Before you read this I want you to know something. I hold no ill will toward any religious group or culture. I really dislike the use of religion to cause or justify harm to others. I see the issue in Israel and Gaza as an extension of the use of religion to justify harm. This makes me beyond sad… distraught… If I offend you, I’m sorry. I am simply trying to articulate an objective humanist viewpoint on the atrocities in the name of religion, cultivated by our ancestors. We need peace for the people of Palestine without repercussions against the Israeli people. The PM of Israel is no different than the President of the US. They are extremists using the weak to empower their agendas.
Religious Nationalism has caused more problems than solved in our world. Crusades, empire building, and genocide have all created a problem so intense and layered how does one make sense of it all. I’ve been looking at the issue as a humanist and I keep finding the problem to be governance controlled by religion. I dissent greatly with those that think religion is the solution to governance. We have over 4,000 years of recorded history that demonstrates religion and religious hatred as the common denominator for all conflicts. Yet the Nationalists on all three fronts (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) think they are the chosen ones. It is INSANE. In the words of the rock group War, “Why can’t we be friends?” How ironic…
As a child I used to think that the Christians were the chosen ones. Jesus Christ saved us all. Muslims and Jews just needed to wisen up. As I grew up and saw how this had become an indoctrination exercise in religious nationalism I shifted away. Eventually disavowing the Christian faith entirely. Here are some things that changed my mind.
It started with reading history, specifically modern history and political influences. College was an enlightening time for me as we objectively analyzed political procedures that shaped the historical narrative. Winners always get the last word, but the dissenters are never truly silenced. It continued with empathizing and looking at the situation from the other side. How would you feel if you were a Palestinian Muslim? A holocaust survivor? A victim of war or discrimination? A woman? Read the literature, imagine, think, and dwell upon it. Talk to someone from that faith practice or culture. Why do they feel that way? Always learn… empathize…
Zionism was a ethnocultural nationalist movement in the late 19th and 20th century led to the colonization of Palestine by European Jews. 80 years later we have the Jewish state in the name of “self-preservation” starving out a Muslim/Arab population they displaced four generations ago. It is illogical…
Great Britain created the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate of Palestine began the process of displacing Islamic citizens of Palestine shortly after World War I. Read Balfour here: https://israeled.org/balfour-declaration/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22588673882&gbraid=0AAAAAqrH3egPnv-PR-rLu2q94aHop-Q6n&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnJfEBhCzARIsAIMtfKJeFKcO25pjaK2T59nKDDGNKwYc_Y-Rx3gbZ5WHSV6teuDlf5tXXdMaAl1NEALw_wcB
So from the viewpoint of the Islamic people this is cultural displacement from their natural homeland. Can you blame them for becoming hostile? Following WWII and the Holocaust millions of Jewish people immigrated to Palestine. The United Nations and all of Western (Protestant led nations) civilization supported giving the Jewish people their own nation state. A state that declared independence in 1948. Millions of Palestinians of Islamic faith were displaced to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and other compounds around the Nation of Israel. Of course war broke out between Israel and the Arab nations. The Arabs were losing their spiritual center to the Jewish State of Israel. The world had essentially declared all Arab Muslims as second class citizens with minimal access to their spiritual homeland.
When you add the capitalist interference in Arab governance by the United States post WWII (namely Iran) and extended through the early 21st century in Iraq and Afghanistan. One creates the raw materials for Islamic extremism under the banner of extreme Arab Nationalism. We (the USA) reaped what we sowed. My nation’s disrespect created the stage for terrorism by interfering instead of respecting. The arrogance of capitalism over the respect of culture. Many Americans do not understand our nation’s role in cultivating the fabric of terrorism with our lack of delicate diplomacy. I’m not dismissing foreign acts of terror in France, Great Britain, or the USA. These acts are not acceptable, but when placed in context of a mathematical formula one can see how things intersect in a mind boggling cause and effect. Everything we do… causes something… it affects… or effects… when the butterfly flaps it’s wings… a storm happens… etc… Sorry, I’m rhapsodizing… in the philosophical…
Despite the millennia of fighting over the Holy Land by various religious orders and nation-state empires our societies haven’t learned from past historical mistakes, and nations with Christian (values?) do the unthinkable and repeat the mistakes. By placing the Jewish people in Palestine (their spiritual center) and displacing the Arab people from Palestine (their spiritual center) you have created an atrocity as a response to an atrocity. It is insanity.
With Netanyahu declaring war on Hamas (the militant leadership of the Palestinians displaced in Gaza and the West Bank) he has poured gasoline on a fire that has been burning for 100-120 years. His defense for starving and bombing the people of Palestine… I must save the Jewish State… The cycle of atrocities against the Muslims of Palestine continue. It is time for this bullshit to end. Religion is the cause of this problem. Religion needs to leave all aspects of governance whether it is Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Hindu, Buddhism… … I hope you get the drift.
I’m not being antisemitic for criticizing Netanyahu or the doctrines that created Israel. I’m being a realist and pointing out the error of logic here. By creating Israel the world displaced Palestinian Muslims making them refugees. By creating Israel the world took the refugees of the Jewish faith from Germany, Eastern Europe, and Russia and gave them a state. By making the Jewish state the “Christian” nations kept the refugees of the Jewish faith from immigrating to their countries. No one really won here. Everyone lost even the Jewish people lost. The Jewish people were put in the middle of yet another culture war 100 years ago… by (Christian states?) Millions have died from this insanity. It continues today. Israel is starving the populace of the Palestinian nation. It is genocide. It violates international law. Netanyahu is using failed logic from 100-120 years ago to justify his offense. Our planet is evolving. It is time for all of us to end this religion based-nationalist propaganda.
My solution is incredibly idealistic, maybe even naive, for a layered problem older than recorded history itself. The one thing that needs to end is religious theocracy being used to govern countries. Religion is a cultural identifier not a governing identifier. The United States with all of its faults has proven you can govern without a national religion. Muslims, Jews, Christians, Satanists, Atheists, and thousands of other religious sects have proven they can live side by side in (relative not perfect) peace and harmony. It is time for that to happen in Israel/Palestine and anywhere else led by a holy book, instead of science and research.
Netanyahu needs to go. Hard right Nationalism is faulty logic. It declares one group as superior over another. We see this in action here in USA currently. We saw it previously during WWI in the USA. Repeating history… again… We must stop that superior bullshit. It does not serve humanity in any way. Stop the insanity. I’m tired of everyone killing one another in the name of religion. Especially the innocent children who have zero control over any of this.
Muslims have the same right to Israel as the Jewish people do. Let’s throw the Christians in there too. The Holy Land is the birthplace of the three largest religious cultural identifiers. Y’all need to share this place and revere it for what it is… Your spiritual birthplace. All three religions share figures in your historic texts… celebrate the similarity… not the difference… It is time for Israel to be a melting pot with no national religion or faith. Where the children of these faiths can build a more perfect nation. One based on cultural respect rather than cultural difference.
I want the Jew, Muslim, and Christian to live in peace side by side with us Atheists/Agnostics. I want to be able to share in cultural exchanges to understand one another. I want to see the world place humanity above the nationalist corrupt religious ideology and focus on our shared biology. We need each other more than you know. Separation of church and state is necessary to avoid cultural genocide based on religious practice. Israel needs to be secular in nature, as do the great Arab states that surround it. People first and faith second. Let’s deal in realities not spiritual notions of the afterlife. We only have this life and when we die… …stop worrying about your faith’s version of the afterlife. Faith is a personal journey not a shared government journey. Focus on that instead of the corrupt influence of power, greed, etc… Love each other for your God’s sake…
Love the children. Do not let them go hungry. Let’s get rid of the Nationalists of every faith and focus on sharing this planet together in peace… It is so far beyond the time to recognize the children of Palestine as a displaced people in need of a true home… Stop the siege… so it goes…
I Dissent (and other ramblings) 
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