PRISONER OF HOPE

Facing the news on Palestine each day can make even the most jovial Irish person melancholy at times. So if yur looking for the usual banter and craic, it's not here today. Instead a somber rant on Zionists, religion, and the world:

I was raised in a Christian family, like all good Irish. My views on religion have changed immensely as I’ve grown older. During the troubles in Ireland, even the non religious Catholics embraced the Catholic religion and went to mass, more so as a statement of defiance than anything else. Our religion was under attack, and that drew more of us in to protect it and defend it, this works in all other religions as well. When people of a certain faith believe their faith is under attack the religious become more religious, and even the non-believers will defend it to the core. Ireland or the Middle East, same deal.

I wouldn’t say I’m anything these days, no affiliation with any organised religion, not after the horrors I’ve seen in this world that revolve around “so called” religious people and their “various religions.” I now have my own family, and although none of us are “religious” in the real sense of the word, we instead try to live lives that help other people. This is our families “religion.” But, when I was younger religion and the world itself, had a different meaning altogether. Remember when you were only small, and your parents protected you from knowing of the evil in the world. You’d look at picture books of the people around the world, their different cultures. They always appeared so happy in the books, no troubles at all, everyone was free to live their lives despite their cultural and religious differences. Still, if you listened late at night you could hear the hushed talk of the adults, and you knew all was not as it seemed. That this world was not truly the place you thought it was. This is the beginning of innocence lost. Of coming to terms with the very sad fact that most of those people in the picture books in fact hated each other. If for no other stupid reason than a difference in religion. God wars, just like at home in Ireland the 800 years of Protestant vs. Catholic. Sadly, the world was just like us, filed with hatred for those who are “different.”

As you grow you soon see that there is always an aggressor and a victim, rarely are the two sides pitted against each other equal in strength and military ability. You begin to realise that as some groups of people gain power, they easily toss aside any memories of when they themselves were once the victim. And in a bizarre twist of fate, become the aggressor themselves. This is an awful side effect of power, but not every group of people have this desire. However, those who have made the transition from victim to aggressor believe with all their being, that should their own victims ever become equal, or gain any real power, that they will do to them what they have done. This is their guilty conscience at work along with racist fears and paranoia. It was the same in Ireland. Protestants believed that the cruelty they had towards us would be turned against them once we became equal. But, the REAL truth is that people just want to be equal and treated fairly, and once they get equality then they just get on with building their country and living their lives. They don’t want to then create another situation where they have to keep fighting the same foe for all of eternity. That is not human nature. They only want to live like everyone else. It really is that simple! Only the aggressors cannot get over their irrational fear that their victims will seek a horrible revenge. To that paranoid thought, I’d refer to what happened here and in South Africa for evidence that people just want to move on from conflict and live in peace equally.

And this got me to thinking about Israel and its behaviour and moreover, those who support Israel’s behaviour. How difficult it must be for Jews both in Israel and outside of Israel to read the news online each day. The continued bashing of Israel’s actions, the criticism, the anger, the outrage, that Jews feel hated. I get that. No one wants to be hated, even hard core Zionists at “some level” surely have feelings, even if they never speak of them. It’s human nature to want to be loved and accepted. But in order to RECIEVE love and acceptance from the world, you must first exhibit love and acceptance OF the world. This is where Israel and Zionists get it so very wrong.

Instead, Israel spends billions on bribing politicians in every country, creating hasbara programs, armies of online bloggers, talking heads on TV, attempting to change laws pertaining to our civil rights and free speech, attempting to censor bloggers, papers and TV stations, and a whole host of other propaganda techniques in a failing effort to win support and “change” people’s minds. And with each of these very “forceful” attempts, it only works against them, in spades. Because with each of these attempts yet another person is converted into the anti-Zionist/Israel camp. Yet another person becomes aware of the evil policies that stem from a sectarian religious fanatical state that acts with impunity and worse, endangers the world for the rest of us peons.

So, to Israel and those who support blindly its racist and illegal actions, I say this; what happened to Judaism? What happened to those who became free from the Nazis? Did they go out into the world and fight to change it, so that the horrors of the Nazi’s would never happen again to them OR anyone else?? That was the mistake. We don’t want to hate you; we’re just sick and tired of what you continue to do each day in the name of your new and improved Zionist religion. We hate the fact that you have become what you once fought against, the very evil you despised. We are in “utter awe” that you cannot see what you are doing, that you are so blinded by your hatred. And most of all, we are in “awe” of what you are doing to your own selves, your own history, your own legacy in this world. What will history say about you and your actions against your fellow Semites? Do you even care? Probably not, but you should. This Zionist mentality will destroy you and be your downfall. It’s already happening, bit by bit. I know you tell yourselves that after you finish your illegal actions of ethnic cleansing in the region, when you are done taking what land you want from others, when your best friend America helps to get you off from War Crimes charges and the Goldstone Report. When time passes and the world is not as focused on Palestine as it is now. That you will get away with what you have done and are doing, you think things will change for you. That people will forget. Again, you only need look to your very own history for the answer. Has the world forgotten about Hitler and the Holocaust? The same will stand true for your own actions against Palestine, you are writing new passages in history each day, and those passages will not reflect kindly on Jews or Israel. Israel and its blind supporters should think about that for longer than a few minutes.

Simply return to the 67 borders and live in peace. This is even Hamas position, not to mention the majority of the worlds position. All the world wants from Israel and Jews is “humanity” because with humanity comes all the rest; an end to the occupation, the siege, the ethnic cleansing, the illegal settlements, the hatred. With humanity, comes respect, equality, and love for others. Israel should join us in humanity and instead of killing their neighbours, embrace them, whilst the door is still open and the welcome mat out. Experience what it feels like to wake up and not be hated, but instead be respected for changing ways, for seeing the light. Maybe I wrote this because somewhere in my non-believer soul, I thought of that little child I once was, years ago, when I saw the pictures of people around the world in that book, and marvelled at their unique differences, when I thought the world was a decent accepting place. So, I’ll end with this; A few days ago Desmond Tutu was on television, he was speaking about “hope” and he said something that struck me. He said that he was a “Prisoner of Hope.” So, that is what I shall try to be, that will be my “religion.” I am, a prisoner of hope.

Happy Holidays to all………..