Our Israel & Palestine: A Sobering Tale of ... Faith.

Yusuf Kemal
Jun 24
15 min read

Let us remember the pale blue dot we are all inhabiting.

Carl Sagan’s words are needed and can offer us light in these dark times more than ever. We need not drown in an ocean of suffering instigated by the floodgates of our grudging hearts. We need not hold pain and resentment in our souls, accumulating spite and malice inside of us. We need not poison our souls, nor burden our tender hearts with such anguish or umbrage.

A friend of mine, a fellow writer, Mr. Mitch Davidowitz framed it so eloquently, "We are collectors of hurt, placing them in scrapbooks of resentment." Indeed. We pertinaciously and perversely hold onto the viscid threads of hatred and indignation, and when we get entangled into the intricate and shackling webs that we ourselves have architected, we blame the universe for it. We blame each other for it.

We need not manufacture our own suffering.

The illusion of separation is oldest trick in the book of the human psyche. It is pernicious, perfidious and perilous. Nikola Tesla's words couldn't be more timely as we learn to navigate these tempestuous waters of our temporal ocean: "We are all one. Only egos, beliefs, and fears separate us."

One of the ways we heal is through choosing to see the role we play in the creation of our suffering. We can muster that lacking courage to look in the mirror. We need not get lost in the sisyphean endeavor of trying to evade polishing it. When we come to that mirror with such genuine ameliorative intentions, we stand in the empowering territory of forgoing the need to hide it.

A fellow writer of mine once wrote,

"Many years ago I heard myself saying, 'I can no longer deceive myself as sincerely as I once did that my fingerprints are not all over the conflicts of my life'. It was a profound shift into becoming aligned with truth."

And perhaps what we ought to wish and hope for is to have the courage to look into our mirrors with the intention of polishing it. When we choose to approach that image in the mirror with the intention to befriend it, we grant ourselves the sacred opportunity to let it teach us to look at ourselves in ways that offer freedom. It is here that the road to true liberty resides.

In these tough and uncertain times, we are often finding ourselves weary. We are drowning in information yet starving for wisdom. We get lost in a boundless ocean of labels. We feel as if everything has to be judged. Everything has to be put into predetermined boxes. But this notion betrays us, as we incognizantly float through our lives thinking this is normal.

Fear is at the roots..

The greatest sages and teachers of our civilization admonished us against of the roots of this tree: Fear. Our reptilian brains our wired to fear that which we do not understand. When we don't take the time to understand each other, we deprive our souls of the chance for peace.

There is no need to add to our suffering by allowing our minds to transport us into fabricated scenarios or to a time that has gone by. We simply have to choose to love in the present moment.

I once read the following text online:

"Fear is everywhere. And, once we acknowledge its presence, we can make better decisions. The people we date, the jobs we take, the daily choices we make—all have outcomes that can be driven by a fear that dwells within us: the fear of being alone, the fear of not being enough, the fear of looking foolish, etc. And the only way to overcome a fear is to first admit that you have one—which we all do—because we all fear something. The reality is this: fear isn’t going anywhere. Fear is not to be eliminated; it is to be understood, then overcome."

We are masters at creating our own suffering. We are exceptionally adept at drawing pictures of tigers on rocks, take it to be real, and run away. But we fail to see how we play that role. And we fall victim to the very ghosts we create, like a mad scientist in horror over the Frankenstein he contrived. We need not fear another soul. We need not let fear hold us back from being who we truly are. Fear is to the mind, what toxin is to the body.

When we don’t take the time to listen to one another, we prevent ourselves from understanding each other. And since we, as humans, fear that which we do not understand, it ends up being that not understanding each other, leads to fear. And fear leads to distrust. Distrust leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. And hatred, leads to suffering. So we end up architecting our own pain and continually setting ourselves up for disappointment.

Maya Angelou's words represent a timely reminder of hatred's inherent futility:

"Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet."

I invite you to quiet your mind, feel your soul, and listen to your heart and intuition. What does it tell you? What do you feel? Become a spacious entity of cosmic emptiness, floating through space and time. Feel it. Let go of everything you think you know. Release any thought you have of who you think you are. Let go of those clingings. No identities, no judgements. No roles, no assumptions. No expectations, no disappointments. If you weren’t who you are, who would you be?

The need to control is irreconcilable with coexistence

Our problem is that we follow our demons into an empty road, hoping that it would fill the emptiness within us. We get lost in an ocean of labels. We use them to ruthlessly judge others. We get mad at them for not behaving in the way expect them to, or the way their labels have them depicted. The secret to peace resides in the moment we realise the role we play in such self-engendered suffering. We then begin to realise that a lot of our suffering is caused by how we think the universe should be, and our inability to allow it to be as it is.

Indeed, the antithesis to coexistence is control. Acceptance and tolerance cannot thrive in the presence of such confining constraints. When somebody doesn't act in alignment with our model of how they 'should' behave, it's actually our problem for having models in the first place. We need not try to control everything, not even people's behaviors or reactions towards us. Other people are just being other people, it is actually us who are mercilessly using others to play out our own version of reality and the self.

The acceptance of the need to letting go of our desire to sculpt another soul into being a certain way, offers us the gift of freedom. I like to remind myself that the desire to fix another soul is nothing but an active avoidance of the neglected self. When we name and recognize the underlying mechanisms and thought processes by which our actions are determined, we gift ourselves the beauty of self-awareness. Lovingkindness can only come as a result of such courage.

We often fall into the entrapment of thinking that things are supposed to be a certain way. We need not exacerbate the pain we feel in these dire times for our siblings in Ukraine and the Middle East by flaming the flames of our heart and allowing our minds to transport us out of the present moment into dreary wastelands of fury, hatred, cynicism, distrust or resentment.

As we learn to navigate these tumultuous waters, we begin to see the value in learning how to stand still. The freedom that comes with letting go of that which we cannot control, is the key to be in harmony with the universe. We need not get into fights with reality that we know we'll lose. The universe shall turn as it wishes, and we must turn with it. As Epictetus taught us "There is only one way to happiness. Stop worrying about things you cannot control."

I once read the saying "What messes us up the most in life is the picture in our minds of how it's 'supposed' to be." The empowerment of love lies in accepting another soul for who it is they are. When we learn to let go of our desire to control another soul, we stand in peace.

Judgement is the culprit..

We all carry burdens unseen, most of which were created by our minds. We are master architects at creating these illusions. The illusion of separation and labels is one of them. We are master illusionists, that keep on creating illusions, to escape the real illusion that is life, and then wonder why nothing feels real anymore.

Judgement is at the heart of it all. We usually judge another soul based on one chapter of their life. When we do so, we close our heart and perpetuate our suffering and theirs. When we focus on that one chapter or clip in their life and judge them unfairly based on it, we miss the movie.

Maya Angelou's timeless words ring a bless of sage wisdom in these times:

"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."

We need not judge another soul, we just have to work on ourselves. One of my favourite mentors and guides, Ram Dass, had encapsulated it beautifully: “Working on myself as my offering to others, and working with others as a way of working on myself."

When we acknowledge the role we play and realise how fear makes us so judgemental and critical, we begin to raise our vibrational frequency to new heights. It is in this empowerment that we begin to recognise that fear and judgement have the exact same address. The light of lovingkindness can offer us a way forward. We can always remind ourselves that, the universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

"War itself is, of course, a form of madness. It's hardly a civilized pursuit. It's amazing how we spend so much time inventing devices to kill each other and so little time working on how to achieve peace."

Walter Cronkite's wise words couldn't be more timely as our tender souls try to wade their way through the muddy swamps of the barrage of hatred and division that preset themselves to us everyday as a result of the illusion of separation we have created.

The illusion of separation stems from our staunch tenacity in clinging to our attachments. Judgements and criticism are forms of such manacles. We cling to the idea of who we think we are. We identify with our thoughts, and hold onto them as if they will last forever. But our thoughts, and identities, just like autumn and winter, fade away eventually.

Our thoughts and identities are ephemeral and here only for a brief time. We then realise that a large part of our suffering is predicated upon who we think we are, and our attachment and clinging to that picture in our minds of our identity. In other words, our attachment to our attachment, and our identification with our identity is what leaves architecting our own suffering.

Being caught up in the entangling web of our emotions, resentment and prejudice, ha us being held hostage by them. Clinging onto how we think others should be or behave, has us continually setting ourselves up for hurt and disappointment. We can choose to let things be as they are while striving to improve them. Ram Dass once remarked "The world is perfect as it is, including my desire to change it." The balm of loving acceptance is the power we gift ourselves in the moment we let things be.

I invite us to remember what Nikola Tesla had taught us over a century ago:

"Peace can only come as natural consequence of universal enlightenment."

Fighting For Peace Is Like Screwing For Virginity

This may sound platitudinous but, love is the answer. And it is the only answer. Decades ago, the late M.L.K. advised us about this when he observed,

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred, only love can do that."

We let our judgments get in the way, we let our emotions get in the way, we let our fear get in the way, and then we end up losing our way on this journey. We are too preoccupied with listening to the senseless voices of our egos, that we can't hear the authentic voice within our souls. Nor are we able to hear each other amidst all the noise of said egos.

When we learn to silence our egos, the wise whispers of our soul can be heard more clearly. The secret to peace goes through the transformative canyons of finding that within which no longer serve us, and let go of it cleanly and quickly when the universe has moved on, or when it is no longer helpful.

"I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion--and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.", Ram Dass' sage words present a sobering and resonant reminder for us all in these doleful times.

Our mission is thus, to be more deeply involved in life, and yet, less attached to it. It is the blissful and wise statement that acknowledges our right to feel our emotions, to have preferences, to be ourselves, yet, without getting caught up and drowning in the ensuing tsunami of emotions, feelings and thoughts that come with them. It is self-awareness. It is wisdom. It is enlightenment. It is love simmering itself over the alighted blaze of wise consciousness.

Listening is the Ultimate Linchpin of Love

Stephen Covey once observed "The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand, we listen to reply." This is sadly a true reality.

We often fail to ask ourselves "Have I truly taken the time to listen to the other person and their feelings, experiences and story; or have I already prepared my counter-response?"

Ram Dass once stated,

"When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru".

It is indeed so veracious that no one perspective is right or wrong, it's just different. Whatever one is doing in their life, whomever one chooses to be, it's not any better or any worse than anybody else's, it's just different. It is here that we can bless our hearts while touching others with empathetic and kind understanding. The illusion of separation cannot survive under such enlightened souls.

Oftentimes we think that just because one side is right, then the other must be wrong. This couldn't be farther from the truth. For it betrays and overlooks the universal reality of existence.

Ram Dass put it best,

"Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true."

Albert Einstein's wise words from December 1930, “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”, prompt us to ask ourselves the genuine and thought-provoking question, "How can we ever understand another, if we do not take the chance to truly listen?"

An Emphatic Statement of Listeningkindness: Humanize and Heal

Listening has indeed proved to be one of the most powerful ways we can establish meaningful, purposeful, amicable connections and overcome our differences. Each time we choose to take the time to solicitously and attentively listen, we remind ourselves of the power of being freed from the shackles of irrational fear scriptwritten by our minds that like to fill in the gaps with assumptions. We can always enquire about what is true.

We have to feel for one another if we are to survive with dignity. Deep listening aims to truly understand the other person's struggle and pain, with no fear or judgement. With only the pure curiosity and the sincere eagerness that is called for to hear the predicament of the other person. It is through such magnanimous and generous practices that we honour the voice within ourselves that prods us to show empathy. Thus granting the other side the sacred opportunity to give a voice to the hurt lingering within. The gateways to Peace will be revealed when the heat of the accumulated hurt and pain can no longer touch us.

The wisdom of listening doesn't just involve others, but extends its wide arch of grace into the inner world of the person embracing it. When the heat of anger and indignant righteousness preponderate and pervade the realm we inhabit, it can become challenging to hear the true song of our souls. The immanent voice of truth within is concealed and drowned out by all the cacophonous noise spawned by the maelstrom of hatred, vengefulness, and suffering we are bombarded with every day.

The wise whispers of our sacred souls will be heard when we quiet the mind, silence our egos, and listen .. listen ... just listen.. to the voice that resides within. The wisdom of listening to our truest selves allows us the precious opportunity to be our best. It is here that the pathway to Peace is unveiled to us. When we see it appear, we need only hold each others' hands and tread together.. in unity.

It is easy to be kind when it is easy. Human compassion is cultivated in the moments we listen deeply to another, with no us in the picture. We can offer to make the first move. When we fail to truly and deeply listen to the other person, we perpetuate our predicament and theirs. Ram Dass invited us to ponder on the benefits of such separateness, when he asseverated "What benefit can derived from distinctions and separations?", thereupon which he contended, "Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant."

Rumi, the illustriously revered Persian poet, once stated:

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. when the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about language, ideas, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense."

The power and potency in listening does not imply condoning the other side's mistakes or perceived wrongful actions. Only the wisdom of true lovingkindness that says "I'm here for you. I want to understand." We need not close our hearts. When the highgates of our hearts are open the winds of graceful kindness can flow throw them freely. There are indeed those on the perceived 'other side' that truly want to know. We can reify and encourage such behaviour by exhibiting the courageous goodwill of extending such a gracious hand and heart.

As Leo Tolstoy noted, "If you feel pain, you're alive. If you feel other people's pain, you're a human being."

Feeling other people's pain invites us to listen. Just listen. It is here that the magic of healing happens. We can always remind ourselves that attention is the purest and truest form of generosity.

As Rachel Naomi Remen framed it,

"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well - intentioned words".

The power of an open heart coupled with a solicitous ear ready to listen, honours the truth in the wisdom of empathic connection. People heal when they feel heard. It would be a chimerical and quite an outlandishly sanguine hope to want peace without first addressing the root causes at the very root. Judgement and fear are such roots, as been touched upon hereinabove. But, to truly help other heal those wounds that render Peace in a precarious position of constant sabotage and undermining, one needs to acknowledge the other person as human. Just human.

No one ever deserves to be treated as anything less than a human being.

No one should ever have to put up with being subjected to sub-humane treatment. No one should ever be duped as to think they deserve to be treated as less than a human. The admission of the other person as a human first and foremost, before all the labels and the concomitant judgements, fears and all the other hampering hurdles that stymie and undermine one's perspective with blinding poison come into play.

It is in the humanizing of others that we learn the empowerment of maturity in dealing with such delicate, consequential matters. We can continually remind each other that no one should have to endure being treated as anything less than a human being.

Therefore,

the solution to peace starts from within. When we are courageous enough to look in the mirror with the intention of polishing it; when we let go of how we think others 'should' behave; when we forsake our need for having models and expectations for others that ultimately and invariably have us setting ourselves up for disappointment; when we relinquish every idea of who we think we are; when we choose to let go of our impulse and ostensible need to control others' behaviors and how the universe goes about in its affairs; when we learn to silence our egos and listen to the wise whispers of our souls; when we learn to stand still in the middle of the storm, finding peace amidst the tumult and maelstrom; when we learn that everyone is right in their own perspective; when we learn to be an expression of love, compassion, empathy, kind and mercy; but most paramountly of all, when we learn to be human, above and before all else; then and only then, will peace reign over the mountains and seas of the Earth, and humankind will have finally achieved its truest potential. Only time will tell what destiny has hidden behind its mysterious, temporal doors.

I'd like to tender my fulsome and special thanks to Matthew Cooke for his wise, timely, and peace-bringingly eye-opening words and truthful as well as outspoken attitude, and for unwaveringly seeking and striving for the truth.

I perorate by inviting us all to read and ponder the following poem hereinbelow. It indeed encapsulates the essence of shifting out the complexion of our perspective and looking at matter from the purview of the wisdom that answers the question "What truly matters?"

And let us remember, that fighting for Peace is like screwing for virginity.

Let's trade in all our judging for appreciating.

Let's lay down our righteousness and just be together.

Let us understand one another.

Let us choose to be the best and most loving version of ourselves.

Let us be human. Human souls. A manifestation of the universe looking back on itself.

May we have the courage to let go of the things which no longer serve us,

While resting our souls in the abiding peace that arises.

May we be the loving peace we seek in the world,

May we be the light that shines through the caliginous tenebrosity of our times.

May we start with the darkness within ourselves.

May we all be bountifully blessed,

May the Peace always be on our side.

Namaste 🙏🕉️

Peace 🕊️✝️

Shalom 🤝🏻✡️

Selam 👋☪️