Ananda misses the point, entirely. It’s not a conflict between equal forces, or even between two countries. It is a struggle for justice against a brutal, racist, colonial regime bent on eradication of the Palestinian people.

This is a gem: “Especially since there are wild camps within the Palestinian world that refuse to follow any of what the governing body promises after a treaty.” Pretty ambiguous statement. Show me one “treaty” that Israel has respected. The “peace process” has only brought more suffering and more loss of land for the Palestinian people. Israel is an Apartheid state – it’s the state that has no legitimacy, not “the Jews.”

It’s also not about Muslims and Jews; it’s about a Jewish state with special rights for Jews and limited or zero rights for non-Jews.

We can’t wait for “awakening.” In my experience, the people who talk like this are those who are not on the losing end of things. They can afford to wait, because the bombs are not falling on them. Unfortunately, the less fortunate majority of the world’s population doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for a global love-fest; they need JUSTICE NOW.

I agree that this requires awakenment, the awakening you write about, a spiritual consciousness, and also an evolution of the planetary global community so that all of us are held accountable to international law and standards. I believe Israel and some elements in Palestine, Hamas notably, have committed war crimes, not only recently in the assault on Gaza but for years, decades, since the formation of the Israeli state, the beginning of the Palestinian catastrophe, the nakba.

Finally, in retrospect, we might wonder what Zionism means for the future of Jews. Will it create more anti Semitism—and ultimate ruination of the entire Israeli state? Is it suicidal?

I find the comparison a bit broad and unfair also, though interesting- the presumption is that the jews have no right to the land.

Especially since there are wild camps within the Palestinian world that refuse to follow any of what the governing body promises after a treaty.

I know it seems silly, they don’t have big powerful bombs yet. And I have been there, the people are poor and I found them to be quite lovely and pious. It freaks me out that more simple people get railroaded and overcome. But I still dont see a real solution. Just another side of the yin yang so to speak.

I hope that one day there will be a world where people can respect the needs of ‘the other’ and take it as seriously as their own needs… that jews and muslims could treat each other as family and care for each other as much as they care for their own children, even while respecting that their practices differ.

To me that seems like it can happen only through the awakening of a true spiritual consciousness- a very real state of mind, where the bodily and cultural differences are not as important as the sense of oneness we share as a global spiritual family.

peace,
ananda

Thanks for your comment. I can see you put some energy into it.

I’m especially grateful for the reiteration and application of the Buddhist teaching you quote—arrogance, greed, and ignorance. My training in Buddhist phrases that slightly differently, but is essentially the same: aversion or anger, greed or acquisitiveness, and ignorance or confusion. The teaching goes a long way to explaining many of the catastrophes, historic and contemporary, human beings have dropped on themselves and others.

And Mr. Ikeda’s teaching about change, pivotal to all Buddhist teaching, and creating “a new kind of reality that offers hope for changing the world.” Yes, but I wonder if you’re commenting that maybe I could have put more emphasis on change and hope. Was that your intention?

Creating a new consciousness, part of reaching enlightenment, is certainly a goal of my work. Thus, I drew the parallel.

If I were to self criticize I’d admit my writing was hasty, scattershot rather than concentrated, but hey, it’s out there—to be revised.

I intend to let it settle awhile, gather comments from folks like you, maybe wait a week or so (I need to concentrate on my upcoming photo exhibit about Gaza), and then revise for publication. I’m looking for on line and print publications like Common Dreams, Electronic Intifada, Color Lines, Progressive magazine, Mother Jones, etc. So if you have suggestions, shoot them my way please.

–Skip

That is a powerful presentation of the parallels between Wounded Knee and the siege on Gaza. I appreciate your encouragement to act immediately and, as you know, because of your influence I wrote two letters in response – one to the Prez and one which was distrubuted to my two Congress-people and my State Rep.
Today I am digesting these words of Daisaku Ikeda, president of the Soka Gakkai International, the lay organization of Buddhists that I belong to:
“One tragedy of our times is the willingness of realists, in spite of impending crises, to criticize and obstruct people who expend their energy toward finding solutions. Their judgments, however, are superficial and conventional, and their attitude distances them from the essential quality of reality – change. Often the wisest realists cannot escape this trap. The challenge, then, is to create a new kind of reality that offers hope for changing the world.”
Buddhism identifies “three poisons” inherent in human life. They are arrogance, greed and ignorance. The parallels you make clear show these attitudes enduring over a 120 year period. In this case we can see arrogance in the sense of entitlement to take over another people’s land. Greed here is the investment in one’s own comfort at the expense of others’. It is ignorance of the sanctity of all life that allows people to exhibit arrogant and greedy attitudes – to harm or kill in the name of “god” or justice, for example.
Creating “a new kind of reality” means cultivating a global consciousness that is based in an inner-directed motivation to clean up (within) while embracing a practice of talking things through. Buddhism teaches that every human being contains the seeds of enlightenment and that the purpose of life is to express our enlightened nature – the benefit of doing so being the resultant harmonious reality we experience. My hope and prayer is that the causes I make in my daily life contribute to the creation of a new consciousness that will ripple out to all those I touch.
With gratitude for the opportunity to grow toward a vision of a lasting peace.

Maddy