Israel Archives - TheTranscendenceDiaries

The Mask Is Off — Pro-Palestinian/Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism

December 6, 2022

As many know this is a subject I have researched and written extensively about for over 20+ years. Ten years ago I spent two weeks on a fact finding and Diplomatic Mission to Israel and Palestine, visiting with various government officials, legal experts, scholars, non-profits and regular folks on both sides of the walls (yes there are actual walls surrounding the Palestinian people whose sole purpose is to keep Palestinians out of “Israel”, but not to keep Israelis out of Palestinian territory.

This is what leads to the term “settlements” we hear about so often in the news related to Israel and Palestine. If you follow such things. Israelis are freely allowed to go beyond the walls of Israel into formalized Palestinian territory, knock down homes schools buildings farms, you name it, and build new “Israeli settlements” — think neighborhoods — on Palestinian land. Palestinians of course wouldn’t even consider doing that. They would be shot.

I encourage anyone who considers themselves an activist or freedom fighter interested in and dedicated to defending human rights to visit Israel and Palestine to see it with their own eyes. It is one of the most harrowing and heartbreaking trips you will ever make. In fact, going to Israel and Palestine and seeing just how dire the circumstances are for the Palestinian people was and has been one of the most traumatic and inhumane events I’ve ever experienced; still to this day.

It very much reminds one of what South Africa during the apartheid years looked like, or more ironically, what 19th and 20th century Europe during the rounding up of European Jews into ghettos looked like when we view the photos and video footage from that era.

For the record, most of my friends who are Jewish, whether here in America or in Israel or Europe, are very much pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist. I credit that to the fact that most of my friends come out of the arts, entertainment or activist communities.

So this issue of securing basic human rights liberty freedom equality and human dignity for the Palestinian people is not a Jewish issue. It really isn’t even an Israeli issue, because there are plenty of Israelis who also support the pro-Palestinian cause. More than anything it has nothing to do with being anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic.

Conflating those issues, making them seem as if they are equal — being pro-Palestinian or anti-Zionist and being anti-Semitic or prejudice against the Jewish people — is a political ploy used by unscrupulous self-serving deceit mongers. These types of politicians, rather than noble public servants, come in all shapes and sizes and exist in every country on earth, both free nations and not so free nations. They are not to be believed. They are not to be trusted. They are not deserving of respect.

Speaking of not being deserving of trust or respect, one must add that the recent spat of anti-semitism that has cropped up in recent months by morons like Kyrie Irving and Kanye West is doubly deplorable. Not only is it flat out stupid and ignorant racism and hate speech against our Jewish brethren, but it also acts as a great disservice to our being able to help our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

I read an interesting article today about the subject and how heated the whole confluence of issues is becoming once again in our shared human history by Dr. James Zogby, who I know from the Arab American Institute and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. I will let him go into more of the scholarly details. It is definitely worth the read. He always is.

Sincerely, Ed Hale

The Mask Is Off

By Dr. James J. Zogby ©

President

Arab American Institute

Since its founding, Political Zionism has had two distinct and contradictory personas. One portrayed it as a national liberation movement that was liberal, democratic, tolerant, and inclusive. This was the face its adherents saw when they looked in the mirror, and it was the way they presented themselves to and wanted to be seen by the rest of the world. 

In reaction to antisemitism and the resultant ghettoization and pogroms that victimized European Jewry, Political Zionism promised an alternative for Jews in which they would be free to realize their full potential as a people while practicing the values and fruits of liberalism in a home of their own. 

The problem was that the European liberalism on which Political Zionism was modeled was, itself, based on a contradiction in that the benefits and progress it provided for Europeans were based on the colonial subjugation of Asians and Africans and exploitation of their conquered lands. As the early Zionists were immersed in that same European culture and worldview, it was without any hesitation or embarrassment that they saw themselves as an extension of the European colonial enterprise. That was why Theodore Herzl sought guidance on how to secure support for his proposed colony from Cecil Rhodes; or why he would write in the Jewish State that the enterprise he wished to establish would serve as “a rampart of Europe against Asia…and outpost of civilization against barbarism”; or why he proposed using the natives that his followers might find in their new colony to clear the land and engage in menial labor and then evacuate these natives to other lands. 

Political Zionism was the dream of Jewish liberation, but its implementation was to be the nightmare of Palestinian dispossession. These two sides of the same ideology coexisted, with the upside acknowledged and celebrated, and its reverse ignored and/or denied. This was true not only for the founders of Zionism but also for its most recognized “liberal” champions: Chaim Weizmann, David Ben Gurion, and Golda Meir. Even Benjamin Netanyahu made his name in political circles as a proponent of the cause of “liberal Western democracy” versus the authoritarian, savage, terrorist Arab World. 

Because such a worldview was so ingrained into Europe’s dominant sense of itself, the two faces of Zionism (the liberal and the racist) never raised an eyebrow. It was, if anything, understood and embraced by the British and French (and later by the US) who saw the need for, as Herzl had envisioned it, a civilized outpost to protect Western values and interests from the barbarians.

Maybe this is what is meant when Israeli and US leaders speak of our “shared values”—the fact that we both have been able to mask the “dark side” of our behaviors with the outward facing veneer of our “claimed values,” values that apply to “us” not to “others.” And we’ve both gotten away with this game, until recently.     

For the US, it was the Iraq War and its attendant horrors, the epidemic of mass killings, systemic racism, and the emergence of the anti-democratic, racist, and xenophobic Trump movement that began to unravel the mask of our claim to be the bastion of “liberal ideals.” Despite Israel’s record of abominable behaviors toward Palestinians, it has taken much longer to peel away the veneer of liberalism from Israel’s image. One reason is that their propaganda machinery has been quite effective, and another has been the fear that pointing out the obvious (i.e., that Israel is engaged in oppressive and racist subjugation and dispossession of Palestinians) will result in the accusation of antisemitism. 

In this context, it may be considered ironic that it was Israel’s own democracy that has finally exposed for all to see its underbelly of intolerance and racist violence. By electing a far-right coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline Likud party and including fanatic nationalists and intolerant ultra-religious parties, the most recent Israeli election served as a clarifying moment for the Political Zionist movement. 

The newly elected Netanyahu government will include bigoted, intolerant, and violence-advocating ministers and deputy ministers who will oversee police, settlements, administration of the occupied territories, finance, and “Jewish Identity.” They include ideologues who: advocate expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories; support rapid settlement expansion and annexation of the West Bank; back settler violence against Palestinians to demonstrate who’s boss; adhere to a theology that maintains that while Jews are full human beings with souls, Arabs are not; claims that human rights organizations pose an “existential threat” to Israel and therefore want them banned; maintain that only their rigid interpretation of Orthodox Judaism is true religion, and deny other Jews their rights; and insist on altering the status quo at the Haram Al Sharif,  turning Jerusalem into another Hebron. 

With ministers and policies such as these, the mask is off.

This is Political Zionism, without the frills. It is intolerance, bigotry, repression, and aggression without the accompanying rhetoric of “liberalism” to smooth things over or put on a pretty face for the world. 

It’s been fascinating to watch how the major pro-Israel US groups have responded (or failed to respond) to this challenging situation. There were immediate protests over the ultra-Orthodox push to change conversion law, to outlaw LGBTQ rights, to restrict which “legitimate” Jews could immigrate to Israel, and to require the segregation of Jewish women at prayer. But these same leaders have been silent in reaction to the bigoted anti-Arab beliefs being espoused by key members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition and the policies they seek to implement that will further dispossess Palestinians.  

It’s true that many of these ugly attitudes and policies have shaped the Palestinian reality for decades, but they were always covered by the pretty words and the outward face of Zionist liberalism. But now the mask is off and those who, for decades, have been covering for Israel have the responsibility to acknowledge the ugly reality their silence has allowed to fester.

***

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Arab American Institute. The Arab American Institute is a non-profit, nonpartisan national leadership organization that does not endorse candidates.

Note: To discuss this column with me, please register here for my next ‘Coffee And A Column’ event Wednesday via Zoom.

What’s Happening In Iran & Why It Is So Important

October 8, 2022

Video: What’s Happening In Iran Right Now & Why It Is So Important – Part One: The History

Video: What’s Happening In Iran Right Now and Why It Is So Important – Part Two: What I Learned While In Iran

The last two weeks have been incredible, both inspiring and heartbreaking, for the country and people of Iran and the implications of what a true Democratic Iranian Revolution would mean for the world.

We spent the last week creating a video (that we’ve now split into two parts) to help explain what’s happening in Iran right now in the bigger context of their history and who they are as a people, hoping to increase understanding of the Iranian people, their long, rich history and why these current protests are so vital, not just to the brave women and men on the frontlines in the streets, but also for world peace.

We believe what we are witnessing in Iran right now is historic. We know we are personally taking a big risk by posting the videos due to their openness & honesty, and it is something we are still actively discussing. But we also sincerely believe that our brave friends in Iran deserve all the attention & support they can get, including a real world understanding of who they are & what they’re fighting for. Freedom Justice Equality & basic human rights.

If you have any questions or desire to get more involved to support the cause please feel free to reach out. Together we can. – Ed Hale

Challenging Times

June 10, 2020

I don’t know about you. But lately I’ve been starting to break, physically beginning to feel the mental and emotional strain caused by an unshakable intuitive feeling of fear that we’re deliberately being f*^ked with by some higher power or unstoppable force from beyond. Can’t say for sure what specific event it was in the last few days….

One would think by the time we spiraled from unfathomable numbers of deaths from a global virus into 3 months of being forcibly locked in our homes into a Great Depression-level economic collapse simultaneously contrasted with a frighteningly imbalanced wicked-seeming illogically bifurcated financial market into black lives finally mattering a little but not enough revealing a disturbing innate national racism yielding masses of protests for weeks on end down into a very sudden and discomforting disappearance of national leadership into a gutter of inanely childish and crazy behavior coming out of the White House on an hourly basis with far too many stories about a deranged self-obsessed psychopath occupying the position of POTUS (once considered “the most important job on earth” but now unanimously viewed as a laughing stock by the rest of the world) much of it coming from his own fellow Republicans — with fear not logic or nobility being the only apparent impediment to the whole lot of them banding together to publicly concede they made a terrible and dangerous mistake, meanwhile the other side of the sinister corporate duopoly that controls the entire country of 360 million people are attempting to run a man who it appears may not make it to the election let alone through a presidency and they won’t budge on their pick despite the overwhelming disinterest in him — the pressing question being WHY?!? — reported simultaneously with stories of a rapidly deteriorating and corrupt justice system and “serious concerns that the current president may be the biggest threat to national security by top military brass” simulcast with eerily under-covered impending wars between China and India, China and Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, China and Japan, Europe considering banning Americans (?!?), “white power” competing with “black power” for slogan of the year in a democratic republic allegedly the most proudly culturally diverse “melting pot” on earth, statues coming down faster than can be counted, Americans with guns lots of guns, Iran (jeez, seriously guys, now?!?) and Israel (seriously guys, now?!?) global food shortages, global food supply poisonings, random fireworks and gun shots every night for hours accompanying a triple digit increase in gun deaths and a constant onslaught of pandemic deniers and conspiracy theories flooding social discourse every day by normally intelligent folks but which boggle the mind… The hope of reopening quickly fading as the deniers are fast-morphing into the walking dead claiming “there’s nothing wrong with us. Stop staring at us. We’re fine,” pulling out their shotguns and rifles as if to signal “yes we’re as stupid and crazy as you’ve always Imagined, now go on and git”

But frankly I was doing okay. In spite of it all. Just doing my thing. Trying to survive, keep my family alive healthy and happy, maybe make a difference here and there when i could. And then suddenly I start getting these random messages from various friends around the world, normal intelligent well balanced folks usually, sheepishly talking about their recent bouts with anxiousness and depression… my initial response being “yeah of course man… the world is on fire… it’s normal… just try to hang on…it’ll get better.”

And then suddenly it starts hailing at around 6 pm. Out of nowhere on a hot wet sweltering steaming summer day, frozen ice starts falling from the sky. The sound is piercing and deafening. I keep wiping my eyes, opening and closing them, assuming I’m seeing things. Maybe i took a nap and I’m dreaming. It’s 90 degrees outside. How is there ice falling from the sky?

But we’re still not talking about the insane fact that the US military quietly admitted that it’s been seeing UFOs in the skies for a few decades now a few months back.

The problem isn’t all the bad news. It’s the overwhelming quantity of it, combined with the new surreal strangeness of it all and the fact that it’s so damn alarming out of our hands and weird that most people are going numb to it. I get it. Eat sleep work eat sleep work. Invent a God because there’s no visible way out of this insanity at our level. Note to self: add prayer to eat sleep work. Maybe it’ll help.

And our kids. God our poor f*^king kids. That whole generation… All three of them really… I keep trying to underplay how bad everything is when they break down and cry and mention it… I try to play it cool, like we all had our problems. This is no different.

It occurs to me that none of this is new. What generation hasn’t felt this way since humankind first awoke to self awareness on planet earth? Frightened confused boggled overwhelmed terrified. Sumerian Babylonian Persian Greek Roman Jewish Christian Muslim Gods were all constructed from such base human feelings.

Compared to the Ice Age or the so called Dark Ages or the Plague surely we have it better… It’s become a daily meditation. But honestly… the thought though completely rational doesn’t make me feel any better. How is it for you?

Removing the Cross from Christendom

April 4, 2015

In the days before the time of Jesus, when Israel was under roman rule and occupation, killing people was a common practice. One could be executed or “put to death” for any number of countless reasons. (One might observe the similarities to some modern day Middle Eastern countries in today’s world, sadly.) There were used a variety of different methods to torture punish and execute those who broke the law or even just stirred up trouble. One could be stoned to death (yes this practice is still in use today in some parts of the world as shocking as that may seem to those of us in more compassionate and evolved countries…) — as barbaric as that sounds they indeed would literally throw large heavy stones at a person for hours until that person eventually died from the abuse or at least passed out. Beheading was anther popular method. Hanging was another. One of the most common methods used during the time of Roman occupied Israel was what they called crucifixion, whereby a man would have his hands and feet nailed to two planks of wood fashioned together in the form of a cross and be set upright to slowly die from thirst hunger exhaustion bleeding out and/or the grueling effects of gravity’s exertion on the body’s organs, especially the lungs — they would literally die an excruciatingly painful death from being suffocated to death or worse having their organs cave in on themselves. For more details on the practice of crucifixion, google it. It’s quite a feat of human ingenuity and imagination and takes a truly sick mind to come up with.

Crucifixion was so common during the time of Jesus’s day that on any given day up to fifty to (some historians claim) one hundred men would be crucified. Crucifixion simply put was not a special form of execution. It was common practice.

Over the last two-thousand plus years since the death of this man we know as Jesus of Nazareth a slow moving (at first) but heavy handed cult of propaganda has been thrust upon humankind, much of it involuntarily mandatory and by force, which has turned much of the modern population of planet earth into self-professed “Christians” I.e. followers of Jesus. Granted some come to it by choice, while most are simply born into the belief system and never give it a second thought.

One of the many ideas and belief systems that automatically tag along with Christianity is this symbol of the cross, or “crucifix” as it is called by some; in fact many people both christian and non-christian alike would claim that the cross just might be the single most important and enduring symbol representative of the christian faith. Anyone who sees a cross automatically associates it with Christianity. But is this even a desirable reality? That’s the question Christians and the larger governing body should be asking themselves.

We all know why this is. Jesus the man died by execution for blasphemy and heresy at the hands of his own people by being nailed to a cross and crucified. So the cross quickly turned into a symbol of Jesus and his ministry. It was a simple and easy to recognize symbol.

But as explained above this was no singularly important event, this crucifixion of Jesus. Thousands before him died this way. Tens of thousands after him. Hell, Jesus wasn’t even the only man who was crucified that DAY, the one that is now known (ironically) as “Good Friday”. As everyone knows there were three men in total who were beaten tortured and executed by crucifixion that very day, Jesus being just one of them.

There was nothing special about the way Jesus died. On the contrary, it was a rather ordinary and commonplace event. When one studies the life of Jesus one is not impressed by or taken with how he died, but rather with how he lived. There are countless more intriguing stories regarding Jesus than his being one of three “criminals” put to death that day. This is why the event itself is barely allotted even one full sentence in any of the history books we have of that time [See the works of Pliny the Elder or Josephus], and most likely why the event is so casually dismissed and NOT paid attention to by Jews. Jesus was after all a fellow Jew. But to them, from their historic perspective, Jesus from Nazareth was just one of thousands of criminals who was executed during the reign of King Herod. So there isn’t much to pay attention to.

The real meat in the life of Jesus, in the stories and legends that have cropped up over the centuries about this legendary man is to be found in the countless miracles he purportedly performed — healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, walking on water, ESP, telepathy and even bringing the dead back to life. The man was a veritable David Copperfield of his day.

His life, though we know so little of it, is filled with magical stories of truly mythic proportions. And this is where and when one begins to become impressed by him. Get to know him well enough and one can easily be led to swoon, for not only was he a quick wit and a charismatic character, but there is much “magic” surrounding those few years we know of his short ministry. He was both infinitely loving tolerant and compassionate towards others AND vehemently disciplined and dictatorial in his rigorous commitment to what he believed to be his mission and calling by none other than God Him/Her/Itself.

This is no small claim, to assert that one believes they are not only in touch with but being guided by the highest most evolved and primal force in the entire universe who created everything. On several occasions Jesus even claims he was the the “son” of this infinitely powerful, all knowing force. Quite a claim indeed.

Perhaps greatest of all the wondrous miracle stories about Jesus though is this idea that less than 48 hours after he died and was confirmed dead he miraculously came back to life, albeit in a more ethereal and less earthly form. THIS is the event that is celebrated around the world on the day known as Easter Sunday. Jesus’s alleged Reserection from the dead. Depending on whose account you read or believe he “rose from the dead” and appeared before many of his disciples over a period of days — some say 40 and others say up to 300; he even still purportedly had the holes in his hands from where they hammered the nails through them some stories claim. Others say he appeared more like a ghostly apparition. But most accounts claim he stayed here on earth after he arose from the dead to preach a bit more and hand out certain orders from God and then he disappeared — as it was retold by witnesses and then embellished over centuries by the Roman Empire, a group not exactly immune to gross exaggeration and fairytale-like hyperbole, he reportedly ascended (as in magically floated up in the air) into “heaven” to sit at the right hand of his father (that would be God… Just where God keeps these chairs and what keeps them afloat is still a mystery…) — never to be seen or heard from again.

Before doing this he promised to return one day and save us all (believers that is…) from a hell on earth that would be flat out apocalyptic. (Are we there yet? It sure feels as though we are. But then again it probably felt that way during the Great Plague or the Dark Ages or The Inquisition or during any number of World Wars we’ve had the pleasure of enduring due to a few overly ambitious selfish and greedy assholes). Hence the whole “Jesus is going to come back (“the second coming” as its called — perhaps because fundamentalist Christians don’t stress the importance of secular education very much — subjects like math and science — it would actually be his third coming if we are going to be literal) –once the great temple in Israel is rebuilt… Bumper stickers referring to “The Rapture” or “End Times” are also related to this idea.

If all that isn’t enough to render the actual crucifixion a rather mundane event, Jesus is also credited for completely reforming humanity’s conception of God and Divinity. A simple examination comparing the God of the Torah and Old Testament with the NEW God Jesus speaks of in the New Testament shows a completely evolved, nearly transcendent idea of divinity itself — more akin to the Godhead of Eastern religions of the day or even the Buddha — compassionate, infinitely loving and tolerant, intelligent, no more playing favorites or being wrathful or vengeful, as compared with the overtly human God of the Old Testament, savage and barbaric and filled with human attributes and weaknesses. Jesus was killed precisely for these reasons. He was if anything a revolutionary and a visionary — in addition to his more mysteriously magical abilities.

It is for these reasons that the cross should not only NOT be the most important and significant symbol of the christian faith as it is today, but it should not even be a symbol of Christendom at all. The cross that Jesus was hung on, just like all the other alleged criminals of his day, is a small detail of the bigger picture, just as an image of a hangman’s noose would be had Jesus been hung rather than crucified. Not only is the focus inherently turned toward something mundane for the time and the larger scope of things, but it is also a rather violent, gory and negative aspect of the Jesus story when considering how overtly positive the story really is. In reality isn’t the whole idea of the christian Faith tradition a celebration of the miracles, the message and the Reserection of Jesus? And not his unfortunate death or how he died? Those are mere sidebars when compared to what impresses the most about the man, his message or his myriad works of miracles.

The cross may be simple and easy to recognize, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t automatically qualify it to be the grand and perfect symbol that it’s become of Christianity.

Some modern day pastors, especially the more “Fundamentalist” oriented, and even some theologians may argue that the most important aspect of Jesus’s life was and still is the crucifixion because of this concept put forth by Calvin and Luther called Substitution — the idea that “humanity is inherently so sinful so as to not be good or righteous enough to have a direct relationship with God, and thus needed Jesus to act as a substitute for us, to die on the cross as a sacrifice to atone for the “sins of man”, and as much as I get this idea and appreciate the beauty of it — Jesus became in essence “a new sacrificial lamb” rendering the regular sacrificing of animals to God unnecessary, thereby creating a new covenant between God and humankind — I do not believe that it is inherently necessary as a Christian (or any other religion for that matter) to believe the idea that humankind is born eternally sinful so as to not be able to experience a direct relationship with God or The Divine on their own.

Of course I make this claim AFTER the fact. I am well aware of this potential irony. Jesus has already performed this action some two-thousand years ago and therefore I am speaking from my own personal experiences of my relationship with The Divine now, after he did this; therefore I cannot possibly relate to what humankind’s relationship with God was like before Jesus’s death. But I would submit that God, if there is one — and because I have had so many personal tangible experiences with this Divine Force we call God, I can easily and confidently claim to know there is — is much bigger than most people give Him/Her/It credit.

While it is true that some people stay focused on and nearly obsessed with their own inherent sinfulness and therefore the Substitution, sacrifice and Atonement aspect of Jesus, this is strictly their trip and as much as they’re entitled to it, it certainly doesn’t have to apply to all of us. Jesus himself when speaking of God drew from such a deeper more evolved enlightened and intelligent viewpoint that he essentially retired this old fashioned idea of a God who is “too good for us lowly humans” from mass consciousness.

This is not to say that there is no credence or relevance to the sacrifice that Jesus the man made when choosing to be executed when he obviously could have so easily escaped or fought back successfully — he was after all the most God-like being in human form that history has ever known, quite possibly he may have literally been “THE God” in human form as he occasionally hinted he might have been. So his execution via crucifixion was clearly his deliberate plan and doing, and not the doing of others — regardless of how much those who did the deed believe they were actually responsible for it. (They’re kidding themselves). He was well versed in the prophecies of the Torah and the Prophets and he planned and executed a very direct path of actions and events that literally fulfilled those prophecies of the coming Messiah of the Jewish people to a tee. [If this is a subject that interests you there are several books — or probably now even websites — that delve into the life of Jesus directly as each event in his life specifically correlates to a prophecy that was predicted and written about hundreds of years before bis birth. Right down to his execution and even HOW he was executed AND his subsequent Reserection.]

So clearly Jesus, after much time attempting to change the hearts and minds of his fellow Judeans through his message and the example of his actions turned out unsuccessful, decided at some point that he would venture down this alternative path of mass atonement of humankind’s sins through his own sacrifice — even though he was flat out telling people for years the good news that God did indeed forgive them automatically because He loved them so much, all they had to do was ask for it and it would be granted; but they just didn’t get it… And then of course to really hammer the idea home he went further and resurrected from the dead.

After all (one is sure he probably thought at the time) who would not be shifted changed mesmerized convinced or transformed through witnessing a man transcend death itself? If it happened in modern times it would be hard to imagine anyone not being completely transformed by witnessing or even hearing about such an event. And yet as we know from history itself the political powers that be in the Jewish religion in Jesus’s time were either too frightened of the repercussions of admitting to owning such a miraculous event OR too pissed off at Jesus for his version of Messiahness being so different than theirs: they were looking for a very primitively temporal and human freedom from bondage and enslavement and instead he offered a much larger version of this idea of freedom.

The truth is we will never know exactly why they decided to kill a man as innocent and harmless as Jesus and save a man as sinister and wicked as Barabas, because we weren’t there. And there exists no known notes from those times, at least none that the Jewish religion has ever released publicly, that explain the reasons for their actions or even their feelings about the incident. Mum has always been the word from the Jewish people regarding Jesus. As stated above already, as far as they are concerned he was “just another criminal who deserved to be executed.”

But even if every single thing that happened to Jesus throughout his short life on earth was preordained by a higher power and even he himself was aware of what was to come and planned it all out — including the crucifixion and Reserection, one still finds that the method of execution was by and large nothing more than a mere sidebar compared to the bigger picture of his message and actions and therefore the cross is simply too simple and too irrelevant a symbol to represent the immense proportions and importance of what Christianity means today. Im not saying it will be easy to create another symbol that better represents the life and message of Jesus. I’m simply saying that it’s well past time for all of us to transcend the symbolism of this simple image and create something else that is a better more relevant fit.

– Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone

The Need for Peaceful Reconciliation

August 10, 2014

It’s getting bad now. All over the world. Protests and marches in the streets of New York, London, Paris, South Africa, Berlin, Sydney and many more cities across the globe — all protesting against the incredibly shocking loss of innocent lives at the hands of Hamas and Israel. As I posted yesterday, it’s not just our Palestinian friends we should be concerned with but our Israeli brothers and sisters too. For this has gone too far now and for too long. The radical rightwing government of Israel is endangering the lives and safety and welfare of its citizens through this military offensive in Gaza (they’re fooling no one by attempting to call it defense.) They’re also endangering their economic welfare. The people of the world are now firmly against Israel for what it’s been witnessing; the people of Israel will be the ones to suffer because of it even though it’s the government who is doing it.

It’s also getting bad in the States and online as well. Social media is not just abuzz, it’s aflame. Inflamed with hate speech and vicious arguments and attacks from both sides of the wall. Friends are turning on friends. Celebrities are speaking out, some compassionate, some hateful. (Joan Rivers exemplified true racist inhumanity in comments she made publicly yesterday). There seems to be no truth to this issue other than a lot of innocent people are dying. And unfortunately no one can do anything to stop it from continuing so far. But everybody wants to chime in. This makes sense. It really does. We are being moved so much emotionally that it is affecting us physically. It is affecting our actions. We HAVE TO act. We have to DO something. It feels irresponsible to sit here idly doing nothing while witnessing such inhumanity taking place. And yet there isn’t a lot people are doing except blaming each other or spreading hateful viewpoints and anger. Not helpful.

This morning I awoke to an onslaught of notifications that my Facebook feed was going nuts still, leftover from yesterday. Zeke asked me to step in and delete all the threads, which would be nearly impossible for it’s almost all we’ve done for four weeks, discuss this issue… But his point was well taken: no one is doing anything except making other people angry. It’s sad and completely unhelpful. It was the last thing I wanted to wake up to today. But he was right. A few bad apples spoiling the whole cart.

Hey man. Just woke up. I soooooo did not want to do this today… (Imagine how THEY feel — that’s a luxury they can’t afford over there…on either side…) Still groggy. Having espresso. Saw your name in a post on my phone and immediately logged on here. My apologies dog.

Lord knows I have TRIED to encourage people to NOT be rude or insult others or resort to name calling or hate speech or state obviously erroneous factoids, or even refrain from patronizing remarks like “sorry chief” or “you need to go back to school”. NONE of that is part of diplomacy. It gets us nowhere. I’ve begged for it over and over. Last week I repeatedly deleted someone from posting over and over again all day (he was a persistent fucker) because his words were so vile. And over the last week i have had to unfriend several normally very cool people for going apeshit crazy on my threads over this issue. I really just don’t get why people cannot be rational and civil.

I want so badly for us to be able to discuss things, debate things even, just as we are able to do on Forum or Quora, and just as — even as a small microcosmic representation of, our counterparts are having to do right this very minute in Cairo and Tel Aviv and DC and The West Bank. How are they supposed to broker peace and reconcilliation if we — just regular people with no real bones to pick with each other on social media — can’t even act civilly towards each other? Why does “blame” always enter the picture? Or “hate”? Or racist remarks? Or rudeness?

Arlan was right in that NO one can solve this issue except the two parties involved, ultimately those two people are the ones who are going to have to make peace and forgive and reconcile. But I also believe that it’s going to take many different groups and factions to help; offering support and guidance, and different viewpoints. Just as it took in all our previous battles wars and skirmishes. This is a world problem, as I’ve posted before. This is for better or worse our generation’s South Africa — (Remember: Mandela was imprisoned for “terrorist acts” — he DID resort to terrorism in his 20s due to the ignorance of his youth and desperation. He actually tried to blow a place up. So even the best of us get messed up…) — so I see this as the world’s cause for BOTH sides. Because BOTH sides have genuine concerns and valid points.

We ALL need to step up and step in to end this sad state of affairs. But only if we’re being constructive and blatantly helpful. I am referring both to US here now in the smaller microcosm AND to us THERE in the bigger picture.

For example, I’m going to say it again as I did yesterday: HAMAS IS NOT HELPING. They are hurting. Their cause may have been noble but they chose the wrong method. Period. Violence BEGETS violence. Sure we’ve won in the past before using violence (the American revolution, the Russian and Iranian ones etc…) But Hamas isn’t going to win. And if they did then all our Israeli brothers and sisters would be toast. So THEY need to go. In other words, THEY should NOT even be allowed at the bargaining table. It’s a sham that we are forced to be bargaining with overt terrorists. It’s a joke.

Here’s another one: Iran needs to stop with the anti-Israel platform and speech. Yes we get it. The viewpoint that Judaism is accepted and respected as it is in Iran (VERY respected) BUT that Israel was illegal and not done properly. But that’s the PAST. We’re never going to reverse it. So as long as they take that stance THEY too are NOT being helpful. And so they just don’t belong in the conversation. Anyone who takes a “we refuse to reconcile” or “we refuse to accept reality” stance is not helping. Along with anyone who overtly seems to disrespect life. Or insults. Or is rude. Or misquotes facts. Not helping.

But facts…they help. Opinions and ideas and viewpoints that are new AND compassionate CAN help. IF we’re all willing to give a little, and grow a little, and accept that we can be wrong sometimes, and compromise, then we can fix this. I have learned through the years as a diplomat that one has to be fluid, like a liquid, able and willing to encompass both and all sides to a disagreement; AND willing to honor truth and human life above all things. Everything else gets in the way.

What this means friends on both sides is: those who come on here and ONLY defend Israel and never even bother to acknowledge the incredibly sad and shameful loss of innocent life, ala Joan Rivers yesterday, is NOT helping. You’re scary. And the same goes for those who just keep hammering Israel without acknowledging that Gazans VOTED for a terrorist group to run their little swath of land — they KNEW this might happen. Hell, it was almost a given. And martyrdom — DYING while fighting — is encouraged by some in the Muslim community, i.e. THEY are bringing it on themselves some of them AND it doesn’t help to have a platform that says you want to do away with the other side. Duh!?! How is Israel supposed to feel safe under those conditions? I wouldn’t. BOTH sides have valid points. Both sides are being stubborn aholes and dragging us all through a lot of unnecessary pain. Our job is shine a light on what peaceful reconciliation looks like. Which basically means stop trying to prove the other guy wrong.

My sincerest apologies to those of you who have been decent as we’ve discussed this issue. Blessed ARE the peacemakers. Let’s end this now and move on.

– Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone 8s Custom

The Right of Self Defense in New Israel

August 6, 2014

Last week our house was broken into. It appeared to be two or three men. Not 100% sure. It was dark and It happened fast. But as they fired their weapons off in my house I was lucky enough to be able to fire off a few rounds as well, which quickly got them scared and running. They fired a few a more, hitting nothing but the walls thank God. The alarm system we have installed is top notch and between this and my shooting, this was enough to scare them away. Luckily no one was hurt. My wife and kids are okay. I’m somewhere between traumatized and pissed. Someone could have gotten hurt. Killed even. While it was happening I noticed the suspects looked indian. Not like samosas and curry indian, but like what they call “Native American”. I’m so sick of these politically correct liberals and their know it all “native americans”-speak. I call them indians as do most of my friends. So fuck it. Indians it is.

Less than a half hour’s drive away from our neighborhood, which for as long as I can remember has been called New Israel, there’s this little dumpy area called Snohomish. It’s almost all Indians there. They’ve been there for years. They used to be everywhere. Or so goes the argument. But our neighborhood has been here for as long as I can remember. Since I was a kid at least. And so has my family. We can trace our lineage here in America back three or four generations maybe. Needless to say, it’s a controversy. This area the indians live in has slowly grown into a self-sustaining community almost totally separate from our upscale suburban town. But it’s a dump. Crime and disease infest the place. Where we live on the other hand is clean, well lit and safe. We pay a ton of taxes, which by all accounts go mostly to these so called native americans to help them with their schools and other government social welfare programs.

This latest break in that happened, it isn’t the first. Other people have told me similar stories at the gym. That they too have had their homes robbed or attacked by these Indians. They’ve never been caught. But it’s definitely them. They hate us for our wealth and our freedom. It’s obvious. They think we owe them something because they once used to populate and dominate this land. But that was years ago. Progress is progress. We’ve earned this land free and clear. The government gave our family a small piece of this land almost sixty years ago and the rest we’ve bought on our own and built up through the years. The same goes for our neighbors. The only problem is that every now and then we encounter a problem with the indians who still think they have some right to it. So they pull stunts like these tonight. And we of course have every right to defend ourselves.

A few hours pass and I can’t sleep. I just can’t take it. I’m pissed. It’s getting near dawn now. My wife and kids have finally fallen asleep, everyone piled on our bed. Huddled together and frightened. But now safe and sound. But me I’m fuming. The nerve of these fuckers. I head out into the garage to pace and drink a glass of whiskey. I grab my shot gun, a few boxes of extra shells, a pistol and a few grenades. Before I know it, I get into my car and drive into Snohomish. Slowly. Quietly. As soon as I cross that invisible border, from street lights to no street lights, from churches and strip malls to bars bodegas and liquor stores, I open my car windows and start shooting. Their streets are quiet still. But not for long.

Wherever those guys are who broke into my house it’s not readily apparent. But I figure they have to be somewhere. This is where they come from. This is where they live. So I start firing my shotgun into houses. Just slowly driving down Snohomish Blvd… Bam! Bam! Bam! Pretty soon I start hearing screaming. I must have gotten a few. Because I could hear in the shrieks of terror coming from the houses not just fear but anguish. My blood starts to boil with excitement and I begin to feel this rush. Perhaps I got one of the guys who broke into my house earlier this evening. I hope so. No mercy I think. You fuck with me I fuck with you. I keep firing into random homes. More screams. Welcome to the terrordome mother fuckers!

A whole family comes ruining out of this one condo unit that I had fired into. They’re waving their hands and screaming bloody murder. I see blood. A lot of blood. Three women, a few little kids and a man. He’s holding something. Could be a gun. Or maybe a shovel. I can’t tell. But I don’t wait to see what he’s holding. I slow down, take aim and fire. Bam! Bam! Bam bam bam! All five of them fall to the ground like marionettes. Dead for sure. Or at least severely wounded. Dirty varmint. That’ll teach them! They don’t even belong here and everyone knows it. They should go back to where they came from! But the funny thing is… no one will have them! Not even their own kind wants them. So they end up here. Clogging up our towns and neighborhoods. On the outskirts of our town. Stinking up the place with their filth and shabby clothes and primitive customs. Disgusting.

To my right I see a group of dark skinned men about a hundred yards or so coming towards my car waving their hands in the air frantically. They’re in a panic. These are men. Some young. Some old. These could very well be the exact same men who broke into my house. Or if not they’ve probably broken into other people’s houses. So I accelerate a little towards them and roll down my passenger window. I take out my pistol, a semi automatic, and start shooting. Bam! Bam! Bam! One by one I bring the filthy beasts down. Blood splatters against their dark skin as they fall to the pavement. I keep driving. Through my rear view mirror I can see one or two of them moving a little on the ground. No worries. I can always get them on the way back when I swing around this way again i think.

Ahead to my left I see a large white builidng. It looks like some kind of a YMCA type place. Who knows with these fuckers, because I can’t read the strange hieroglyphic type of writing on the front of the building. But word on the street is that the same criminals who come into our neighborhoods at night to break into our homes hide out in these places. They live among the people. Cowards. I jerk my car over hard left and get real close to the building. There has to be at least a hundred or so people in there. It’s several stories high. A few lights come on. I see shadows flickering past the windows of the place, so bam I fire! Windows break. Screams. No more shadows. I reach over to the passenger seat and grab one of the grenades with my right hand, I pull the pin out with my teeth and chuck it right into the front of the building! BLAMMO! Bulls eye! A huge fucking explosion! Debris and glass flies everywhere. Smoke fills up the whole front exterior of the place. I can’t see anything. Just smoke. But I can hear them. Screaming and more screaming. Total pandemonium. But I don’t want to hear screaming. I want them dead.

So I stop my car for a moment and wait. In a few seconds out pour these bodies, one by one at first — BAM! BAM! — I fire at them and they drop, and then in droves, men women and children, all coughing and choking, fleeing the smoke and rubble like little ants escaping a large boot on an ant hill. They’re running every which way. Everywhere and nowhere. For there’s no place for them to go really. They know it and so do I. The whole world knows it frankly. We’ve pushed them to the very edge of land since when we first started developing this area decades ago. So I just stay parked there and fire at them. One by one they fall to the ground.

One or two of the women look pregnant. This makes me think of my own wife when she was pregnant with our sons. I pause for a moment. But my wife isn’t an indian I think. She’s not one of them. So fuck it. And what am I supposed to do? I’m not supposed to defend myself and my family? I fire more and more and still more. I keep firing until my clip runs out. But they keep coming. I grab the second grenade and pull out the pin. Wait…. Wait… I throw it into the center of them and BAM!!!! Blood and guts debris and body parts and hair fly up all over the place. It’s mass destruction. Smoke fills the whole area. It’s quiet for a minute. Just nothing except moans. And sobs. Crying. Weeping. It’s a slaughter. They stop running out of the building. I stare at the bloody mess and rubble for a few seconds and realize I’m out of ammo. A slow grin creeps upon my face as an intoxicating satisfaction leaks from my heart through my entire body.

The carnage before my eyes is ample. This is self defense at its finest. The definition of self defense. Before I have time to fully take it in and relish it I press the pedal of my car down and spin around and start driving home. Fast. God only knows what these fuckers are thinking now. I need to get out of here. For the time being they’re defeated. Discouraged and decimated. But I’m fully aware that in time there will be consequences for my actions. They’ll come back from the dead and try to seek their revenge. As they always do. But we’ll be ready for them as we were this time. Besides, the little guns they have when they do manage to get past our security gate and break into our homes are almost useless. They’re toys. No match against our iron dome-like mansions and palatial guarded estates in New Israel.

As I slowly drive through the security gate of our neighborhood it looks and feels like a different world. Street lamps are still on — their light now competing with that of the rising sun. Manicured lawns, three car garages, fancy cars fill every driveway, some morning sprinkler systems are already running. Just the thought of these Indians and the slums they live in disgusts me. Makes me happy to be home. And happier still that I was able to kill so many of them. Maybe they’ll think twice before they try to sneak into our neighborhood and break into our homes.

As I pull into my own garage I realize that there might be some flack or blowback for my actions, especially from people outside of our little town. From what we call the “well meaning ignorant left”. But anti-american is what I call them. People who don’t understand what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night scared to death that someone has broken into your house. Sure they’ll raise a big fuss at first. But that will die down quickly. As soon as the next hurricane hits the coast or the next fire rages out of control in California. It’s a matter of time and really nothing else. For whatever reason most people don’t care about other people half as much as they care about money or celebrity. The police will come by and question me. But what are they going to do? We pay their fucking salaries. They know it and so do we. What? They’re going to write me a ticket? I find myself chuckling at the thought. It’s the first time I’ve laughed since the break in occurred. It feels good.

Nah, there’s nothing that anyone can do. This was self defense after all. I didn’t start it. All i did was finish it. Is it my fault that I have bigger guns than they do? How’s that my fault? And who can blame me for trying to protect my family? What else do people expect me to do? Plus I probably only killed a hundred of those dirty fuckers at best. No one ever gets in trouble for killing a hundred of them. A thousand, okay maybe. But not a hundred. They’re just not considered the same as us. No one is going to give a shit in a week or two. And for good reason. They’re not even from here. They’re not white. They’re not American. It’ll be okay. I’ll be fine. This thought calms my nerves as I turn on the water in our master shower to wash up. I start imagining what it will be like recounting the story to friends at the gym and coworkers. I’ll be considered a hero. The wife and kids are still asleep. There is peace in our home once more. I cannot wait to crawl into bed with my wife and fall asleep in her arms. I’m exhausted. Self defense is hard work. But well worth it indeed.

Questioning the Morality of Self Defense In Israel

July 28, 2014

I know a lot of you have been patiently waiting for me to speak out openly and honestly about what we have been witnessing in Gaza, that you’ve been hoping I would for a moment lay down the gauntlet of Libran fairness and Ambassador-driven diplomacy and just speak my mind about the horrors we have been witness to in Gaza. The truth is I have tried very very hard to be fair over the last three weeks. I have been careful and cautious with my every word and deed, respectful of all parties involved. And I promise you that in every waking hour of this conflict I have done nothing but study the issues at hand and the history behind them so that when I do speak I am doing so from an educated place. Tonight I want to honor that commitment I have made to you here in the Diaries countless times, to be always radically honest over politically correct and above all to speak from both my mind and my heart.

Almost three weeks in now and still the siege and annihilation of the people of Gaza rages on by the government of Israel. Over 1,100 Palestinian people have been killed at least in less than three weeks. Shot to death. Or their bodies blown to bits. Almost all of them civilians and nearly half of them women and children. Yet it is surprisingly calm and quiet in the United States regarding the grotesque bloodshed and blatant disregard for human life that we’ve been hearing about and witnessing.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated publicly that he is appalled by Israel’s actions and calls their “right to defend themselves” in how it has been practiced “an abomination.” This is a bold move for any high ranking member of the UN, for if there’s one thing that everyone knows once they reach a certain level in world governance, it is don’t mess with Israel. Yet this brave compassionate man felt he simply had no choice. He spoke the words that hundreds of millions of people all over the world are silently thinking to themselves and are often times afraid to say.

No less than ten different human rights organizations in Israel alone have sent letters to the Netenyahu government urging him to stop the slaughter of innocent men women and children — if not out of basic human compassion then for the sake of the country itself, for they are quite sure now that Israel has committed numerous war crimes. The United Nations itself held a vote last week regarding the same topic and the resulting majority concluded that Israel was indeed suspect of breaking innumerable Laws of the Geneva Convention and suspected of committing numerous war crimes. So they’ve sent a UN investigative team to Gaza to see for themselves.

Of course regardless of what their final determination will be–even if Israel is found guilty of breaking international laws of the Geneva Convention and committing the most atrocious war crimes, absolutely nothing substantial will happen to Israel for it. This is the harsh reality of life in the year 2014 in this day and age on planet earth. Israel is above the law. It is not justice or freedom or democracy that governs the world we live in today, any more than one to two to three hundred years ago; but as it has always been it is money and power. And Israel, this tiny little speck of a country, who’s legitimacy in the eyes of the Illuminati is iron clad but whose origin is controversial and questionable, is synonymous with the United States. And if there is one thing that all earthlings know at this time in our history, the rules and laws of the land, no matter how finely tuned or ingrained in the minds of the people, do not apply to the United States. Nor it’s allies. And Israel is ally número uno.

People all over the world, from nearly every country on earth, have called for protests in the streets — and everyday we see a new one pop up somewhere; and as well they are demanding a world government of any kind to step in and demand that Israel stop it’s murderous invasion of this impoverished little chunk of land. But not in America. For whatever reasons the American government has the majority of its sheople convinced that Israel has the right to kill men women and children in cold blood if they even “suspect” a Hamas militant is in the vicinity or general area. And if it turns out that there was no such militant, que sera sera. Last week Israeli soldiers killed an entire family of twenty-five people as they were sitting down to dinner to break their fast of the holiest Muslim holiday of the year, Ramadan. There were elderly people at that table eating their dinner, along with 13 children and three pregnant women. All of them innocent. All of them now dead.

Yes (I know what you’re thinking) these ARE horrors that are beyond the scope of even our imaginations here in the United States because we have it so good and for so long that we simply cannot even imagine it. Not even when we hear about it. Not even when we see images of it on the news or online. It’s as if we are glimpsing into another world, far far removed from our own. As if it’s nothing more than a movie. And yet these are people just like us. These are our little children whose bodies are being blown to bits all over the streets, where caring men from the community slowly hobble along sobbing and picking up the pieces of the tiny bodies bit by bit to place them in plastic bags. These are our mothers being shot and killed. These are our pregnant wives being blown up by mortar shells, wiping out two generations in one blow. And as well these are our fathers and sons and brothers who are dying.

How do we know this? How can we say such a thing if we aren’t Palestinian ourselves? There are so many different ways to answer those questions. First and foremost we have a decent sized Palestinian population right here in the United States. And these innocent civilians we see getting killed everyday are quite literally their brothers and sisters or mothers and fathers. I can only imagine how saddened they are in this moment, and how angry, watching as the country that they love and call home, the United States, does nothing to help their families. And on top of it their wounds made all the worse as they are forced to hear everyday how strongly supportive the president or Secretary of State is of “Israel’s right to defend itself”. Because even the slowest person in the room recognizes that haphazardly bombing and killing hundreds of innocent civilians on a daily basis is not defending one’s self.

If we ever had a chance of showing our Islamic fellow citizens the virtues of Christianity, we have surely blown it through this travesty of America valuing politics over human life.

How else do we know that these gunned down innocents in Gaza are our brothers and sisters? Because when it happened to us, on 9/11, we not only expected the world to empathize and grieve with us, we felt comforted and loved when they did. Why are we as Americans not repaying that debt in kind to these poor downtrodden victims of a cruel and merciless war? Why are we not showing the other the same empathy and compassion that was shown to us when we were attacked? Why do we not have troops on the ground as we have in so many areas of the world helping to evacuate civilians, bringing food, aid and medicine to the injured sick or dying? What is happening to the brave compassionate American heart that we all know and admire? Why isn’t it in Gaza right now helping lead refugees to safety as Israel bombs the hell out of this little sliver of an area — the people are literally blockaded in on all sides by walls and armed Israeli militants. For years it’s been called a modern day concentration camp by even the most conservative accounts. Yet the United States does nothing to help. But why?

Because the official stance of the United States government is that “we support Israel”. Of course the truth is that 90% or more everyday average Americans don’t have any idea WHY they are supposed to support Israel. They just hear it through the news media day in and day out and have been hearing it for fifty straight years. It’s a rallying cry for every prospective or serving American politician, right up there with “I believe in American Exceptionalism”. And in the constant beating of this strange illogical unexplained drum, Americans get a message perhaps subliminally that it isn’t safe to grieve or empathize or care about Palestinian people because it implies not supporting Israel.

Most of this is due to a great propaganda machine running a constant meme throughout the Americas that states in essence that to speak against Israel in any way is somehow an immoral, nearly criminal offense. Just try it. You’ll quickly see. America is a “free” country, except when it comes to speaking out against Israel in anyway. This is why you see politicians and wannabe politicians leap at the chance to wave their support flag for Israel whenever they’re on TV or giving an interview. Half of them don’t even know why they do it; they’re just trained to. Many more don’t have a clue about the history of the country nor the conflict with the Arabs, nor do they understand what all the fuss is about. They’ve just been warned plenty of times as we all have that to even dare speak out against Israel in any way is somehow a “very bad” thing.

This is propaganda and indoctrination at its finest. It is Madison Avenue advertising means taken to sociopolitical ends for the purposes of brainwashing an entire populace to be very afraid of being labeled an “anti-Semite” or a so called “holocaust denier”. Yes even if you’re intention is simply to question why Israel needs to indiscriminately kill so many innocent civilians, invariably someone will be soon calling you out as a holocaust denier.

Social media in the United States has been on fire for the last three weeks over this issue, pitting both newly made and lifelong friends against each other in hateful ways. As soon as one person voices empathy for the Palestinian people who have been mercilessly killed OR opposition to how Israel is doing it, one or two hapless goons will jump into the thread raving mad and screaming insults the likes of which we haven’t heard since we crushed neo-Nazis and white power skinheads a few years back. They are mean ruthless ignorant barbaric animals with wicked tongues of deceit and vitriol. And they will stop at nothing until they’ve quieted the thread down or scared everyone away.

Believe it or not these are often American Jews, who for whatever reason are more extremist in their radical pro-Israel rightwing views than most Israelis are. In my research over the last few weeks this is one of the many lessons I have been shocked to learn. There is a larger percentage of Israelis who empathize with the Palestinian cause and are against the rampant murder that’s been going on in Gaza over the last three weeks than there are American Jews here in the States. For more on this strange anomaly, look for the Israeli film DEFAMATION on Netflix or Youtube and watch it. It is shocking and eye opening.

While you’re at it, take the time to look for my Youtube Channel, TranscendentTV and find a playlist I created called Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. I have saved a variety of movies and documentaries to this playlist that go over the history of Zionism and the formation of Israel that will help explain what caused this conflict in the first place.

But be forewarned. Once you watch these, it is hard to forget them; once you learn these facts, it is impossible to unlearn them. Your eyes will be opened in a way that you may not enjoy. There is great injustice in the world. And it is we, the well meaning American tax payer, who have often paid for these atrocious acts of unfairness. Especially when it comes to the formation of Israel and what happened to the people who lived there before that time. Take a look at any World Atlas pre-1947 — go to the library or to your grandparents house if you have to — and look for Israel. You won’t find it. Instead, in it’s place you’ll see an area called Palestine. Which is what it was called for over a thousand years until they changed its name to Israel in 1948. And the people who lived there before? in Palestine? Yes… These are the millions of Palestinian refugees who now occupy the areas called the West Bank and Gaza who are now once again being slaughtered.

If you’re like me, and if you’re reading this I trust you might be, your heart breaks at the thought of any living thing being hurt or injured, let alone being killed or losing a child. Perhaps like me you are a Buddhist Taoist Christian, or maybe an Avatar, or maybe just an enlightened and compassionate fellow traveler and humanist. Regardless of what we call ourselves or what labels we ascribe to ourselves for comfort or peace of mind, we can all agree that murdering innocent people is wrong. It is an immoral act of the highest caliber. As Americans we consider it such a heinous crime against civilized society that it is the only crime where we deem there to be no suitable punishment for except execution. And though I do not support capital punishment for I believe that we cannot train a society that something is wrong if we turn around and do the same exact thing ourselves, I believe this illustrates just how firmly resolute we are in our shared conviction that murder is wrong and not to be tolerated in a civilized society.

And yet this is precisely what the current American White House administration wants us as citizens to support. Four young boys playing ball on the beach, killed. A United Nations shelter filled with families seeking shelter from the war, blown up. Schools filled with children, destroyed. Hospitals even, where both the sick and dying and the living breathing personnel have been blown up by air strikes, missiles or tanks. None of this is American. It is not how we were raised. It is the exact opposite of how we were raised and what we were taught about right and wrong. We are a lot of things here in America, some of them gaudy and some of them glorious. But indiscriminate killers we are not. So why are we being asked to support this slaughter of innocent people?

And as Christians… Does one even need go there? Does it even need to be mentioned how utterly inhumane and unChristian these acts are to the Christian heart? Can we even imagine how the heart of Jesus is breaking over what He is witnessing being carried out in His name? Yes as human beings we are appalled. And yes as compassionate Avatars who love precious humanity and are working to create an enlightened planet we are appalled. But as Christians… Are there any words for what we are feeling? In the so called Holy Land no less it is truly, as Ban Ki-Moon reminds us, an abomination.

We are told that we worship the same God as the Jewish people. And we trust that. It is important that there are pious Jews living all over the world who are NOT taking part in this killing of Palestinian people and claim to not support it. In fact the more religious a Jewish person is the more against this killing of Palestinians they are I have recently learned. Secular Jews claim that this is due to “a conspiracy on their part because they are waiting for the Messiah to come and He can only come to earth if Jerusalem is being shared by both Jews and Muslims living in peace and the old temple is rebuilt”. This may be true — we know there are many Christians who believe the same thing; but at least it lends a basic humanity to these people.

I urge everyone to not make this a religious issue. I am sure there are just as many religious Jews who are as appalled by this as there are Christians or Muslims. And speaking of Muslims let us not forget that Hamas is continuously firing rockets into Israel STILL, even after over one thousand of the people they were elected to serve and protect have been killed. That is NOT the peaceful Muslim way of the Holy Koran.

No, this is not a matter of religion. And it never was. Don’t let anyone fool you. This war is about land and power and resources. These are a special breed of people — godless and wild, heartless, wrathful and vengeful — who are capable of things that most of us are not. They need our prayers more than we do — clearly religion isn’t going to help them one way or another. But more than that they need our voices. If we do not speak up to voice our dissent and our disagreement with what they are doing then are we not just as guilty as they are? Have we not seen enough innocent blood shed? Have we not heard enough excuses and soundbites why neither side will agree to a ceasefire?

Every talking head of note from the United States government came on prime news shows last Sunday and this past Sunday to defend Israel’s “right to defend itself”, while at the same time expressing “grave concern for the human rights crisis that we are witnessing in Gaza”. It’s hard to have it both ways, to both be concerned about AND support the cause of the crisis. By now Americans understand that there is more money and influence tied up in supporting Israel than anywhere on earth. This is why the United States allows this carnage to continue in the name of Israel’s self defense and even goes so far as publicly defending it and financially supporting it; and yet they did nothing for the people of Rwanda or Darfur, and will do nothing for the people of Syria today. Hell, we can’t even muster more than 300 “advisor troops” for Iraq while they’re having a bloody civil war and we basically bought that country. With our own money AND our own soldiers. Clearly there is something very special and unique about Israel. [If you’re curious about what it is, buy the book They Dare To Speak Out, which explains that AIPAC, the Americans for Israel Political Action lobby in DC is THE largest lobby in the US of A. Larger than big oil or big Pharma, larger than DuPont or Monsanto, later than GE or Apple or Google or Microsoft and yes larger than the Pentagon or our precious self-defense spending. In other words, more money greases the palms of elected American officials regarding “protecting Israel” than any other single subject or corporate interest in Washington DC. And in return those elected officials promise their public displays of affection and support AND hand Israel 3 billion dollars a year of American tax payer money. It’s a brilliant system. One that overtly should be illegal and criminalized, granted. But for now this is how the system works. If you ever wondered why the United States government pretends to care about “some people” and doesn’t seem to care at all about others, now you have a better understanding….]

This also helps explain why most of our friends over the last three weeks have been too busy posting photos of their Miami vacations or their allegedly cute kids on summer break to care about the crisis in Israel and Gaza: they just don’t believe there is anything that can be done about it. Most Americans know how the system works. They know that when it comes to Israel “anything goes” and that nothing they do as Americans is going to change that.

American Jews don’t have to dig too deep to understand why people all over the world repeat slogans like “the Jews run and control the world” when for all intents and purposes it appears just like they do once one sees and understands just how this American and Israeli exchange of money and weapons for political power works. What else are people supposed to believe?

How on earth are the American people supposed to be even remotely concerned with the plight of the people of Ukraine, as the US government is desperately trying to sell, if at the same time they are being told not to give a rats ass about women and children being slaughtered in Palestine? It just doesn’t add up. So instead they shut off that part of their brain, the caring part, the compassionate humane part. We aren’t designed inside to care only about “some” people. It’s just not how we work. After eleven years of bloodshed in the Middle East with over one million people killed by our money and soldiers, combined with Israel’s killing a thousand Gazans every few years with our money and weapons, how else are the American people supposed to feel?

Frankly I’m surprised we FEEL anything at all. But surprisingly some of us still do. But not many. And that is no surprise. We have become immune to feeling for other people. That’s why despite their best efforts, the White House and their media puppets cannot get the American people to care about Ukraine. There is obviously a lot of oil and natural gas on the line in that little country for our large hungry American appetite; and there may even be reasonably sound and practical strategic reasons for the United States to be there right now — or truly…why else would they be? But the American public just does not care. And who can blame them when their government is constantly picking and choosing which humans to care about and which ones to cast aside like rag dolls? The heart becomes confused. The heart becomes calloused.

And then there’s the fear. I can recite the names of at least twenty people I’ve spoken to this week who have expressed concern for what’s happening in Gaza; from the simplest down-home middle American folk to the highest paid most notable names in society. They use words like horrible, shocking, horrific, tragedy, disgusting, haunted…and yet there are only two who have said anything publicly about it. Only two have stood up to voice their disagreement with how Israel is handling their “self defense”. One of them is a pastor at a prominent church. Not only does he have a moral obligation to do so, but he has always been willing to play the black sheep when leading a charge for human rights. But the rest are afraid to say anything. Afraid isn’t the word. Scared to death is more like it.

Since when did speaking up for human rights or for the value of human life become a crime? Since when did these noble qualities equate to being racist or anti-Jewish? Since the formation of the American based Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Again, if you’re curious about how this system of indoctrination works and why it has been so easy to systematically shut up an entire country about the sanctity of human life unless they’re Jewish, see the film Defamation noted above. Only in America can one be made to feel like an evil racist in five minutes just for speaking out against violence or murder. Countries all over the world have been having marches and protests for weeks now to try to stop Israel from bombing the people of Gaza. But in America we are simply too jaded or too frightened to do so.

But I encourage all of us to lay down our self concern for a moment and embrace our humanity. Just as we did during World War II when we fought to save a people half way around the world from potential genocide, or during the civil rights movement right here at home twenty years later, we are being called upon once again to stand up and speak out on behalf of a desperate and displaced people, a people more economically poor than we can imagine and just as beaten down and trodden upon than those we helped save during World War II. These are a people who are literally being blown to bits like puppets right in front of our eyes every minute of the day, body parts flying around on live TV like an outtake of The Walking Dead — with absolutely no concern for their safety or welfare, nor a care for their futures or how they’ll survive once the killing stops.

People may lash out at you for speaking up. They may call you names. They may accuse you of being a racist or anti-Jewish. They may insult you and scream at you. They may accuse you of not understanding the issues or not caring about the welfare of the Israeli people. But just as before, do not be afraid. Do not be intimidated. Remind yourself and others that we are not speaking out against Israel. And we are not speaking out against Jewish people — for there are just as many Jewish people around the world speaking out about this cause as any other ethnicity and religion. What we ARE speaking out against is killing innocent people and the destruction of homes and whole villages in the name of “self defense”. Surely there has got to be a better way to defend oneself than to kill thousands of innocent people. Surely there is a morality at play in the hearts of all human beings that lifts us above the animal kingdom, even when it comes to self defense. What is there left to defend if we have given away all of our humanity in the process?

Lest we forget we the American people give the country of Israel over three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) a year of our hard earned income, in the form of OUR taxes. This is money that is NOT going to the poor people of Detroit or Louisiana or to safeguard our borders. This is money that is not going to feed our hungry or shelter our homeless. Instead it is going to Israel. Free of charge. Not a loan, but free money. And it’s been like this for decades now. Forget asking why for the time being. (For that is certainly a reasonable question when the time is right.) For now the question should be do we all really feel comfortable sponsoring such extreme and inhumane acts of killing innocent people? If the answer is resoundingly no then we have a platform to voice it and change this. Each of us needs to pick up that phone tomorrow and call the White House, our Senators and our elected members of congress and tell them to STOP THE KILLING IN GAZA OR WE WILL STOP PAYING FOR IT. I promise each of you that I will do this tomorrow. And I hope that each of you does the same.

Beyond that let us send love and appreciation to all parties involved with the hope that they feel it even for a moment in their hearts and that it somehow helps them to remember their own humanity and morality, guides them to lay down their arms and stop this madness.

Yours,

The Ambassador

Israel and Gaza: The Game Changer

July 22, 2014

Time has passed since this war begun fifteen days ago. Another 70 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, making the estimated death till now over 300. And another 2,500 at least are injured. Just as concerning over 100,000 Gazans have led their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs in an attempt to head to a United Nations bomb shelter. Many will not have homes when they return. They will be for all intents and purposes be destitute. But we must never forget that it was Hamas — in Gaza — who started this latest battle, by firing some 60 rockets into various cities in Israel. And it was the Palestinians who live in Gaza who voted Hamas into their current position of leadership, indirectly one could argue giving them permission or at least the means to attack Israel as they did.

Since my last report Israel began their ground invasion entering into Gaza in tanks and on foot. A whole hospital was destroyed today. And worse, the death toll for Israel now is almost 30. I’ve had time to revisit my heart of hearts in regards to Israel’s mission and method to achieve that mission, i.e. It’s right to defend itself and it’s people. So I’ve changed my mind about Israel being justified for this horror that we are all witnessing day in and day out.

In answer to all of the impassioned pleas from Israeli friends or American Jewish friends who ask “If you don’t believe our hearts break from the suffering of the Palestinians because we condone the killing of them in this war, what then would you have Israel do?” My answer would be: you know that Israel has the Iron Dome Missile Defense System. So less than 1% of rockets fired out of Gaza ever hit the ground. That’s an amazing technology. Thank God for it and thank God for the financial support of US taxpayers for all these decades. It could be MORE than just a way to engage in a bloody lopsided war with our wicked neighbors though. We could really use it to our advantage and instead of bombing Gaza and knowingly killing hundreds of innocent civilians we could instead hold an emergency press conference — EVERYONE would attend obviously — and announce to the world “Today Hamas fired 60 missiles into Israel. Luckily no one was killed or injured. But we believe this is a barbaric act and a blatant act of war. But we here in Israel are tire of war. We on the other hand refuse to stoop to their level. It is beneath us. It is against our Torah and our Ten Commandments. So we ask the international community, especially middle eastern countries who have good relations with Hamas, to do whatever it takes to immediately compel Hamas to stop firing upon us. We trust that everyone remembers what happened in 2012 when this happened and we were reluctantly forced to retaliate. Over 1200 Palestinians were killed. Many of them innocent. We would like to avoid a tragedy of the proportion from happening again. But we can only do so if Hamas ceases from this activity immediately. We ask our fellow citizens of earth to come to our aid both for the safety of our people and our neighbors in Gaza.”

Now. THAT would really be something. It would blow minds. It would instantly change the way the entire world looks at Israel. In a heartbeat. By taking the high road they could shift the entire conversation — away from sympathy for the Palestinians being slaughtered and focus it instead on Israel’s justifiable fears and their noble and humane response to being attacked.

In a word, it would be a revolutionary game changer. Something for the history books. Not just the history of Israel. But for the history of the entire human race.

Hamas needs salaries paid for 45,000 men. Qatar may pay it. As it does sometimes. Or it may instead choose to hold off on paying it until Hamas ceasefires. Israel could also ask, as part of its agreement to hold off attacking, for the Palestinians to hold a mid term election or hold a referendum election and consider voting Hamas out of leadership in Gaza. A third request could be that Israel request a two week peaceful exploratory boots on the ground investigation into Gaza to search for tunnels and other stores of rockets and armaments that they would be free to take and destroy as part of the agreement. Israel might also agree to having a neutral third party to assist them in this investigation so that force is only used if anyone’s life becomes endangered.

The ultimate goal being to have Israel be the first people in the world to finally live up to the true potential of a compassionate humankind and be that example for all of us all over the world. The US, the most brutal and active military force in the world today desperately needs a mentor and role model such as this. And so too do many other countries around the world. It’s long overdue that we each begin to encourage each other to take the higher road and not the primitive predictable barbaric road of the lower animals as we always have throughout our short history. Imagine the possibilities.

The point being: Israel does have other options when it comes to it’s stated goal of “needing to defend its people”. The Iron Dome is already doing that. Better than anyone could have ever hoped for. Kudos to the ingenious Israelis who invented it. And if the people of Israel are still frightened of these incoming missiles (which is truth be told hard to believe since they are not acting like it — especially since they literally stand right in the line of fire of said missiles target areas while watching Gaza get blown up as if it’s a spectator sport), then they could easily go into the multitude of bomb shelters that Israel has available for its people — at least for a few days. This is a major inconvenience granted. But a small thing to ask when the larger goal is going to be rising up to become the most noble admired and courageous country on earth in the eyes of the world overnight and most likely receiving a Nobel Peace Prize in the process.

Imagine that: Israel winning the Nobel Peace Prize. And deservedly. Unlike US President Obama. That would really be something. It would turn the whole conversation upside down and I believe would change humankind forever. There IS an alternative to what Israel has chosen to do. They DO have options. Just for the record let it be here noted. Israel is not out of options. They are not being forced to kill hundreds of innocent civilians. They chose to. Perhaps out of fear. Perhaps out of habit. Perhaps out of ego. Perhaps out of ignorance and not seeing a bigger picture to the bigger picture. But it wasn’t their only choice. It isn’t too late to change this game.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

– Posted by The Ambassador

(Not So) Happy Birthday To Me

October 20, 2013

It’s 6 am Sunday morning here. I’ve been home for a little more than 24 hours and still extremely jet-lagged; fell asleep at 7 or 8 o’clock last night and finding myself completely awake by 2 or 3 in the morning. I’ve been lying here since 3 am, in and out of light lucid dreams or reading with a flashlight while the rest of the house is dark, quiet and still fast asleep.

Re-integration back into what we call the normal world hasn’t been easy so far. I expected this but didn’t realize it would be so difficult. I can’t get the horrifying state of the Israeli-Palestinian situation out of my mind. In every way it’s a horror, from the heart aching and desperate occupation the Palestinian people live under to the big lie that Israelis are forced to constantly keep at bay from the rest of the world (not to mention what must be a terrifying fear of eventual retaliation…) It’s all I think about, all I’ve been able to think about since being there. It’s always simmering in my heart and mind. Front and center. All I’ve been able to think about is how soon I can return and in what capacity I can be of service when I do.

For some reason this trip was different. Different than all the others over the years. I spent an hour tonight between and 2 and 3 am reading one of the many socio-political books I’m in the middle of that analyze the history of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fell back asleep. Woke up an hour later, read a little more, and now here I sit writing in the cold and dark of night a few hours before the anniversary of the date and time of my birth.

Normally birthdays are a relatively celebratory event for me. Always have been. I’ve never been one to make a big deal of them one way or the other, as some people turn them into an easy opportunity to bitch about how much they detest getting older, I usually find them to be a pretty solid opportunity to take things easy and enjoy a day, recognizing that they really aren’t much but one more revolution around the sun. Another day has passed and that’s just about the most one can say about them. But this year is different. Truth be told I had completely forgotten that the anniversary of my birth was even near due to how intense and challenging this trip to Israel-Palestine was the last two weeks. There was barely time for food sleep rest or bathing, let alone the itinerant reading writing Hebrew studies and note taking. Birthdays were the furthest thing from my mind.

This morning at about 1:30 am I picked up my phone to take some notes in an attempt to relieve some of the maddening thoughts circling my conscious thoughts, hoping that perhaps that might make it easier to fall back asleep, when I noticed an inordinately large number of notifications from Facebook on my phone, most of them having something to do with birthday wishes. Europe and Asia must be awake now. It was a surreal feeling. I was half asleep. And had completely forgotten that my birthday was coming up. I had awoken in a heart pounding sad and tearful sweat, still shaken, angry and disturbed. The notice of birthday wishes appearing out of nowhere just made everything seem that much more surreal.

For the last two weeks I and the others on this latest trip to the Middle East had been living in a steaming cauldron of fast paced movement and action, of intense heat from the Mediterranean sun and the trauma of human suffering; of intense debate and a proximity to crisis and tragedy that even the most experienced among us were not used to. Refugee camps with hundreds of thousands of people living with little food and no water, an entire race of people living under an occupation that is at best unsympathetic to their suffering to say the least. Light hearted birthday wishes casually posted to social media in light of all this made for a disturbing return to what I had previously labeled as normalcy. I am not unappreciative. On the contrary. I am always and forever grateful to be the Ambassador, to have so many friends, to have so many good ones, and for the chance to forget if even for a moment why my heart feels so heavy and my head so achy.

If only I could shake the images from my memory. If only I could find within me a desire to. More than anything it is that: I find it challenging to believe that anyone cursed with seeing the plight of the modern Palestinian up close and in person in their own homeland could find within themselves a desire to feel anything but severe empathetic pain, an aching emptiness and an extreme anger. Birthdays be damned. What we witnessed is a crisis of staggering and historic proportions. Happening right now. In modern times. Right around the corner from our heavily glorious and material, cloistered, cynical and ironically perfect world. How could we all live and love so easily and not know about this suffering? How is it possible?

These were the thoughts that I fell asleep to every night for the last two weeks. And woke up with. The difference being that up until last night I was THERE, in the thick of it, still able to trick my mind into believing that being there I was somehow capable of doing something to help. Now that I am back in the States, being able to help feels like a far away notion. The relatively simple aspects of modern life in the US, even the problems, as severe as they may seem to some — joblessness, government shutdown, political gridlock — appear small and petty compared to what we saw on a daily basis in the ancient land of Canaan.

The idea that very soon I must force myself to awaken to a house full of smiles cheers and celebration, of sparkly balloons and glistening presents that I don’t really need, has my stomach in knots. I cannot blame anyone here for what I experienced nor for being unaware of how intense it was, nor for wanting to celebrate my birth. If anything I should be feeling thankful. And somewhere within me I am. Or at least I want to be.. They don’t know the extent of the Palestinian crisis any more than I did two weeks ago. Sure we hear about it now and then. But we hear about a lot of things. And that’s different than seeing any of it in person.

And that’s the problem really. That’s the BIG problem. When it comes to Israel/Palestine, we don’t hear about what’s really going on, not even a little bit. We hear a LOT about Israelis and their fear of Iran’s nuclear program, along with our mandatory obligation to assuage their fears with our unbridled support and sympathy. But we hear absolutely nothing about the real story on the ground in Israel: the millions of native people living under near apartheid circumstances in abject poverty under police state conditions constantly afraid for their lives and lacking in almost every basic human need like food water housing and electricity, let alone freedom and liberty. THIS is the story of Israel. And this is something we never hear about. At least not in America and certainly not in the mainstream press.

The real horror in Israel is that there is a massive coverup regarding how bad things are for the native population there, what the world calls the Palestinians; and the fact that decades are going by and nothing ever gets done on their behalf. In fact most people don’t even realize that there’s a problem. If anything, the majority of Americans assume the problem “over there” is “terrorism”, when that’s the least of the real problem. (In fact that’s a symptom of the problem, a logical effect of it, backlash from it…) What’s happening in Israel is nothing short of a slow systematic genocide of an entire people. A native people who have been there for thousands of years. Ironically being perpetrated by another people who know genocide better than most. That part only adds to the disturbing nature of the whole mess.

Unlike other places I’ve traveled to research or try to help, there is no UN or Red Cross or Red Crescent there working on things to make them better. In Colombia and Africa things were bad, yes, but one walks away with hope because the world community is fully awake regarding the tragedies of these places and doing their best to try to help. Hell, we helped while there, building houses or hospitals and community centers. Israel is different. Millions of people flock to the land as if it’s Asia’s Disney World due to the so-called scared sites there associated with the three major religions of the world and that’s what you see: mobs of tourists rushing in and out of tourist sites, bringing in a ton of money for the official government there, and in the meantime the West Bank and Gaza where the majority of the Palestinians live look like abandoned deserts filled with garbage and disease, poverty and despair; surrounded by giant concrete walls with a gun tower at every ten to twenty feet housing an armed Israeli guard inside of it casually aiming a machine gun down at the village people below.

There is no UN or Red Cross presence. No feeling of hope or encouragement that we are slowly improving their plight as in other areas if the world. It’s a terror zone filled with a forgotten and desperate people being controlled by another group of people who are living the good life thanks to billions of dollars in annual aid and military support by the United States and other major nations around the world. I can’t shake the sick twisted-in-knots feeling from my stomach. And I can’t seem to feel any desire at all to focus on anything small or meaningless here at home. Problem is, everything seems small and meaningless here compared to there. I’ve spoken to a few of the others who were also on the trip and they’re experiencing similar feelings. It’s not as if we haven’t seen poverty disease and despair before. We have. It’s our chosen lot in life so to speak. It’s a charge that we’ve deliberately answered with a resounding “YES we will help! It’s our duty to stand up and do our best to help and we will.”

But Israel-Palestine is completely different. I would never have said this before we went there. But there is a deliberate conspiracy on the part of the Israeli and American government to NOT recognize or inform the general public about what is happening there to the native Palestinian people. That’s the difference. In that respect it is similar to Arabia, where the United States claims to only support freedom and democracy around the world but is deliberately supporting a fascist monarchy — the Saudi family, who viciously controls the entire country calling itself “a royal family” — to the point where the entire world calls the damn place “Saudi Arabia” not knowing that the “Saudi” part refers to the fascist monarch family who is in control of the whole people and does whatever it wants to with them, all with the support of the United States government in return for access to cheap oil. This is one of those conspiracies that 99% of Americans know absolutely nothing about. The same is true of Israel-Palestine. I just didn’t know it.

Ever since I’ve been on American soil I haven’t been able to feel “good”. I just keep thinking of the refugee camps, filthy and rotten smelling, crammed with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families displaced from their homes for decades now and no access to water for days or weeks at a time. All the while the Israeli government has 100% control of and access to the water and knowingly dishes it out first to the Israelis, then to the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian land, and then last to the Palestinian people in the two designated plots of land left for them, less than 25% of the land they once roamed freely in for 3,000 years. A lack of access to basic needs like water is just one of the things you hear time and time again from every person you meet there… It’s hard to believe. You keep thinking that someone must have something wrong…. How can one group of people be so cruel to another…? And knowingly? But the more you study and learn and talk with people the more you realize that it’s just how things are there… It’s a savage set up. But it’s been that way for decades now. People have grown up with it. They’re grown accustomed to it.

It’s actually similar to Native American “indian reservations” in early America — except the Palestinians DO pay taxes and they are constantly bothered harassed and policed by the Israeli military. Besides the fact that their land is always slowly being encroached on and their homes slowly being taken away. I guess it’s more similar to the OLD way that indian reservations used to operate. Before the new US settlers nearly wiped them all out. But more than anything the real problem is that the “problem” is being deliberately hidden from the world. Americans hear about the safety and security of the state of Israel constantly. It’s one of the major talking points of American politicians. And for good reason: the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby in America is THE LARGEST lobby in America. Bigger than big oil. Bigger than pharmaceutical companies. Bigger than defense and weapons manufacturers. This means they donate more money to American politicians than any other industry in America. And money in America is how things get accomplished. No money = no attention or action for your cause. Big money = you’ll hear about the cause everywhere, from the side of cereal boxes to TV morning news shows. And that’s how America treats “the safety of the state of Israel”.

The only problem is that their safety is being promoted and protected at the expense of and on the backs of a native population there that is being highly discriminated against, abused and taken advantage of. To the point where I have serious concerns that if something is not done soon to help these people there might not be a Palestinian people around in another twenty years. I was always hesitant to jump on this particular bandwagon throughout my life as a human rights activist. I wanted to see and hear it first hand. Not just read about it. Sure I’ve read the same things everyone else has. The conspiracy about the Israeli lobby in America. The 3 billion dollars a year in aid and weapons we give them. The “inhuman genocide of the Palestinians at the hands of the wicked Israelis”… But when people talk all angry and conspiratorial and passionate like that it turns me off. Maybe they’re just being Chicken Llittles…? Looking for a cause instead of fighting for a real cause…. This is what I usually assumed.

Well now I’ve been there. Seen it with my own eyes. Smelled it. Touched it. Soiled myself in their fancy hotels while others just down the block go without basic needs for weeks at a time. It’s a sick set up. And it’s made all the sicker because of how secret and hidden it is. The activists who speak for the Palestinian people aren’t exaggerating. I can honestly vouch for that now. They’re not making it up. It has nothing to do with anti-semitism or terrorism. It’s just a very scared greedy and selfish people totally taking advantage of a weaker less supported and resourced people to the point where they may extinguish the very life out of them in our lifetime. As long as the rest of the world doesn’t become aware of how poorly Israel is treating the Palestinians, I honesty don’t think they are going to do anything to change it.

So perhaps that’s step one: get the word out. Birthday or no birthday, regardless of what happens to be going on in the moment, we need to be constantly reminding people that there is a problem. One that hopefully we can help resolve. Every time we met with a Palestinian family or a leader of some displaced group or activist group trying to make a difference — whether Jewish or Palestinian (yes there is a small but remarkable faction of Jews in the activist community in Israel working on behalf of the Palestinians and that IS hopeful…) we asked them “what can WE do? What would you like us to do when we get home?” The answer was always the same: tell people. Don’t let our story go untold. Time and time again we promised we would. Hugs would ensue as we said goodbye, off to another meeting, and we promised we would tell their story and not let it die out in our memory as so many experiences tend to do.

Today is hard. In every way. Hard because of the sudden reintegration into such a clean and healthy society primarily ignorant of most of the horrors of the world around us. It always takes a few days to get used to that. But I dare say that’s one of the greatest aspects of being American. As selfish as that may sound — we’ve worked hard to achieve the lifestyle we have and the freedoms we enjoy here. I am NOT one who believes that just because one part of the world is suffering that everyone should be. There’s no need for that. But it is important that we acknowledge what an incredible life we have here. And in addition that we do our best to help pull others up to their highest ideals. With the Palestinian people step one is just letting people know that there’s a problem. Just like South Africa pre-1990s or Darfur or Rwanda, mission control we’ve got a problem. A serious one.

Luckily in the age that we live in, learning about it and helping is just a few clicks away. The primary benefit of the Personal Expression Age is not just the increased ability to express ones self and the increased interest in the personal expression of others; surely these are big. But more than anything I still assert that the biggest advantage the world will take away from this age is it’s ability to produce rapid revolutionary change. On national and international levels the likes of which the world has only begun to see. We need one of those big revolutionary changes right now in the land we presently call Israel-Palestine.

Today it’s difficult to feel celebratory. Birthday or not. But I knew that months ago when I planned this trip. I knew I was sacrificing a birthday for something bigger. The greatest gift I can give to myself is to know that I followed through on my promises to all those people I met and interacted with, Jewish, Christian and Palestinian, that I wasn’t just talking or acting. I took a ton of notes each day to post, along with photos and videos. I don’t believe that there is any one thing that I can do myself to relieve anyone’s suffering there. The problem is just too big and out of hand. But I can certainly throw in with the others around the world who are also trying to help. And maybe together we can help slowly push this cause forward to a more peaceful and equitable place, to a more prominent position in the world’s consciousness. Today is a start.

As always, more later.

– Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone

Headed to Israel

October 4, 2013

Friday October 4th 2013

On the plane now. Have to fly from Seattle, WA to Newark, NJ, then take a car into the City. Will be staying with Boo Boo Kitty, at her apartment in Midtown, for the night and then meeting the group tomorrow at the JFK. From what I understand we are flying directly to Tel Aviv. A non-stop flight, which is always nice, though it’s something like ten to fourteen hours, which isn’t so nice. But certainly worth it. I’ve never been to Israel before. I know for many people, specifically Christians and Jews, a trip to “the Holy Land” is a dream come true. I’ve heard the way people talk about it over the years. You would think they died and went to heaven, met God himself, and returned to earth to talk about it. For the devout, this is the ultimate pilgrimage. Similar to the Hajj for people of the Muslim faith — the mandatory trip to Mecca that all Muslims are supposed to make at least once in their life. But of course this isn’t really a holy pilgrimage we are taking. More of a fact finding mission to one of the most volatile hotbeds of political unrest in the world today. One cannot escape the religious aspects of the trip, and I personally wouldn’t want to, being Christian.

But as a Civilian Diplomat, what interests me most is the attempt to gather as much data firsthand as I can about the land and the people, and to connect with as many people as I can in an attempt to create more peace in the world. I am invited to many countries every year, in various capacities, as a singer and recording artist or in a more diplomatic capacity. Because of my schedule I am forced to turn most of them down unfortunately. Israel is different. As more and more people are starting to understand, Israel is the center, the focus, of much of the political turmoil that we as Americans are forced to endure whether we like it or not. It is a deep, and heavily nuanced subject. Very few people are objective about it. Instead they feel immediately captured emotionally and feel a dire need to “choose sides”. Civilian Diplomats don’t have that privilege. In fact we make a commitment to not do that as part of the requirements to hold that title. Creating peace means choosing the side of peace and no other. Sometimes it is more difficult than others, easier to say than do. One of the first things that struck me about Israel/Palestine as a child is how vehement American politicians are in asserting their allegiance to Israel. To not do so usually means instant death to an American politician’s career. But why?

This got me to studying. From a very young age I was fascinated by the subject. What was the hold on American politicians? And why? Studied the subject for years. Read hundreds of books about it. First and foremost what you learn is that the Israeli lobby in Washington DC is the single largest lobby in the United States. It’s bigger than Big Oil, bigger than Big Pharma, bigger than weapons manufacturers and defense contractors. Meaning, they have more money at their disposal and more pull and influence with politicians than any other single industry in America. This was a shocking realization. It explained a lot. To publicly speak up about Israel in a negative fashion in any way, no matter how true or justified you might be, could literally destroy your career. We’ve watched it happen live and in real time to more than one well-meaning public servant in our own lifetimes. So it’s a given that if you’re going to enter American politics you have to at least pretend that “Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East and I will do anything to preserve their right to exist in peace”. But at what cost? That’s the question that occurs to many when they first start learning about the strong grip that Israeli lobby money has on American politicians and some of the questionable actions they’ve taken through the years to the native peoples of that land.

In the nineteen-eighties, an American congressman released a book that is still in print today called They Dare To Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby. I’ve provided a link to it on Amazon.com. It is one of the most popular and controversial books on the subject that’s ever been written and is continually updated by the author and publishers. It includes interviews with heads of state from countries all over the world and with many of America’s finest senators and congress persons. I first read it when I was in my early teens. I just read the latest version this year as a refresher. I was interested in what some of the newer politicians had to say. Since this book and many like it already exist, I do not feel the need to go into the details contained in the book here; I’ll just say that if global politics or peace interest you, this book will answer a lot of questions. There are very simple steps we can take as a nation that would do wonders in creating a more peaceful world, many of them having to do with the preferential treatment paid to Israel, especially in how that affects other countries such as the other Middle Eastern nations and Islamic ones. It’s an unfortunate fact that the United States got itself entangled in such a tricky messy web with Israel as it has. It’s part money, and it’s part religion.

Since I have received so many emails and letters from people asking me to explain just what the hell is going on in regards to Israel and the United States, let me try to address it here, before we head over there, in as briefly a manner as I can. We’ve already addressed the financial aspect of it. There is HUGE money to be gained by backing Israel, which means there is also huge influence and power in it. On the opposite side of the coin, NOT appearing to back Israel can literally mean the difference between having a job in Washington politics or not. This is the money aspect. But it goes deeper than that. Yes this big money aspect is big. And important. Similar in scope to banking or fracking or pharmaceutical companies or oil companies or defense contractors. There are some things in the world, industries, so mammoth and so influential, that you simply cannot go against them. To do so would be ruinous for your career. You realize very soon in your political career that regardless of how you feel personally, you are going to have to play ball with them and take their money. If you don’t, your opponents will. And they will win.

This helps explain why president Obama promised an administration of hope and change but backed Monsanto’s blocking any laws that allowed for the labeling of genetically modified foods (GMOs). His actions don’t speak about what he personally feels about the subject (I am sure he and the First Lady do everything in their power to assure that they and their children do not eat GMO foods) as much as just how big and powerful these forces are in the American political system. (Does this mean that we let him off the hook and label him a helpless victim? Certainly not. He took the easy way out and betrayed every single health conscious American citizen in that single cowardice act. He could have at least attempted to step up and speak truth to the American people about the issue. But instead he quietly signed away Americans’ rights to even knowing if their food has been genetically modified. It’s a frightening fact of just how far off the political system is in regards to being “of the people, by the people, for the people”. That seems a dead dream.) The same can be said for all the fracking that’s going on all over American and destroying small towns one by one faster than we can keep up with. But again, this doesn’t inform his personal or professional views on these subjects half as much as it simply illustrates to us all how powerful and unstoppable these particular industries are. Now take into account that AIPAC, the American political lobby for Israel is LARGER — as in has more money and power — than any other industry in America, including big oil and pharmaceutical companies, and you begin to see how powerful the money aspect of this issue is. HUGE.

But it isn’t just money. It’s also religion. And that’s even more disturbing than the money and power aspect, because it speaks to how insanely irrational some people are when it comes to religious beliefs, which doesn’t bode well for our ability to accomplish anything close to rational peace work in the world in the near term. In a nutshell, many Christians believe in “end of the world” prophecy. Much of it depends on which denomination a person is, but almost all Christians believe that Jesus is going to one day return to earth and save all the Christians. This is called “The Second Coming” or “The Rapture”. What he’s going to be saving them from is a giant mess of war, disasters, famine, disease, pestilence, and general destruction that is supposed to wipe out at least one-third of all of humanity and render the earth a dastardly messed up, destroyed and unlivable war zone. This is called “Armageddon”. After the rest of the “non-Christians” on earth endure all these hardships for a few years, then Jesus will return to earth again and create an everlasting peace on earth that will last for one-thousand years. True story. Not making this up.

None of the different Christian denominations can agree on all the details exactly, because they’re basically making it all up, taking little bits and pieces of different phrases and verses here and there from various different translations of the Old and New Testaments. So it’s hard to piece it all together even if you’re a avid lifetime scholar of the subject, which I have been for years. But suffice it to say that the main aspect of it that appeals to Christians is this idea of “Jesus returning” and “saving them”, which will show everyone else that they were right all along and serve as a kind of vindication for all the craziness, horrors and terrible mistakes of the last two-thousand years of Christendom.

In order for these things to transpire, certain other things need to happen. They’re “prophesied”. In the Bible. These are called prophecies. There are many of them, depending on whom you listen to. One of the things prophesied was that the Jewish people would be allowed to return to the promised land (Israel) after years of exile after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. This happened in 1948 when a very few wealthy and powerful people created the new country of Israel. This is called “a fulfilled prophecy”. Every time one of these prophecies is fulfilled it further serves to encourage people who believe in these things to believe they are right. The Jews returning to Israel was a big one. For thousands of years it seemed like a ridiculous impossible pipe dream. So the fact that it happened really amped a lot of people up. Sort of reinvigorated many believers into rethinking their doubts that these bible prophecies might not be true.

Now it just so happened that this new country of Israel was smack dab where the country of Palestine was. But that’s disputed because some people claim that “Palestine was never really a country, but just an area of “Arabia in general in the Middle East in general”. (Interestingly I happen to have a stamp collection book that was given to me by my father which was given to him by his father and if you open the page to the Ps, there are three pages dedicated to the country of “Palestine” where one can stick all the Palestinian stamps they’ve collected. I also have an atlas of my grandparents that has two pages dedicated to the country of Palestine, and sure enough it’s located right where it’s always been on the map, where Israel is now. Of course any reading of any history book written in the last two-thousand years will also mention Palestine and Palestinians as well.) But again, this fact is still disputed — that the country of Palestine ever existed. Hardcore Israel defenders will swear that Palestine never existed and that for two-thousand years that was just a sort of “no-man’s land”. In regards to the millions of Palestinian people who lived there, they will claim that they never did. That there is “no such thing as a Palestinian and that they all just roamed there recently from either Jordon or Lebanon after the Israeli people rebuilt the land up.” Unfortunately I’m not making this up. People really do think and speak this way.

I am sure we will learn plenty more about this once we land in Israel/Palestine. But back to the end of the world. So the Jews have now been allowed to return to the promised land (also known as Zion; hence the term Zionism, which roughly translates to the movement started in the late 1800s to lobby for a permanent home for the Jewish people where they could be free to live in peace and not be constantly afraid for their lives or abused or enslaved. Post World War II, the Zionist movement became a reality, and though the Zionists had three countries in mind — Palestine, Chile, or Argentina — the powers that be at the time, Great Britain and the United States, eventually gave them the area known as Palestine as their permanent home. (Furthermore, this helps explain why certain world leaders, like the president of Iran for example, speak angrily about “Zionist” but not Jews or Jewish people. They aren’t anti-Jew. They like Jews and embrace Jews. What they’re against is the Zionist movement because it displaced an entire country full of other people. Hopefully this helps shed light on this rather confusing subject.)) So the Jews have returned to Israel and created a country there. That was one big prophecy, fulfilled.

Some of the other prophecies that need to be fulfilled before Armageddon can begin and the big man can return to earth are as follows: The great city of Damascus will be destroyed pillar by pillar till it is unrecognizable (that one is happening right now in front of our eyes through the ongoing Syrian civil war); Israel and Palestine will sign a peace treaty promising to share the city of Jerusalem; this will allow Israel to rebuild the Temple; an anti-Christ will appear on earth as a very revered and holy figure (many so-called prophecy scholars claim it will be a pope from the Catholic church — remember that protestant Christians are not big fans of Catholicism. They’ve been fighting for centuries.)

Before we head to the big finish, for context, and to be fair, let us remember that most of the world religions have this same end of the world/rapture theory tied up in their religion. Even the Native Americans have a prophecy that The Great Bear Spirit will return to create peace on earth forever. The Jews are still looking forward to their prophecy that The Messiah will come to earth to vindicate God’s Chosen People and create peace on earth. This will be his “first coming” because they do not recognize Jesus the Jew as the Messiah, but rather consider him a criminal who was justly punished for his crimes(?); the Muslims/Islam has the same prophecy except that it will be The Twelfth Imam who will return along with Mohammad on his right side and Jesus on his left side. All three godly men will be wearing flowing white robes and appear out of the blue flying in the air and descending out of the clouds to descend to earth. Not making this up. Everyone is pretty much waiting on the same thing, just with slightly different versions of the same story.

So… over the last fifty years Christian churches all over the Americas, both North and South, have collected tens of billions of American dollars to give to Israel. Israelis and Jews don’t believe in Armageddon or Jesus of course; nor do they believe in the prophecy that he is going to return to earth in The Rapture or Second Coming and save people from anything. But as my Jewish psychiatrist said to me the other day “that doesn’t stop them from taking all that money”. No, it doesn’t. Not only has the government of Israel received more tax-payer funded “aid money” from the government of the United States than any other country in the world over the last fifty years, Israel has also received tens billions of dollars in additional money from all these American Christian churches who collect it “to defend the State of Israel so that they may rebuild the Temple so that Jesus can return once more and save us all”. No matter how you feel about the subject, just as an experiment, turn on one of the Christian TV networks for a few hours and just watch it. You will see countless advertisements and solicitations begging you to send in money to be sent to Israel to defend it so that Jesus can return.

Now I know what you’re thinking. This is madness. It’s crazy talk. Sounds like I’m making it up in one of my sarcastic satires. But I’m not. Any dedicated born again Christian worth their weight in Dead Sea salt believes this stuff and thus, regardless of how silly the Israelis think all this is, it has afforded them a ton of free money to build up a massive weapons system and a just as massive propaganda machine to defend themselves against any naysayers regarding their sometimes brutal human rights abuses against the native peoples of this disputed land. As you can see, it’s not just money and influence that controls the reigns of American politicians in regards to Israel; it’s also a deeply seated religious belief that Israel must be defended in order for the prophecies of Jesus’ second coming to be fulfilled. Religious beliefs can be powerful motivators, sometimes much stronger than money and political influence even.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that it isn’t JUST money and power and religion that are running the show here. There is, to be fair, also the fact that Israel IS a democracy and an American ally in that region. The fact that the Jewish people of Israel are relatively secular and non-religious helps make them a pretty tame and non-radical people to deal with compared to some of the other more radical religious countries of the Middle East. Thus the United States being able to have that country there, smack dab in the middle of a hotbed of historical madness and chaos, with the concurrent ability to have U.S. military bases and airstrips there, helps the U.S. a lot strategically. Between their bases in Israel and in Saudi Arabia, they can guarantee a military strike on any country in the region within minutes. And that’s clearly the most important thing to the United States in its ongoing quest to master and control the 21st century in the same way it did the 20th century.

Besides this rather jaded and cynical view of the scene (anyone with a scant knowledge of recent history would agree that this, though perhaps a scathing view of U.S. foreign policy, is a fair assessment of the way things just happen to be presently), we must also acknowledge that the kind of freedom and liberty that we enjoy in the United States is definitely preferable to the more inhumane and fascist systems that are practiced in many of the Muslim nations in that region of the world. We do have it better than great in the United States. And part of the reason for it is because no other nation on earth dare attack us or our way of life. Which is what gives us the freedom to live such free and easy lives. No matter how cynical or jaded or angry we get with the dishonest, unjust, arrogant and brutal foreign policy that the United States government and military practices all over the world in our names, we must still recognize that it does afford us a ridiculously enjoyable lifestyle as citizens of this very free society. We are eternally lucky to have been born here, in the United States of America, at this time in human history.

Okay, so that’s the set up. That’s what’s going on. I hope this helps answer many of your questions. Yes it’s completely corrupt (in regards to the money and influence aspect of the Israeli lobby and its control over American politics), and it’s completely crazy and irrational (in regards to these whacky religious prophetic beliefs that keep us forever defending a country no matter what they do). But it’s reality. It’s a reality that has bred tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of enemies for the United States around the world. When we see flag burning on TV, there are valid reasons for it. I am sure we will learn a lot more of it while we are over there.

For my part, as you already know, I spent this entire year doing homework to prepare for the journey. I spent a year relearning Hebrew. And I spent an additional two to three hours a day reading as many books as I could on the history of Israel, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the Jewish-Arab conflict.

Note: that last phrase is a misnomer. Palestinians are NOT Arabs. Just as Iranians are not Arabs. Iranians originally came to the Middle East from the North, the Caucuses Mountain region just south of Russia (hence the term Aryan: the word Iran comes from Aryan. Persian comes from the word Parse, the name the Greeks gave the people and land when Alexander the Great invaded their country. They renamed themselves Iranians to reclaim their heritage.) Palestinians are not Arabs either. They’re Palestinians. They were born in and grew up over the last five thousand years in the same area, the area we have been calling Palestine for the last two-thousand years; the area we now call Israel/Palestine. Yes, they are for the most part either Christian or Muslim. But that’s as close as it gets to Arab. The reason why the conflict is sometimes referred to as “the Jewish-Arab conflict” is simply because the entire region — what used to just be called Arabia and is now majority Muslim — is largely against the formation of the State of Israel because it displaced all the people who already lived there, the Palestinian people, who are mostly Muslims (or Christian) and so they are looked at as their brothers and sisters. To call people of that region of the world Middle Eastern makes sense. To call them Muslim makes sense. But to call them Arabs doesn’t make sense.

Other interesting notes to consider before we get there: if we are to believe that the Old Testament (what the Jews call The Torah, the Books of Kings, the Books of The Prophets, etc — yes they read and consider sacred many of the same books as Christians do as odd as that seems) is a historical document (to a certain degree… I mean most of it actually reads more like myth and legend obviously) then we must remember that the Jews and the Palestinians are actually the same people, descended from the same people, just cousins of each other. We all know that these two people lived in this region of the world for thousands of years together, sometimes at peace, oftentimes at war with one another. The bible is full of stories of their fighting and wars. But originally they were all part of the same family. The family of Abraham. The Jews revere Abraham. He is their Godfather so to speak. So too do the Islamic people. (Muslims revere him as a prophet. Many people don’t realize this. But Adam, Abraham, King David, Noah, Moses, Joseph and even Jesus are all highly respected and holy prophets of the Muslim faith). For good reason do they revere Abraham. For he literally is the grandfather of both people.

If you look up the family tree of the Jewish people OR the Islamic people, you will see that Abraham had children with two different women: his wife Sarah, and his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar (that was due to trick on his wife’s part by the way supposedly. He didn’t know he was sleeping with her. He thought it was his wife. She supposedly tricked him, or so the story goes.) But his wife bore him a son named Isaac, which is from where all the Jewish people on earth come from. And from Hagar he had a son named Ishmael, which is from where all the Palestinian people/eventually Muslim people come from.

Another interesting fact is this: Many people are familiar with the Biblical story of this strange “god” who wanted to “test Abraham’s dedication to him” so he ordered him to go out to the desert and sacrifice his only son to prove his love for god and then in the last minute just as Abraham was about to plunge a knife down into his son’s chest, this god ordered him to stop and said “relax old man; it was only a test. Here look, there’s a goat/ram/lamb for you to sacrifice instead”. But get this. It doesn’t actually mention in the Bible which son it was. So the Jews consider this a very very important and sacred story and have chosen Abraham as their great and noble godfather figure and believe that the son in question was Isaac. The Muslims also believe this to be a very very sacred and important story, proving how noble and dedicated Abraham was as their holiest of holy godfather figure, but they believe that the son in question was Ishmael. Both religions tell and retell this story all the time but do so with the son character being different. One is the father of the Jewish people and one if the father of the Muslim people.

It’s a fascinating and revealing fact that human beings are still at the point where they can be so devoutly committed to something as a religion and yet be well aware that they aren’t even 100% sure of the details of one of their most important historical facts. This will prove very telling in our upcoming mission I am sure.

So this is all background. I know it’s been a lot. And I don’t blame you if you’ve not made it through all of it. God knows it’s taken me decades to gather all of this information. I wouldn’t expect anyone to absorb it all in an hour. But I’m stuck on a place for seven hours. More importantly, all of it, every single idea herein, will most likely be very telling and important on this journey that we are headed towards. Israel and Palestine may be mere countries full of people. But I find it hard to consider or visit them outside of their respective religious and historical backdrops.

Every time I visit a country to study its culture and learn a foreign language, I start a new leather journal to make notes about the language in. It’s become quite the tradition and I take a lot of pride in the collection of leather books I’ve amassed, one for each language. I have seven now, because I have formally studied seven foreign languages. Nine really. But I’m not counting Twi and German because even though I visited Ghana, I didn’t formally study the language, and I haven’t yet done any immersion courses in German. So I don’t count those two. (even though I put in a ridiculous amount of time into learning German for a year. Talk about a difficult language!) The picture attached is the book I purchased for Hebrew. I have filled it about halfway with notes from my studies thus far — things like “hello, how are you? I’m fine, my name is, where is the bathroom, thank you” etc. The other half I will fill while there just from being bold enough to be willing to constantly ask people “how do you say _____?”

In terms of my ideas and feelings about the different languages, which is something I am constantly asked about, yes language is certainly a passion. Since we’re on a place with nothing to do but read more history, let me offer this: my favorite would be Italian and Portuguese tied for first place — in terms of how beautiful they sound. I know some people who don’t prefer the sound of Portuguese oddly, but I think it’s absolutely beautiful. Besides that, it does something to my heart, an emotional tug, in a way that only Italian does. This pull from Italian makes sense. I am half Italian and raised in a home where Italian was the primary language spoken. So it’s both close in heart to my childhood nurturing and genetically. But Portuguese there’s no explanation for. Perhaps a past life… When I hear it, I just get a very special inexplicable feeling, as if I spoke it all my life and it holds a special familial meaning for me.

A close second place is French. It too is extremely sonorous to listen to. Something very sensual about it. To the ear that is. But not to the mouth. It’s rather strange on the tongue, French. As if the people who created it had some slight deformity in the lip region of their faces and were constantly puckered up in the lips. It’s quite unfathomable really to think about how and why they created a language where the mouth needs to be puckered up the whole time. Similarly to how in Farsi they created their language where one is constantly having to use the back of one’s throat and tonsils to make this very uncomfortable guttural sound, a “gla” sound, as if they were choking on something and trying to pull it up… or how in Hebrew they created their language to have all these very heavy sandpaper-scraping growl-like sounds as if they were always clearing their throats when first developing language. Hebrew is a very rough and bumpy language. Not smooth or suave. In fact the opposite of smooth and suave. Downright nails against the chalkboard. Heavy. Rough. Spanish can be that way too, depending on what dialect you’re speaking. But in a very different way. I cannot hear English objectively because I’ve been speaking it my whole life. I do know that when in a foreign country and you hear a group of people speaking English when you haven’t heard it in a while, it has a tendency to be very intrusive. Noisy. Loud. Not elegant. American English specifically. It’s certainly no French or Italian. But again, I can’t really hear it objectively. I’m always curious how non-native speakers hear English.

In terms of learnability, Spanish is by far the easiest second language to learn. It’s completely phonetic. Nothing tricky. Follows rules and doesn’t veer too far off from them. Though the whole masculine/feminine thing will definitely throw you at first. The idea that every day to day word is either masculine or feminine and that’s what dictates it’s suffixes and articles. That’s rather annoying. French, Italian, Portuguese, Farsi and even Hebrew do the same, but Hebrew takes it to a whole other level. EVERYTHING is gender based. Even adjectives and adverbs. Like nothing I’ve ever encountered. And there’s no rhyme or reason to it. You just have to memorize every single word. It’s crazy hard to learn. Besides being difficult to understand and speak. Takes a lot of practice. And patience.

If being The Ambassador is anything more than just attempting to be a nice open-minded person who sees all people the same way, then it’s the fact that he sacrifices and dedicates a ridiculous amount of his free time to learning the language of the people he wishes to plug into and get to know. If there were any money to be made in being The Ambassador I’d be a very wealthy man. But alas this is all just to titillate the brain, nurture the heart and try to make the world a slightly better place.

Having done this in several other countries already, I know what to expect to a certain degree. More than many. On the other hand I do not pretend that one experience will be like any other nor that one trip will help inform any future ones. For each country on earth, each people and culture, is entirely different. We are united in our shared humanity. But most of the time that seems to be where the similarities begin and end. If you’ve ever smashed a live monkey’s head in with a small hammer in order to eat its brains (considered a delicacy in China and Indonesia) then you already know this. I’ve seen much in my travels. I have no idea if I’ve done anything remotely close to help increase the amount of peace in the world. But I pray I have. Or why bother? I always look back on the first time I went to Brasil and especially in the lesser known areas when the people would discover you were from America and were attempting to speak their language, they would act so thrilled and honored. Super happy just from your being there and speaking their language. The same experience in Iran. They treated us as if we were aliens from another planet. They were absolutely in awe to see Americans up close and in the flesh. And when they discovered the reason for our visit, “to help foster more peace”, they were even more trilled and happy. These experiences give me hope. For what we are about to do. I know it will take much more than any of us have the energy or time for in this life. But I do hold out hope that we can one day see peace in the Middle East. Not for any religious ideal, but simply out of a sincere love for humanity. Shouldn’t that be enough?

TheTranscendenceDiaries

Tag: Israel

The Mask Is Off — Pro-Palestinian/Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism

Like this:

What’s Happening In Iran & Why It Is So Important

Like this:

Challenging Times

Like this:

Removing the Cross from Christendom

Like this:

The Need for Peaceful Reconciliation

Like this:

Questioning the Morality of Self Defense In Israel

Like this:

Israel and Gaza: The Game Changer

Like this:

(Not So) Happy Birthday To Me

Like this:

Headed to Israel

Like this: