Psychospiritual Roots of the Israel-Palestinian Tragedy
In Sanskrit, Maya means illusion or magic. Maya is at work among people and nations who project carefully crafted positive images of themselves. The U.S. and Israel are no different from other countries. They claim self-defense as they launch massive attacks. They invoke international law when it suits them then ignore it when it doesn’t. Then there’s always the standard line about our so-called values which justifies their actions. Most people don’t have a clue about Israel-Palestine because they depend on heavily biased corporate news. Instead, they cling to shopworn myths and fantasies about themselves and their country. The Gaza bloodbath is enabled by the U.S. Are we “good Germans” pretending not to see?
Recorded at the Chinook Center.
Speaker
Richard Forer
Richard Forer has spent time in the West Bank and Gaza. He has orthodox Jewish relatives living in West Bank settlements. He is a former member of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the influential lobby. He is the author of Wake Up & Reclaim your Humanity: On the Tragedy of Israel-Palestine, winner of the New York Big Book Award.
Jean Backs –
Good information and excellent insights! Thanks.
Anisa Gamal –
Anything that helps explain why bulldozers pushed over and demolished the centuries established homes of elderly Palestinians in the early 1960s , or whenever it started, will be helpful to listening minds, looking for explanations. Personally, I , met my first Palestinians in 1972. I was in San Francisco. I found them humble and warm spirited. Their 80 year old mother was a displaced person who had her home destroyed. I could not comprehend that Jewish people who had undergone holocaust would do that years after it.
Chess –
“I, too, am beginning to feel an immense need to become a savage and create a new world.”
— August Strindberg
Forer is showing us the way.
Thank you, AR.
Jen of Eve Parodo –
Echoing the reviews above and wishing this could be made available widely to share. It is very important.
Jamie Lynn Krull –
I was totally absorbed in this talk. Humanity should be the center consideration of how this country gets involved in international situations. So thankful for Alternative Radio. I am going to share this article with family members that I have had discussions with as I tried to share the history of Israel and Hamas, not in defense of what happened Oct. 7th, but just to share how the current situation has evolved.
From a listener in CT –
I just now heard the Richard Forer program. I am grateful for him, for his conversion by reading—and therefore how important YOUR work is! –and for his mission now to help people think about what he has learned. I came away thinking that it is other Jews like himself, and also Christian Zionists, such as Biden, who refuse to look honestly at how their learned identity with Israel is something that they have to protect so fiercely. They are not open to seeing that the threat to that identity is not so much or at all, really, from “our enemies all around us”– the Arab world and the Palestinians. I also can relate to his saying that he can’t have conversations about this with Zionists. Same with me. He and I (and probably lots of anti-Zionist Jews) can only talk with people who are prepared to consider the possibility that there might be something wrong with what Israel is doing, and even that there might be the possibility that Palestinians are people.
Thanks for putting on this program!
Charles K. Hof –
An excellent perspective on what’s going on currently and I think everyone in the United States should hear this or read this.
beverly stoeltje (verified owner) –
I emphasize the above statement and want to order a transcript so that I can share with others from the text.
Washington Listener –
From a listener in WA state
My partner and I really found his talk to provide one of the best histories and analyses of the region. We thought that sharing his ideas and statements with friends and perhaps as a letter to the editor would benefit our local area.