Tag: violence

August 21, 2014

Counterterrorism

The purpose of terrorism is to provoke a response. The purpose of the provocation of response is to create martyrs. The purpose of the creation of martyrs is an army of enthusiastic especially young men in search of glory and sex. The purpose of the creation of an army is the replacement of old political order with a new order.

The purpose of counterterrorism should be the defense of one’s population, even better, the defense of all life. The actual function of counterterrorism is the strengthening of the police state and weapons sales. The actual function of political counterterrorism by politicians is to create votes. The purpose of the creation of votes is the maintenance of the power structure and strengthening of the state.
Thus the cycle is complete. For when the counterterrorists respond with appropriate excessive violence to the bait of the terrorists both achieve their purpose. And then …
August 13, 2014

The Brain War

An international outpouring of grief over unnecessary human losses from depression has led to a startling conclusion: the truth that occurs to the human brain is often absolutely not the truth.
The same can be said of the human brain on war and the human brain on nationalism. The brain on nationalism is a brain on cocaine. is a brain bent on unreality. is a brain that is damaged.
The human brain on nationalism finds it impossible to express anything. to experience any new fact other then in how it affects the balance of power between his nationalism and everyone else’s nationalism.
There could be a statement on a flower and it will be reinterpreted in terms of national defense, national attack, national opportunity.
I am persuaded by extensive evidence that most human brains are capable of being rewired. But it takes hard work and the failure to do so …
August 5, 2014

Mirror Neurons and the Missing Middle / Armor

MIRROR NEURONS AND THE MISSING MIDDLE

Mimicry, the compulsion of humans to mirror their postures, facial expressions, and enemy war cries. Hence, many recent posts on FB and Twitter.

ARMOR

Wisdom says welcome criticism, but thin skin cracks and bleeds. The
violent one has a thin skin, which is why he needs steel, but the
nonviolent one has no need of steel. His skin is strong but steel is
always piercing it. This is a paradox. It evokes prayer in some.

…
July 30, 2014

Berlin in Gaza / Men at War / Mother of Life

BERLIN IN GAZA
At a certain point in every Israeli war fighting the Holocaust, there is a moment when the superior fire power merely rearranges the rubble of Berlin. Then depression sets in, reality sets in. You can’t bomb your way to safety, Hitler is still dead, there is still no peace, for this enemy can only be beaten with reconciliation not obliteration. Then they turn to us again, too proud to ask, we impoverished, bloodied, no resources, except our wounded open hearts.

MEN AT WAR
Men at war above all cannot abide their own impotence, and so they smash everything and everyone insight as a distraction.

MOTHER OF LIFE
Most important person in Jewish history? Not Abraham, not Moses. Beruriah. Hate the sin, not the sinner, hate the ideology not the ideologue, wish that crimes cease from this earth, not criminals.
The only path to life from Jewish …
July 29, 2014

Essential to Peacebuilding

Essential to Peacebuilding is learning to accept blows, bad ones. How can we expect Israelis or Syrians or Iraqis not to become killers after suicide bombs on their streets or Palestinians not to become Hamasniks after losing everything if we cannot happily accept insults?
Education does not matter on these challenges. It is education of the heart that allows you to accept blows for the greater good of peace.

(Photo source: Belfast Telegraph)…
July 24, 2014

Note from the War Front to Fellow Jews

The relationships between loving Jews and Arabs, even in Gaza right this moment, is plainly evident. I get reports every day. But it is hard to imagine for those who carry suspicion and fear and loathing of one side. But let’s talk about the strategic and moral and rational necessity of empathy. Hamas is their only defense right now. Hamas is not seen as the oppressor thanks to the twelve year siege and the constant wars. They WOULD be seen as such if anyone had a chance to live a normal life in Gaza. Would you have seen the Stern Gang as an oppressor in 1945, with both the British and the Nazis bearing down on you and the Mufti siding with the Nazis, even if you hated their philosophy of violence against civilians? You don’t have to approve of Hamas, you can consider them criminals, they are. But you …
July 23, 2014

Mother/Father in a Time of War

Fear pervades,
Terror strikes the land,
We need our mother/fathers.
Earth is been struck by a few Father/Mothers of Death,
Marching their Children into murder/suicide.
So we become Father/Mothers of Life,
We become Hava,
Em Kol Chai, Mother of all of Life.
The Secret of Creation is not an original Mother/Father of all Humans,
though that too science claims.
The Secret is that only Mother/Fathers of every human,
Save as all humans from each other.

(Photo source: Nutrition and Beyond)…
July 22, 2014

Reflections in My Middle Eastern Mirror

Compassion fatigue.
Strange expression.
What is the fatigue?
Too much suffering,
Too many people crying,
Too many dead bodies,
Too many people
Demanding that I love them,
But only them,
That I see only their tears,
As they fall upon the bloodied bodies
That once laughed
and danced
and cheered.
Ask me for compassion
And I will refuse.
Ask me who are you?
Ask a peacemaker,
Who
the
fuck
are
you?
Look at that goddam mirror,
Do you know any more?
Or does everything bleed red,
In the cracked mirror,
Which you broke,
In a fit of rage?
…
July 21, 2014

Victims and Perpetrators: A Twisted Dance

Victims will always want their story told no matter how bloody. no
matter how gory, no matter how outrageous. Perpetrators will always want to
ignore the very same thing.

Victims will always be outraged by crimes committed, whereas
perpetrators or their relatives will always be outraged by the report
of crimes. For one died at the hand of the crimes, whereas the other
died at the hand of the report. One lost their bodies, and one lost their souls.
…
July 16, 2014

What “We” Must Do Right Now For Palestine/Israel, Not Governments

There are important next steps being debated for what states can and should do to stop the current war, and set the stage for ending the current cycle of violence. That is not my subject. I thought recently that leaders are followers and followers are leaders, and neither knows it. The fact is that people and their individual initiatives have much more impact on the course of history than is acknowledged by government officials, by cynics, and by those too apathetic, too callous, or too fearful to act. If you are in that category, do not read forward. Just go back to Al Jazeera, Fox and CNN and choose a side. Or go back to Jon Stewart and have a good laugh.

Here is what is necessary, efforts that have worked before in history in changing the available information available to all parties so that more rational and more morally …