rebellion so destabilizing, and terror inducing, they absolutely have a right to defend themselves from attack. Any celebration of attacks like this is anti-life. Images of people who are excited about the loss of life in Israel help no one, and only show everyone how deeply seated the hatred it.

And coupled with these latest terrorist attacks, it’s hard to see how peace negotiations could even happen.

One simply cannot say they do not accept the right for a country and people to exist and expect a seat at the diplomatic table. Let alone say that to a people who have faced extermination in this lifetime.

I understand that some would argue that the fate of Jewish people should have never been laid at the feet of Palestinians in the first place. And this is largely correct. It should have been a broad coalition of countries, with the consent and buy-in of all parties.

But this ultimately comes back to land, and I for one, can actually acknowledge the Jewish ties to this land. It’s ridiculous to me that people argue that they don’t have some historical, if not, indigenous ties here. And the deep need for a Nation State of their own. It was the least we could facilitate for them after the holocaust.

I also can acknowledge that the way the land was given was unjust to the Palestinians. It was given without their consent. The UN could have done more to cultivate Palestinian cooperation. But they didn’t. They didn’t in my recollection even consult them. Their land was given away by the UN.

However, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter anymore. We have two people, with an equal right to exist and flourish. Two people who do exist, right now, in a shared space who are not flourishing. But rather suffering at the hands of terrorism.

It is terrorizing to live under chronic, often, criminal occupation. To be unjustly deprived of your future. It is terrorizing to have your neighbors lob rockets at you no matter what land you happen to be on.

There simply is no legitimate, justifiable excuse for why we are here.

Perpetual trauma.

In the past, this wording about “right to exist” has been the lynchpin. Israel insists on it, and Palestine can’t swallow their pride to concede it, even though it’s true.

And as of this moment, if actions, in fact, speak louder than words, I can say that neither side feels like the other acknowledges their right to exist. Both sides are bent on destroying the other in appearances and action.

Palestinians Legitimately believe they are in the midst of a slow, systemic, ethnic cleansing. And all actions by Israel, in their view, support that conclusion. I can certainly see it.

Israel exists in a world where all their neighbors have openly spoken to their extinction. They believe another genocide is just around the corner. Horrifying. I can exactly where that fear comes from. It’s real.

For Palestinians, When extrajudicial killings happen routinely, with no repercussions, (except in rare cases when they are caught on video, and can’t be written off any other way) it doesn’t leave one feeling like the other acknowledges their humanity. It does not communicate “right to exist”

And vice versa. When rockets are launched indiscriminately into residential neighborhoods, it doesn’t leave one feeling as though their life has value.

So things just plod along as they are.

My larger point is, it wasn’t a matter of “if” this would happen. It was a matter of “when”.

Things simply cannot stay as they are for Palestinians. Especially not in Gaza. I don’t see how it could be anything other than breeding ground for hate and terrorism given the conditions they live under.

Since 2007 they have lived in the equivalent of an open air prison. With limited access to supplies,resources, food and utilities. They have no freedom of movement in one of the most densely populated places on earth.

And if this is what the conditions in Gaza are breeding, I’d say it can’t stay like this for Israel either. No one should have to live like this.

But to be clear, Palestinians as a whole, the future of their race, way of life, and homeland depends on being noticed. Given a seat at the table.

And unless they can be swallow their pride enough to concede that Israel not only has a right to exist, it does in fact exist, the seat simply isn’t there.

And no amount of acting up to get noticed will get them what they want. This is David and Goliath. However, Goliath will win.

We need level heads to prevail here.

We can’t get that, because Palestine has been abandoned by the international community and has not had the support to hold elections for years.

They are perpetually led by Hamas, because they can’t vote them out. They can’t get new leadership in the West Bank either, despite it being called for.

Back when we were facilitating the peace process, we ensured elections.

The rift between these two peoples is so deep. I could write for days about the validity of both sides of this issue.

I used to belong to a Middle East think tank facilitated by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich. We spent thousands of hours in dialogue over the course of years, meeting with “the other side”, to understand it. It was grueling work at the beginning. But eventually, a space in my heart opened for the gorgeous humanity of the people who sat across from me. And this gorgeous humanity is now embedded in my world view.

In 2008, we hosted Jewish folks from “Americans for Peace” now at our home in Ramallah. They had to enter in Ramallah illegally because they aren’t allowed to cross the border under Israeli law.

There was no other way for Jewish person interested in what their government was actually doing in the West Bank to come in. They came to document things in the West Bank. They felt they needed to get an accurate picture to take back to their pro peace groups.

I still keep in touch with them to this day. To say that drinking a few beers with them on our Veranda, watching the sunset in Palestine, after all of our work together in the states, was one of the finest moments of my life is an understatement.

The fact that it was even possible, was miraculous. We went in having very different thoughts about the others experience. And landed in a place of deep mutual respect and admiration.

So I know it’s possible… peace in the hearts of man is possible.

This issue is so close to my heart. I have dear loved ones on both sides of the issue. And it runs cell-deep in all of us.

This is one of our generation’s most difficult diplomatic challenges.

And yet we must meet it.

BUT, it’s “we the people” who need to press for solutions

Because….

The other issue is while we all argue about who’s right and wrong, there are larger countries, or let’s call them “factions” using this region to meet their own agendas. And violence here, has too long been seen as “the cost of doing business”. Things staying the same has a benefit. It gives everyone the villain that they “need” to keep money flowing in the right directions. On both sides. I can so clearly see the great and powerful Oz behind the curtain pulling the strings. Plus we were briefed on how the factions benefit.

(Hamas is one of those state sponsored groups that Israeli & US intelligent agencies encouraged by playing games in the region. I’d argue it’s still playing it’s role. Plus the timing of this attack is suspicious *to me* given what is going on politically)

I implore people if they are going to discuss this, to discuss it in terms of needing to find a true non-violent solution in which both sides will have to concede something to win peace.

Do not use my words or accounting of on the ground facts as a reason to solely support Palestine or Israel.

Do not even get caught in the weeds of the rhetoric. It’s designed to be circular and confusing for a reason. Because it’s not meant to be solved. The facts I’ve mentioned above have happened to support the unsolvablity of chess game. They both matter, and they don’t.

No it’s us… it’s our voices United for peace, Something that is driven and backed by the will of every day citizen’s across the world. If we don’t unite for peace, Our governments will allow this to go on to its envitable, destructive, terrifying, end if we don’t push for intervention.

All the people waving their flags in protests today for one side or the other, that’s what they want. It keeps things as they are.

Palestinians under brutal, inhumane occupation, and Israeli’s never truly able to unwind in their own home because the terror attacks will not stop as long as the occupation continues.

It’s a cycle that perpetuates itself.

So if you really care about the region, raise your voice for peace. Not a side.

We have Mars in the Underworld in Libra, the sign of Diplomacy, conjunct the Karmic South Node at an eclipse point. Opposing this, in Mars ruled Aries, is Chiron, the archetype that speaks to us of how we meet the wounds that can’t be healed. This whole configuration is squaring Pluto. Asking us to finally address what has been repressed and forgotten. To have the necessary catharsis and digest the trauma. NOT CREATE MORE OF IT!!

We can not intigrate what we haven’t fully grieved.

Both of these people have been battered and bruised. The collective trauma in both groups is likely among the highest in the world of any region.

The way we meet wounds we cannot heal is with compassion. We need to generate compassion here for everyone. And for each other.

This astrological configuration may look scary, but there is something hopeful in it. In that it’s showing us that this issue must be addressed in a balanced way. Now!

A note on diplomacy in general: In the greater world, I’ve also seen the issue of Diplomacy has largely been abandoned.

We just allow the violence and war to go on unchecked as long as it isn’t in our neighborhood. While we bicker about who’s right and who’s wrong. Not factoring in the human toll.

Yet we, in the US seem to be involved or adjacent to almost every conflict on the planet.

Diplomacy used to be an art. And societies elevated capable diplomats who were able to make deals.

We had reverence for diplomacy.

We no longer seem to value this.

War makes money.

Peace doesn’t.

We need to find a way to flourish in peace, and value this type of abundance far more than our stock portfolios. Or the stock portfolios of our en-vogue politicians. Or the ideologies that serve as distractions for major, transnational, wealth building projects.

If you add your voice to this issue, or the greater issue of war. Instead of advocating for a side to win, consider advocating for diplomacy. For peace. Consider pressing for it. I know it’s less sexy, but it pays back our human family in far higher dividends in the long run.