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Israel: Mini-Me?
There is a deep affinity between the United States and Israel. I'm not talking about the Israel Lobby, which concentrates its influence in Washington. Or the connections between neoconservatives and the Israeli right wing. Or the rhapsodizing of fundamentalist Christians, who embrace Israel as part of their scenario for the Apocalypse.
The affinity runs deeper: We are both settler states. The Puritans, who escaped oppression in the Old World only to mete out oppression in the New, unfolded their Zionist project in the 17th century with their "city built upon a hill" as the New Jerusalem. Pity any settler - Quaker, Anabaptist - who didn't embrace this vision. But the early American Zionists and their successors were considerably harsher toward the Native Americans, who were pushed further and further west, an expulsion as tragic as the Palestinian nakba of 1948. America, like Israel, believed in the "redemption of the land...by settling it." And today, after some backsliding in the redemption department, the reservations of Indian Country, with their limited sovereignty, represent our own two-state solution.
The settlers of North America got away with murder. If there had been a United Nations in the 19th century or an international media catering to an international audience, perhaps Native Americans could have enlisted some allies in their struggle. They largely fought alone.
Not so the Palestinians. The whole world is watching (and blogging). Israel has been pounding away at the Gaza Strip for nearly two weeks. It began a ground assault this past weekend. The UN has condemned the violence and the resulting humanitarian disaster. International diplomats have called for a ceasefire.
The Bush administration and congressional leaders of both parties, on the other hand, have taken Israel's side. "I think what the Israelis are doing is very important," top Senate Democrat Harry Reid (D-NV) said. "I think this terrorist organization, Hamas, has got to be put away. They've got to come to their senses." In the press, Charles Krauthammer has declared the Israel-Gaza war to possess "a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating." Michael Gerson concurred: "This conflict is not a contest between shades of gray in mist and fog. It is a matter of distinguishing between murderers and victims - and of supporting an ally until a clear victory against terrorism is achieved."
Yes, Hamas has been firing rockets into Israeli territory since the last ceasefire broke down following an Israeli incursion in November 2008. Yes, it has supported suicide bombings against Israeli targets. Yes, its charter supports an Islamist state and the destruction of Israel.
But let's introduce some complications into this apparent world of good and evil. According to Israeli scholar Rueven Paz, Hamas devotes 90% of its work to providing social, cultural, and educational services. It has a reputation for honesty that distinguishes it from its main political rival, Fatah. It isn't surprising that the Gaza voters supported Hamas in large numbers in the 2006 elections. Instead of respecting this democratic outcome, Israel and the United States refused to deal with Hamas and worked overtime to isolate the party. It's not surprising that Hamas looks askance at peace negotiations and thinks only in terms of power dynamics.
When Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from its rival Fatah in 2007, Israel imposed a blockade of all but staple goods, prompting an international outcry. "A crime and atrocity," said Jimmy Carter. When United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Richard Falk tried to visit Gaza, Israel detained him at the Tel Aviv airport on December 13 and bundled him onto a plane out of the country."
Denying entry to the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights is part of the same occupation playbook as keeping Palestinian human rights defenders such as Raji Sourani, director of the Palestine Center for Human Rights, locked up in Gaza and denied the right to leave to speak to the outside world," writes Foreign Policy In Focus contributor Phyllis Bennis in Detaining the United Nations. "It's at one with the Israeli policy of blocking international journalists who might report on the spiraling humanitarian crisis (especially in Gaza)."
Israel's actions in the current war also do a great deal to muddy the moral clarity that Krauthammer claims. It has killed hundreds of civilians in its disproportionate response to the Hamas rocket attacks. It's probably using cluster bombs. "It is becoming increasingly clear that Israel's latest attack on Gaza was a premeditated attempt to destabilize the Hamas regime," writes FPIF contributor Mustafa Qadri in Gaza Attacks: Murder with Impunity. "The Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper recently revealed that even while it was negotiating a ceasefire, the Israeli government drew up a detailed plan to destroy Hamas in Gaza six months ago."
The United States has been Israel's firm backer throughout this sorry affair, one element in the "lethal mix of arrogance and ignorance" that characterized the Bush administration's overall Middle East policy. In turn, no country in the world has more resolutely embraced the Bush worldview than Israel. To borrow the black-and-white language of Krauthammer and Gerson, Israel has been Mini-Me to America's Dr. Evil. Israel's attack on Gaza, like its previous attack on Lebanon, looks like the Iraq War in miniature. The similarities go beyond the Palestinian issue. The two countries have taken the same terrible stands at the United Nations (for instance, teaming up with Palau as the only three countries in the UN to vote against lifting the Cuba embargo). The two countries see eye-to-eye on Iran and Iraq.
Of course, it's not so black-and-white. There are important differences between the two countries' foreign policy. Dissidents struggle to transform Israeli policy just as we campaign here in the United States. The two countries are not as evil as the characters Mike Myers and Verne Troyer play in the Austin Powers movies.
Some argue that it's just a matter of time before Israel, for reasons of demography, economics, and pragmatic politics, supports a real two-state solution. Writes New York Times editorial board member David Unger, "Israel is no longer a land of self-denying pioneers. It is a consumerist democracy. Its citizens are increasingly rich, comfortable, and more interested in the individual pursuit of happiness than the ideological pursuit of Arab-inhabited territory. Under such conditions, live-and-let-live pragmatism can be counted on to eventually trump traditional Zionist ideology."
Alas, rich and comfortable consumerism didn't stop the United States from pursuing empire in the 20th and 21st century. Zionist ideology - the notion that redemption comes through the settlement of land - is powerful. It's the heart of the settler state's mythology, in Israel as in the United States.
Crisis Works Overtime
Crisis didn't take a holiday over the last several weeks, not in Gaza, not in Pakistan or Thailand, not in the global economy.In Pakistan, FPIF contributors A.H. Nayyar and Zia Mian argue, a two-headed monster threatens the population: Islamic militants within the country such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, and those outside the country, such as the Afghan Taliban. "To truly confront the threat, the first challenge is for Pakistanis to agree that they want to live in a modern, democratic, and plural society," they write in Pakistan and the Islamist Challenge. "Pakistan's neighbors and the world will need to help rather than compound the problem. The threat of use of military force by India, yet more U.S. missile attacks or commando raids into Pakistan's tribal areas, and deepening or widening the U.S. war in Afghanistan, as U.S. military leaders and President-elect Obama have proposed, will only make things worse."
In Thailand, meanwhile, anti-government protests rocked the country in the latter part of 2008. "The December 15 selection of Oxford-educated politician Abhisit Vejjajiya - to many a thinly disguised variant of a coup d'etat - hardly offers a breather from the simmering political tensions that peaked this year," writes FPIF contributor Johanna Son in Thailand: The Certainty of Uncertainty. "The current political balance of power is far from permanent, critics say, because this government's legitimacy is tenuous at best."
And the news about the global economy remains gloomy, with declining employment, capacity, sales, and hope. Progressives are calling for a "new New Deal" in the United States. Beware, warns FPIF columnist Walden Bello. For one thing, new and improved globalization will still retain many of the features of the old model. The new "global social democracy," Bello argues in The Coming Capitalist Consensus, "assumes that people really want to be part of a functionally integrated global economy where the barriers between the national and the international have disappeared. But would they not in fact prefer to be part of economies that are subject to local control and are buffered from the vagaries of the international economy?"
A Change in Intelligence?
In the category of old wine in new bottles, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) will be heading up the Senate Committee on Intelligence in the new Congress. "Feinstein was among those who falsely claimed in 2002 - despite the lack of any apparent credible evidence - that Saddam Hussein had somehow reconstituted Iraq's arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, as well as its nuclear weapons program," writes FPIF senior analyst Stephen Zunes in Feinstein: Bad Choice for Intelligence. "She used this supposed threat to justify her vote in October 2002 to grant President George W. Bush the unprecedented authority to invade Iraq. Most congressional Democrats voted against the resolution. So it is particularly disturbing that Democrats would award the coveted Intelligence Committee chair to someone from the party's right-wing minority."
Similarly in Africa, we've seen a lot of old paternalism in new humanitarian bottles. But as FPIF contributor Mukoma Wa Ngugi writes in The Africa That Pushes Back, quite a few new African civil movements are chipping away at the continent's problems outside the limelight: "Meet Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shack dwellers' movement that has been at the forefront of organizing the residents against evictions. The work of Abahlali baseMjondolo is all the more complex because the poor from neighboring Zimbabwe and Mozambique also trickle into the poor settlements to compete for already scarce resources. When South Africans attacked other Africans in poor townships and settlements in May 2008 killing over 50 immigrants, Abahlali baseMjondolo rose to the defense of the African immigrants. They declared, 'A human being cannot be illegal.'"
On the Lighter Side
If you're looking to spend 257 minutes in a dark place, check out the new biopic of Che Guevara, Cuba's most marketable revolutionary. FPIF contributor Shaun Randol offers a review of the film that praises the performance of Benicio del Toro and laments the narrative's historical gaps. Finally, we couldn't miss an opportunity to bid farewell to George W. Bush's foreign policy. FPIF contributor William Hartung offers 10 reasons Why Bush Was Good for Foreign Policy (Satirists), including W's inimitable tendency to play cowboy.
"Much as he enjoyed posturing as a cowboy, W's 'ranch' was more like a suburban house with really big weeds in the back," Hartung writes. "Foreign leaders who visited Crawford would report back that in Bush's America the word horse is actually a synonym for 'riding lawn mower.' No more quick-draw presidency, circling the wagons, or high noon moments. It won't exactly be 'all quiet on the Western front' with Obama, but we satirists will certainly miss the swagger."
Links
Shlomo Ben-Ami, "A War to Start All Wars," Foreign Affairs, September/October 2008; http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080901fareviewessay87511/shlomo-ben-ami/a-war-to-start-all-wars.html
Ben Feller, "Cheney: Israel Not Seek US OK Before Invasion," Associated Press, January 4, 2009; http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g14_OgVc3KvfIE0q7FpUa4Ou69QQD95GGE8O0
Charles Krauthammer, "Moral Clarity in Gaza," The Washington Post, January 2, 2009; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101780.html
Michael Gerson, "Defining Victory for Israel," The Washington Post, January 2, 2009; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101782.html
"Hamas," Council on Foreign Relations; http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/
"Carter Calls Gaza Blockade A "Crime and Atrocity," Reuters, April 17, 2008 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976086.html
Phyllis Bennis, "Detaining the United Nations," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5762); Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, wasn't allowed into Israel on a recent trip. That action fits a pattern of Israeli efforts to hide the human consequences of the siege of Gaza and of the escalating settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Siun, "Gaza Update: Cluster Bombs," Firedoglake, January 4, 2009; http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/04/gaza-update-cluster-bombs/
Mustafa Qadri, "Gaza Attacks: Murder with Impunity," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5769); Israel's bombardment of Gaza at the weekend has nothing to do with self-defense.
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, "How Not to Make Peace in the Middle East," The New York Review of Books, January 15, 2009; http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22230
David Unger, "The Inevitable Two-State Solution," World Policy Journal, Fall 2008; http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/wopj.2008.25.3.59
A.H. Nayyar and Zia Mian, "Pakistan and the Islamist Challenge," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5772); Pakistan's failure to confront Islamic militants is a threat to itself, its neighbors, and the world.
Johanna Son, "Thailand: The Certainty of Uncertainty," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5766); After a coup two years ago and multiple protests since, Thailand has a new prime minister. But don't expect stability for the near future.
Walden Bello, "The Coming Capitalist Consensus," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5765); Economic and political elites are converging on Global Social Democracy as a solution to the current economic crisis. Here's a timely critique of this new consensus.
Stephen Zunes, "Feinstein: Bad Choice for Intelligence," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5764); Ignoring the pleas of those calling for a more credible figure, Senate Democrats have instead chosen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to lead the Senate Committee on Intelligence.
Mukoma Wa Ngugi, "The Africa That Pushes Back," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5767); Handouts and Hollywood celebrities obscure the real work being done in Africa today.
Shaun Randol, "Film Review: Che," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5763); This portrayal of revolutionary passion helps us see Ernesto "Che" Guevara as more than a logo.
William Hartung, "Why Bush Was Good for Foreign Policy (Satirists)," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5770); Say goodbye to eight years of rich material.
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49 Comments so far
Show AllI hear that the younger Indian population that ain't Muslim is getting to be more into imitating Israel on the idea of bombing Pakistan. Can anyone confirm this? If this is true, we're all in deep shit !
That is the impression I get when I read through the comments of readers on some online editions of Indian newspapers. But there is also a rather vigorous, but left-leaning, secular tradition in India - political parties as well as media - that has so far acted as a counterweight. Who will win in the future, I don't know.
Bombing Pakistan may be a bad idea - but the fact remains that India has suffered heavily and repeatedly due to terrorist attacks originating, and actively supported by the establishment, in Pakistan. Although India and Pakistan became independent at the same time, post-independence, Pakistan has been largely under military rule. Even when they supposedly had a civilian government, the army was constantly breathing down its neck - like it is doing right now, itching to get back to center-stage. No civilian government can survive in Pakistan if it attempts to do any sort of 'house cleaning' of its military and intelligence establishments - they are a power unto their own. The US, in all its wisdom, traditionally tried to treat India and Pakistan on par, notwithstanding India's democratic and secular credentials (for example, it would be unthinkable in India for the military trying to influence or dominate over the civilian government, no matter how corrupt the government may be otherwise). The US has 'used' Pakistan and its military in its geopolitical games - so it had to pretty much turn a blind eye to Pakistan's involvement in terrorist ventures, as long as it was targeted against 'others'. And the western news media couldn't care less. For example, not many would even know that an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked as it left Kathmandu, Nepal, and taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan, kept there for one week, with one passenger killed, before being released on the eve of the millennium - on December 31st, 1999 evening - to be exact, after the Indian government released a bunch of Pakistani terrorists in exchange. During the hostage crisis, the hijackers were in constant contact with their operatives in the Pakistani intelligence. When the Americans went into Afghanistan post-9/11, India wanted the records of communications from Kandahar airport during that period - and Americans simply refused that request. Remember, the Taliban was in control in Afghanistan and was negotiating with the US for an oil pipeline before 9/11. The Taliban was a direct creation of Pakistan - 'Talib' means 'students', and these 'students' came out of madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.
Why do I say this? I see many Indians trying to equate their own situation with that of Israel - it would be laughable and ridiculous if it weren't so dangerous in its implications. On the other hand, what can they do to deal with the Pakistani military/intelligence establishment? Very little, so far, short of direct military action. I understand that though the military was somewhat out of favor in that country, following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, it is very much back in business now, following the Mumbai attacks, due to the India bogeyman. Apparently even the 'educated elite' and the media in Pakistan are now behind the military and have started saying that India is merely creating a 'hype' about alleged Pakistani involvement.
Highintel: Can we do better?
Sioux Rose
ALCYON: Informative post. I was on a flight that left Kathmandu for India a few years ago, and the version of airport security there is farcical. I can't recall if I read it on commondreams or Truthout (or an email someone sent to me), but the article spoke of the martial content of newscasters and such in India who were INCITING FOR war against Pakistan and pretty much saber ratting, except the sabers were not exactly plowshares, they were nuclear weapons.
Although Israel is currently a major offender in the Mars rules dark games of global conquest, I get jumpy when I think about India & Pakistan and their long-standing grievances in that both have nuclear weapons.
Reading articles that speak about tent cities in this, the 21st century, a person of conscience has to consider how different human relations across borders might be if the enormous investment in armaments instead went to lifting the global living standards of the world's poorest. Yes, there are organizations that have made some progress, but so long as the trade deals done by elites privilege those needing profit least most, then efforts mirror the task of Sispyphus fated to push the great rock perpetually UP the hill.
I don't support the idea of India bombing Pakistan but I don't believe the media and punditry baloney that it would be any more dangerous than the ongoing war between the Israelis and the Palestinians. A growing number of younger Indians do indeed feel the threat of being put in the same spot as the Palestinians if they don't defend themselves. I've tried to talk to them about this and some are harsh while others aren't in their replies. On a common note, they will cite historical information such as the long term destruction of Hindu Temples by the Muslims and the Christian Missionaries using death threats to prevent converts from being themselves instead of loyal Christian fundie dogs. My wife even met a Hindu lady who discussed with her the Vedic Era and the need to reeducate the masses about it since that was one of the rare moments of gender equality and even real leadership opportunities for women. I'm guessing that if one were to do a poll or survey on Indians and their support of government, you'd get the same anti-government replies you see in this country although I admit I'm a Green Libertarian. Most Muslims living in India know that they wouldn't get the kind of freedom in Pakistan or even Afghanistan let alone in the corrupt Arabian dictatorships in the Middle East. There is a concern however that they're abusing their freedoms and that concern is growing. They also say that Muslims and Christians will often try to blame others and even fabricate the rape and killing numbers to cry victim. It will be interesting to see what happens in India. In the meantime, I am reading a couple of books on Hindu Psychology and in both books, the author urges the East and West to unite, settle each other's differences, and learn and love from one another.
Sioux Rose
JWVEREZ: I found India difficult... the poverty was so overwhelming. Similar topography and possible economics challenges were approached very differently in Malaysia, Thailand, and even Nepal. There is such a sense of desperation in the "lower" classes of India. The so-called progress in Bangalore went to a very small computer-educated niche.
When the Cubans exiled to Miami, lots of family members would live together until each found his or her way. I admire this. This path lifted their fiscal ships. While there are certainly efforts in this direction, it seems to me that a lot of Black star atheletes and musical talents don't spread their wealth around enough. That is the pattern I noted, albeit I am no phD. anthropologist, in India. When I considered this question, one explanation that came to me was the attitude taken towards available resources. I was amazed by the creativity of poor folks in Thailand, and there's a strong work ethic in Malaysia. The idea of micro-loans seems to be very helpful in assisting those who wish to get out of the cycle of utter destitution.
When I returned to Singapore after time in India & Nepal, the professor I was staying with asked my opinion. She converted from Catholicism (she's a Latina) to acceptance of Hinduism and in her home was an altar with flowers, and each sunrise she made her meditations to these energetic entities. I related that some of the world's most advanced spiritual teachers seem to enter those regions that NEED the teaching most. Where in physical bodies we are taught to focus primarily on our material needs, those who lack their fulfillment find themselves at a severe disadvantage. Spiritual teachers, like Christ, who teach that the true kingdom is within, not what we HAVE in this temporal world of transitory experiences, add much to the human equation.
What I really resonated with in Singapore was that the people I met had a strong work ethic and liked to have their own apartments (the government takes a percentage of teachers' pay and uses it as a savings plan to affect that outcome) and yet they are extremely interested in an equal development of their spirituality. Such a balance can only bless any society, and it is what I would wish for EVERY society. That type of balance would go a long way towards taming the rabid greed that leads to so much competition and anguished aggression among tribes, all of us issuing from the same quintessential Tree of life.
I did get to study India's history and I must say that yes, even before the privatization efforts in that country got underway, poverty was just way up. Nowadays, the rising suicide in Indian farmers and failure to repair the crumbling roads infrastructure gets silenced all the while cricket and Bollywood get more airtime.
Singapore is great and all but like Thomas Frank pointed out, there's a hidden economic trouble behind the facade. Still, I got to admit that security's strong there although there have been some issues I think.
I slowly gave up on religion as I recovered after returning from the war in Vietnam. I'm supposed to be a Christian but I don't go to church much if at all and I'm so sick and tired of the political meddling that I'm far less religious. At times, as I admitted to NYCartist on another topic, I keep thinking God punished me for originally believing that signing up in the army and fighting would make a man out of me and give me a better chance at better employment.
I hear that in the Indian media, most people don't get to starr in commercials and most shows unless they're "light" enough. Even in the movies, a lighter skinned man or woman, usually North Indian, shows up and their voice is played by someone else who is usually South Indian. And like Japan and various other Asian nations, the market for skin cremes that claim to turn dark skin into fair skin is booming despite even controversies and known serious side effects. I fail to see how trying to look glitzy makes one rich or happy. I wouldn't be surprised to see rape and sexual harassments increasing as a result.
Plus the population density of India is just way too much to bear. Are there a lot of places that are so crowded that they would make NYC look "rural" in pale comparison?
By the way, I stumbled across an American who grew up in a conservative Christian household but surprisingly not only converted to Hinduism but also surprised the natives in India that he knew more than they did. Check it out.
http://www.stephen-knapp.com
If India had the kind of leadership anything close to Hugo Chavez, the poverty and terrorism rate would be much lower. I think that there is so much economic competition bloody to the point that terrorism would be the last thing people there are concerned about. It might be possible though that the younger folks who are thinking that the idea of imitating Israel's go on the offensive strategy might empower them and even help them economically. I tried to tell them that this kind of foolish mad thinking is what resulted in my losing my legs and an arm but they won't listen. Very very sad !
Souix Rose,
There are already movements underway that originated in India to address the fundamental economic issues (Shankar's PROUT aka Progressive Utilitarianism) as well as doing something tangible about it now, like Ama the hugging saint, who has built hundreds of thousands of homes and fed millions of people with all the money donated to her causes... as well as giving Darshan to millions of people who need healing...
PROUT has been working to create micro-lending programs to create localized and regional economies for the last forty years, the result being many worker and artist cooperatives that have made wise use of scarce natural resources and abundant human resources...
It is amazing how things can grow when the economy is decentralized and the profit motive taken out of the equation...
Can you imagine India having a leadership ala Hugo Chavez? PROUT would have a much better chance of passing than under the BJP or Congress parties I think.
Sioux Rose
GOLDEN MEAN: Thank you for sharing this information.
Interesting. I have met some orthodox Hindus in my area and they're actually pretty friendly. I have been informed that in India, there are terrorists who are usually Christian or Muslim although some nationalist Hindus who claim vigilante-ism are on the rise as well. Then there are also the corporate elites, most of them from Europe and the US, who are just as terrorist and economically and environmentally damaging. Pakistan is a lost cause as the civilians seem to be povertized and there's no middle class there. I have issues with Hindus so I'm no Hindu fan but I do take the good sides of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc ... into account. I've noticed a rising number of terrorist attacks in India in the recent years more than any other nation yet the western media engages in racist coverage of ignoring them unless one of the victims happened to be US, EU, or Israeli. The EU and US I hear don't give aid and WMDs to India as "easy" as they do to Israel or even Pakistan. I hear the stipulations are harsh and concessions and auditing are even tougher. If the good civilians in Pakistan don't stand up to terrorists and the younger Indians become more pro-Israel, I wouldn't be surprised if the leadership is no different from Israel even though the US and the EU will be strongly against it given their double standard racism.
"Whoever can show he or she has the most Palestinian blood on his/her hands will get the most votes in the upcoming Israeli elections."
Pretty much the same here in the US although it's a bit subtle here you see.
Sioux Rose
JWVEREZ: Instead of seeing "God" punishing you, you might consider the concept of karma. I have read a great deal on the link between events in our present lifetime, health matters playing a role, and the legacy drawn from previous sojourns. Gordon Michael Scallion, author of "Notes from the Cosmos" relates analogy between his asthma/headaches in this lifetime and circumstances he put into play in a former incarnation. My favorite book of all (out of print, but sometimes found via Amazon) "The Wheel of Rebirth" also relates how the author, a leader in an existence several thousand years ago, due to cruelty displayed incarnated with vicious headaches. Edgar Cayce explained why epilepsy shows up in at least a few readings. (He was a clairvoyant trance medium who conducted thousands of readings, each one transcribed and part of a "living collection" preserved at the Association of Research and Enlightenment, the ARE, in Virginia Beach, VA.)
My point is that we all have karma. I remember a 60 Minutes story of persons who suffered greatly from their exposures to Agent Orange, and as Buddhists, they forgave their enemies, understanding that on some level, their illnesses were a payback for actions taken in another time.
All of the masters teach, "Be kind to one another," and Carlos Casteneda's teacher Don Juan related that kind deeds are in essence a "payment to the SPIRIT of mankind," an account he added, that tended to always remain rather low, as in under-funded.
I have tried to make it my life practice to always give more than I might receive. And I have never gone without what I needed as a result of this "law of spiritual economy." Many are out to get the most, and in the business world, making a "killing" is both literal and figurative, but a morally bankrupt stance.
In conclusion, it's useful I think to understand that the very notion of God as a male deity equipped with all the failings of human men is itself a fiction. I believe there is a GREAT Being, a Presence so beyond what any human/mortal mind can conceive, that it's quite limiting to cast upon this Great BEing our own flawed human traits; and that's EXACTLY what every religion, with the exception of Buddhism does. The cries for vengeance that go out even now acros the Holy land are flawed human contrivances that have NOTHING to do with "God." And the only "god" that war ever has or will serve is Mars. It is time for mankind to give up its homage to Mars rules.
I actually share your beliefs, unfortunately, when you talk about it people dismiss you as being nuts.
Sioux Rose
SAPHNE: Every great truth began as a heresy. If anyone thinks I am nuts, that's their issue. What I relate in this forum is the basis of YEARS of sincere study and a good deal of travel to back it up. Also, much that is taken for true is based on an academic world that itself stemmed from patriarchal religion. It is utterly limited and for centuries has cut off when not silencing on threat of death the intuitive sentience particular to women.
I stand my ground. I've been invited to lecture at MENSA and my topic, "How the intellect blocks the spiritual process." And I was invited back!
Note, too, that uppity women were considered insane several decades ago; and being homosexual was listed as a mental illness in desk reference books used by psychiatrists, and at one point it was determined Blacks were what, 2/3rd citizens and that women didn't have souls. When you use the designation of nuts, it's helpful to inquire as to who assigns it!
In most tribal cultures, there were no 'nuts', just people who were different and who were given respect for their contributions to the tribe. That seemed to be the case with the 'hippies' to, but the 'sane' ones won out. The concept of insanity is modern, created by 'civilization'.
Sioux Rose
GEORGE: Thank you for posting that insight. Generally the visionaries are also castigated, often along with political mavericks, geniuses, and artists who hold up a mirror to what a society does not wish to see or acknowledge about itself.
I thought karma meant punishment not right away but very far down the road such as say the next life. I thought God punished me the minute I lost my legs and an arm for being foolish enough to buy into the warmongers' propaganda about serving as a way of going up in life. I've heard the word karma but don't know its exact definition. Getting hypnotized into the John Wayne way of justice and using the "right to defend oneself" excuse of killing others turned out to be a drag. Of course, if I were lucky to escape that blast, I don't know what would have become of me. Maybe that's karma?
Sioux Rose
JW: There IS instant karma, like if I forget to tell the flustered sales clerk he gave me an extra $5, next thing I know I am over-charged for an item myself. I have seen this type of thing.
The point of karma is that whatsoever we do, down to entertaining vengeful thoughts, returns to us. This was simplified in the teaching, "Do unto others as..." I am sorry for your loss of limbs, yet you still have a heart and mind; and have probably paid your karma in the form of taking it now. The fact that you're reflecting on militarism is a good thing, for there's probably nothing better than any soul waking up and transcending violent impulses. You could become a peace leader now or in a future life as a result. Karma is a system of universal justice. And I went at length to describe a broader perspective on the notion of GOD in an earlier posting to you. (Now I have to get to work on a book I've been painstakingly editing for too long.)
Hi SR,
I'll also admit that as a soldier I never had a good feeling every time I killed anyone and the haunted thoughts accumulated in my mind over time. Often times, the haunted thoughts would distract me from watching out. The more I was engaged and the more I watched my comrades shoot additionally, the more haunted memories of shooting to kill I collected and the more I found my life at risk. That blast just happened to be that unlucky moment. The draft dodgers in this country never had to go through all this unlike every one of us soldiers. Those who were never haunted by the killing thoughts were savage by nature and would take killing as if it were a cool sport which it isn't. I think you have a point about karma. I think it was a karma in the coming and it snowballed over time. The more one kills, the more haunted memories distract him or her and the greater one increases their odds of losing focus and being a possible casualty. Washington will never ever think about that. But then again, Washington never has to worry since they're always "protected" while soldiers get shoddy equipment. Plus, I notice that Iraq unlike Vietnam has just as many contractors as it has troops to make matters worse. Maybe in my next life I'll be lucky to make it to peace leadership. Till then, I'll just have to pass the word.
Sioux Rose
JW: The very fact of the realizations displayed in your posting, along with the HONESTY to do so is a sign of your spiritual growth. I doubt you will ever pick up a weapon again in another life and time; plus you may be acting as prophet of peace NOW more than you realize! A similar transformation was shown in the character portrayed in the film "Born on the Fourth of July."
I think a lot of persons who did what you did, or felt forced to do, have suppressed all ownership of the memories, the fact of the deeds done. To the extent society can collectively repress this shadow more or less guarantees its sinister return. In the AA style programs those who wish to give up addiction must OWN their actions, that is an important step in the therapeutic process that grants a return to wholeness. Thank you for sharing, and my compassion goes out to you.
Sioux Rose
YOHOCOMA: You have an astute intellect, but like a great many who are proud of what they know, they are very suspicious of what cannot be known by conventional methodologies. Science loves to measure, and frequently what is measured is only a projection of that which the scientist can logically conceive of. There are so many things that reach beyond those dimensions.
I share my ideas in this forum to ignite new thinking in some who have never been exposed to these concepts. I do not like the tone of judgment you see fit to project my way. I have studied these matters for nearly 40 years, I am published in a number of venues, and from where I stand/sit I have seen things likely you have not. I do not expect you to walk in my mocassins, but as a Grand spiritual teacher imparted, "Judge not, that ye not be judged." If you argue that I must frame the circle within the linear parameters that satisfy your concept of proof, I will pass on this contest. Many things are made known when the student is fit to receive the teaching.
I have lectured for types like yourself, MENSANS and decided to sock it to them by choosing as my topic, "How intellect blocks the spiritual process." And I was invited back! Many in this forum want answers to conform to what they already know or believe they know, and life itself is now pushing on all of us to expand the very parameters of what's taken for the possible. Perhaps you'll give this last statement some thought.
Souix rose...
I value the strength and wisdom and clarity and respect in how you respond to folks who attack you and your spiritual perspective...
It shows a level of emotional maturity and intellectual clarity that hopefully will permeate the consciousness of the rest of us...
I am grateful for your presence on this forum...
Sioux Rose
GOLDEN MEAN: Thank you very much for this compliment. What many in the forum do not understand is that the basis for my studies places me in the category of PARIAH in all camps! The right wing hates astrologers because we look to a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the cosmic forces and human life on earth. The left often carries a snooty intellectualism that berates any approach to spirituality that's outside of the parameters of mainstream academe.
I could have used my intellect to write advertising copy, perhaps even to have studied law... but the call to bring to persons a deeper more unifying understanding seemed to be my calling. With a college education, I could have gotten good paying jobs, but instead I have more often than not eked out a living so that I could pursue the studies that now are manifesting as serious books, life long studies being shared with others. And for the most part, I am financing this effort. Thus any that accuse me of being a charlatan or in IT for the money do not have in themselves the sufficient altruism to recognize my dedication to a spiritual ideal. Again, many thanks!
Souix Rose,
I feel that we have much in common...
Different "career" paths, but similar approach in pursuing our dreams and being a service to all of humanity... I chose to leave college to teach folks how to design and build their own homes, ovens, and furniture out of natural and salvaged and local materials, with appropriate technology and low-impact processes...
which I feel is the most practical and grounded way to bring about a transformation in how we relate to natural resources, energy consumption, waste management, and each other (i.e. labor, usury/mortgages)...
I teach workshops where kids and adults alike how to use stone, wood, clay, sand and straw and how to mix mud and sculpt it into functional art like walls and benches... I give lectures and slide-shows at schools and colleges, and even make instructional videos which folks can watch for free on-line...
I have traveled and worked in half a dozen countries teaching folks in Spanish and Portuguese... hands-on skills of empowerment so folks can learn how to provide for their own needs of food, shelter, and warmth without participating in globalized corporatist industries that exploit the land, workers, or home"owners" here at home and abroad...
Hats off to you for doing what you do so I can do what I do...!
Sioux Rose
GOLDEN MEAN: You radiate sheer decency and I applaud that. Your commitment to teaching others how to make things of creative use is a testament to Venus, the cosmic counterpart (perhaps antithesis) to Mars. When I visited Thailand a few years ago a little tour I took (to these wonderful floating gardens, where women in boats came around selling luscious fruits and homemade food items) brought me to a place where Teak furniture was made. The employees were all severely handicapped. One had no legs and he sat on this cushion and used some small hand tools to carve beautiful designs into the teak. I believe EVERYONE has creative aptitudes of some type... for one it might be food, for another sculpture, for another photography, for another song, etc. I thank you, too, for doing the work that you do. I'm sure if more of the world's dispossessed found their way into creative classes, we'd see less success in recruiting the next generation for warfare. This is a wonderful strategy to diminish the numbers under allegiance/enthrall to Mars rules, i.e. the perpetual warrior state.
Hi JWVerez: karma is not necessarily punishment. Karma according to metaphysicist Edgar Cayce is when the soul meets itself. It could be in this life, or the next life. It's like a debt to be paid, good or bad. It's like Newton's law: for every action, there's a reaction. I don't believe that God would put a burden on you that you wouldn't have the strength to bear. That means you are a very strong person for what you went through. You have more courage in your pinkie than I have all in myself. I followed your posts and they are very thoughtful. If Edgar Cayce were alive he would say that your karma debt has been paid and you will be recompensed either in this life or the next one for the suffering you endured. I wish you all the best. JMHO. Regards.
Edit: BTW Siouxrose's points are very well taken and she has a very good definition of karmic justice.
Thanks WT. I'll admit that even though I went through years of mental counseling to overcome the disability feeling, I can get grouchy from time to time. I gotta admit, I learned that there can be a second chance and that moving on in life is always possible no matter how devastating a tragedy.
Calling Edgar Cayce a metaphysicist is like calling Ann Coulter a political philosopher.
There is little hope for the race (human) if we insist on clinging to concepts such as "karma" and all the other flapdoodle that has blown out of the East and Middle East for millenia.
Sioux Rose
WAIGUOREN: I wonder if you even studied the work of Cayce that you so readily dismiss, while insulting how many millions that believe in the Buddhist creed which upholds the law of karma? You don't see too much violence coming from Buddhists, although there is some debate as to their response to being attacked. And what do you, oh sage, claim to put in place of these belief systems that certainly help satisfy our human quest for meaning, for an understanding of that which is otherwise negated by the witness of our flesh (and by that I mean, our mortal lifespans).
Calling Edgar Cayce a metaphysicist is like calling Ann Coulter a political philosopher.
There is little hope for the race (human) if we insist on clinging to concepts such as "karma" and all the other flapdoodle that has blown out of the East and Middle East for millenia.
I've always said one of Israel's biggest problems is one of timing. Our settlers were so much more savage on the indigenous population. They didn't even have to make any excuses, I don't even thing racism was even a concept back then, let alone something bad. They can focus on the missiles flying in from Gaza as the cause for this bloodshed but it can all be traced out to a decades long squeeze on the indigenous population, resulting in more and more territory being lost every year with our blessing (and 3 billion bucks).
Manifest Destiny and Zionism. Cousins, or maybe even siamese twins.
On India, Pakistan and the Bombay attacks, the must-read
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/12/mumbai-arundhati-roy
Thanks for the link. Arundhati Roy is a 'famous' liberal. In the past, she has lent her 'fame' and stood alongside Medha Patkar, another activist fighting against big dam construction that displaced thousands of villagers. Her main point seems to be that the problem of 'terrorism' is not all black and white as is often made out to be. But I don't know if she's getting paid by the word - because it's too long. I'm also afraid that by taking this stance of some kind of 'moral equivalence' between 'Hindutva' fanatics in India and the Islamic terrorists from Pakistan, she is only going to alienate more people in India. I have seriously wondered about the Pakistani psyche - what defines 'Pakistan'? Can they truly go about their business of nation-building? Will the Pakistani military voluntarily put itself under civilian control? Without an external 'enemy', do they have what it takes to address their own internal problems in a spirit of fairness and equity towards all their ethnic groups? Will those who have enjoyed power give it up easily for the sake of nation building? I'm not sure. Unless Pakistan finds its own balance, I think it's going to 'need' an external 'enemy' even to define themselves. It's really sad, because, on many respects, Indians and Pakistanis are so much alike. But the difference is that India has had a few good (great?) leaders (political, spiritual, social, business, academic, scientific, etc.) who were able to keep the negative elements in check - I think.
Highintel: Can we do better?
yes liberals like Arundhati Roy alienate Indians (btw, what is she - Martian?) - on the other hand, Hindu fanatics and murderers like the Bajrang Dal, RSS and BJP (who carried out the 2002 Gujarat massacres of Muslims and boast about them) are considered national heroes and regularly win elections - look at the Indian state and the great Indian middle class and you have a picture of fascism ie a popular,violent, right-wing, militaristic political movement -
another must-read
http://www.tehelka.com/home/20071103/
'ordinary Indians' have justified, cheered, ignored, covered-up the massacres and ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Christians carried out by Hindu nationalism - today there are hundreds of thousands of Christians in Orissa living in refugee camps, escaping burning homes, schools, churches while hundreds have been killed - all of this un-reported in the Western media unlike the wall-to-wall coverage of the Bombay attacks and quietly concealed by the Indian state, media and elite - Arundhati Roy alienates the people who support this? I say more power to her
yes Pakistan is a failed state and that is cause for worry, most of all for it's own citizens - but it is the success of the Indian state and the Indian middle class in that terrifies me -
This is a late reply to ekajanabi. I too have wondered if the educated Indians know what fascism is, and asked themselves if they are slipping in that direction. However, I know for a fact that there is a vigorous left-leaning, secular media as well as political parties that have long acted as a counterweight to any right wing machinations. I do not know about the future - but I do believe that India's spiritual strength would be able to neutralize Hindu (the correct term - when talking about right-wingers there is 'Hindutva') right wing push.
Highintel: Can we do better?
Evil has only one tool - that is the disruption of peace - it is applied in infinite ways but it is always the same tool -
Time to take a hard look at our so called leaders -
policies they know will result in the deaths of children -
most places in the world that would be called called murder!
"I think what the Israelis are doing is very important," top Senate Democrat Harry Reid (D-NV) said. "I think this terrorist organization, Hamas, has got to be put away. They've got to come to their senses."
like - look at all those Hamas - running over innocent Jews with their tanks?
About Israel's "right" to exist.
Jews are not the problem
- it's the Zionists (lie-on-ists?)
"As the Arabs see the Jews"
His Majesty King Abdullah,
The American Magazine
November, 1947
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/kabd_eng.html
Re Israel as 'mini-me' - military action increases right wing power for both
Both used military response to terror threat to tilt country right and win elections.
But military response actually eliminates moderate forces, increases terrorist activity, you say? That's ok w/U.S. and Israeli right - for both, it strengthens right wing reaction on domestic and international stage, weakens forces for peace, justice, and diplomacy.
The U.S. right misses its Cold War, which justifies domestic and international oppression; and Israel's longstanding oppression of Palestinians is 'vindicated' by predictably extreme responses to its actions.
Israel: Mini-Me is good and balanced commentary. One question remains unanswered though. Is Israel supposed to sit back and allow its citizens in the south to spend parts of each day in bomb shelters? Are they supposed to wake each morning wondering if a rocket with their name on it will land on their house? Yes, most of the Hamas rockets are inaccurate, but does that really matter? Would any of us want to experience what the people of Sderot must face every day? I think not. So what is Israel to do?
That's so EASY! Accept Hamas' offer of an indefinite hudna (ceasefire) and comply with U.N. resolutions by dismantling the illegal settlements, tearing down the apartheid-creating walls, and retreat to their internationally-recognized (legal) 1967 boundaries, while allowing evicted Palestinians the right to return to their homes and villages. (It seems Israelis learned too well the lesson taught them by their own evictions from their homes in the '30s as Gentile families moved in and took over the evictees' homes, possessions, and businesses.)
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
I believe that even fiction has it's merits and value in elucidating "truth" for those who are seeking...
Unfortunately for someone like Casteneda...
He would have been better off claiming it was a fictional account of real experiences rather than it being the gospel truth...
Coupled wiith his claims of being an alumni of universities he never attended or graduated from...
And marrying three of his cult followers at the same time...
And heavily borrowing from tai chi and qi gong for his "tensegrity" workout videos which he claimed was given to him from Don Juan...
And turning a cult classic into a prolific franchise of books retelling the same story in thirty different ways...
Does make Carlos seem like a charlatan and a manipulative quack...
I like his book "the Art of Dreaming" though... The rest of the books are just dust collectors on college student's bookshelves to impress their friends...
"Mini-Me . . . stop humping the laser . . . "
Alcyon, SiouxRose, JWVerez, and GoldenMean. Thanks for the info on India. I'm sorry to hear the state it's in. I think that right now, the left in India is winning but the more terror attacks, the more likely the wannabe Israel imitators will win and most likely change the political landscape of that country. I still hope that something can be worked out between India and Pakistan to avoid war and even terror attacks.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota