I was planning to share more in today's blog post from Robert Sapolsky's book, Determined, which argues persuasively that free will is an illusion. But with disturbing news of the Israel-Hamas war ricocheting around in my mind, I find myself unable to focus on my original intent.
Which is how minds work. I'm going to talk about no-free-will anyway, just not in the way that I had intended.
Every experience changes us. We are nothing but our experiences, understanding that "experience" includes much more than that word implies. It encompasses the genetic experience of our bodies; the historical experience of the culture we're a part of; the evolutionary experience of all life on earth; the personal experience of our life from the womb until death; and other forms of experience.
It's a fantasy to believe that human thoughts, emotions, and behavior are somehow orchestrated by a Me or Self that can float above all these varieties of experience and engage in acts of free will that are uncaused by all the influences bearing down upon us.
The Israel-Hamas war provides plenty of evidence for this.
Yesterday I wrote a post for my HinesSight blog, Our job is to empathize with both Israelis and Palestinians, that mostly consisted of the last part of an essay in the November 6 issue of TIME by Israeli historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari, "The world's job during the war."
Here's a quote from Harari.
Most Israelis are psychologically incapable at this moment of empathizing with the Palestinians. The mind is filled to the brim with our own pain, and no space is left to even acknowledge the pain of others.
Many of the people who tried to hold such a space -- like the Kutz family -- are dead or deeply traumatized. Most Palestinians are in an analogous situation -- their minds too are filled with pain, they cannot see our pain.
But outsiders who are not themselves immersed in pain should make an effort to empathize with all suffering humans, rather than lazily seeing only part of the terrible reality. It is the job of outsiders to help maintain a space for peace.
I hope this is possible.
However, it's difficult to be optimistic when this horrific war is viewed through the lens of what Sapolsky tells us is the neuroscientific truth. Trauma changes us. The Jews who control Israel feel in their bones, in their heart, in their mind, the trauma of longstanding Jewish persecution at the hands of others, notably Nazi Germany in the Holocaust.
This affects their current attitude toward their Palestinian neighbors who also have experienced trauma of a more recent variety: how they've been ill treated by Israel over about 75 years of forcible relocation and occupation. This has caused deep resentments that are one of the causes of the terror inflicted on people in Israel by Hamas's October 7 attacks.
As Harari said in his essay, this prevents both Israelis and Palestinians from seeing the suffering of the other side as deserving of empathy. Not everybody, of course, but certainly the leaders who are directing the course of the Israel-Hamas war.
So the 1,400 deaths Hamas caused in Israel turns into an estimated 9,000 deaths Israel has caused in the Gaza Strip. And the killing continues, with many more deaths to come. I see no evidence of free will in any of this, because it is clear that the leaders of both sides are being propelled by deep reserves of anger, resentment, and hatred that have nothing to do with calm, considered, wise decision-making.
Yesterday I heard a man interviewed on CNN, I think it was, who used to be an Israeli ambassador to the United States. He was asked about the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza from Israel's bombing, at least half of whom are women and children. His logic, if you can call it that, went like this:
Civilians in Gaza are being killed because Hamas terrorists hide among them, and Israel is justified in killing Hamas. Residents in the north of Gaza have been told to leave that area and move to the southern part of Gaza. When told by the interviewer that Israel is also attacking civilian targets in the south of Gaza, the Israeli said this was justified because Hamas terrorists hide among them there also.
So the previous ambassador believes that women, children, the elderly, and other noncombatants can be killed by Israel anywhere in Gaza, since Israel is entitled to do so just because. That's how a three year old acts: I can do it just because I want to.
Today Israel attacked an ambulance in Gaza. Again, this isn't an act of free will. This is an act of leaders of a nation who are consumed by so much rage, so much anger, so much feeling of entitlement, that they can kill innocent people for no good reason just because they have the ability to do so.
A Washington Post story tells the sickening tale of Israeli destruction in "Israel launches deadly strike on ambulance outside hospital in Gaza." Excerpts:
I wonder if a person that has fully accepted and digested the idea that everything is determined is able to have dualistic feelings ...feelings related to the idea that things can and should be done for the better
The dictum was:
Do whatever you can, and leave the RESULTS to xxxxx
That would be total surrender
and
that is not that easy given the fact how humans are mentally constructed; the feeling that they are given the responsibility of their own survival. .. and then accept the idea that they are lived and moved around like a puppet at a string
Posted by: um | November 04, 2023 at 05:08 AM
The question is not whether determinism or free will exists.
Everyone is shaped by experience, education, environment and culture.
We are all the products of reality.
But we are all works in progress, and this shaping is continuing. So, determinism isn't the same as defeatism, or nihilism, because the very forces that made people act as they do and those forces working to do the exact opposite are still in flux and those changes continue.
The forces that moved the Terrorists exist right when the forces for peace, respect, equity and teamwork were also in motion among others in the same geography.
The forces that moved defensive efforts off the scale into outright brutality exist exactly when the forces for peace, respect, equity and respect are also in motion.
What you see isn't the whole picture. What is happening today wasn't yesterday and won't be tomorrow.
Change, even from this, is inevitable.
Where are your efforts placed?
Inspired by hate to lose hope, some will join in and be unwitting supporters of hate.
But others will react to hate with greater effort towards love.
The forces for good are set in motion by the very forces of evil. And sadly, the forces of evil tend to respond with greater vigor when faced with the forces of peace and love.
Which do you choose to see?
And which do you allow yourself to be influenced by?
That is the degree of free will you have.
And that small degree is everything.
Choose peace, choose respect, choose equal rights. And find the beauty and the solutions to unsolvable problems in the very diversity nature continues to produce.
Celebrate the sublime spirituality of Islam, the teachings of Love and equality of Rumi, and the people of Palestine.
Celebrate the power and genius of Judaism, and the deeper promise of Jubilee, the forgiveness of all sins of all people of all cultures (including ours, including all our neiighbors, including all foreigners in the land) on that one day that is not so far from today. Let us work to celebrate that day.
You can pick the traditions you wish to live by. The whole smorgasbord is there, in most lands, religions and cultures, if you really take the time to look. Pick wisely. Pick with an enlightened heart and mind.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 04, 2023 at 03:17 PM
Hamas has a primary command center of tunnels under Al Shifa hospital. Of course, they are using ambulances to transport their fighters. It's sad and horrific that civilians are killed in war when Israel must battle Hamas to ensure the barbaric attacks of 10-7 are not repeated.
Posted by: Joe | November 04, 2023 at 09:11 PM
@ Joe
MUST???
The means to defend themselves, is just ONE out of many other available options, it is not the ONLY POSSIBLE.
It is a matter of CHOICE and if you feel for using adjectives you can chose the word "BARBARIC retaliation"
The Americans were not FORCED to use a nucleair weapon in WWII.
They were not FORCED by higher powers to throw a bomb on Nagasaki.
They could have chosen the unpopulated area next to nagasaki
They were nor FORCED to throw a second bomb but they did.
They wanted to see what the effect was.
You see JOE I am not saying a word about who has to do what, my objection is the the washing of hands Pilate style, making it seen as if there is no other possibility and that they are forced to do so.
NO, NO, NO ...it is their CHOICE and they are responsible for their choice. and can not outsource their resposibility for that choice on others
Posted by: um | November 05, 2023 at 01:49 AM
No comment .. let the words speak for themselves"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amihai_Eliyahu
2023 nuclear weapons comments
In an interview with Radio Kol Berama during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Eliyahu claimed that the use of nuclear weapons was "one of the possibilities" when discussing Israel's options in its ongoing military action in the Gaza Strip. He also endorsed the displacement of Gaza's Palestinian population, stating "They can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves."[10]
Eliyahu later released a statement calling his remarks about nuclear weapons "metaphorical" but maintaining his support for a "disproportionate response."[11] He was condemned by opposition leader Yair Lapid.[12] He was later disavowed,[13] and subsequently suspended from cabinet meetings by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Posted by: um | November 05, 2023 at 12:26 PM
In defense of Paul Breer (related to the topic in a general sense, so please bear with me).
My convictions of right and wrong, or rather, my confidence in assigning guilt, took a hit recently.
Of late, I stumbled on videos of 1st Amendment auditors. These are people who record their interactions with the police. (A good YouTube channel is Audit the Audit). It's completely changed my formerly high regard for trusting the police. Of course, not all police trample rights, but I'd thought the days of bad cops were long over. I see now that I was wrong.
These auditor videos took me down a rabbit hole and today I came across a video about police being convicted of major crimes. One of them was an officer named Daniel Hotlzclaw. He was convicted of sexual assault, given over 200 years in prison, and 36 women testified that he was a predator. And DNA evidence. And, there was a video of him looking distraught before the verdict was read.
My assumption? This Holzclaw guy was guilty AF. He must be, right?
But then the algorithm led me to another video, one about people who've been falsely convicted. And former officer Daniel Holtzclaw was featured.
After diving into the info there,, I'm now convinced that the apparent mountain of damning evidence against Daniel was a crock. The guy is innocent, and the charges against him were absurd.
Also featured in this video were other people convicted of sex abuse who had their sentences overturned when it was discovered they were railroaded by lying witnesses, incompetent legal reps, unscrupulous detectives, and extremely impressionable juries.
With all of that, I'm now of a different opinion about Paul Breer's guilt. As I wrote before, I was never absolutely sure of his guilt, but it seemed to me that given Breer was convicted in a court of law, the odds of his guilt outweighed his likely innocence.
What's striking to me is how sure I was my views were obviously correct, before more info led me to an opposite conclusion.
Posted by: Sant64 | November 05, 2023 at 01:56 PM
But Brian you repeatedly write comments based on false premises. Constantly!
Seriously, I haven’t seen a single thing you have written that doesn’t do that.
At best the premises yo pres3nt as irrefutable starting points are in reality highly debatable.
E.g. the article above you end by writing ”Israel retaliates for a terrorist attack on its territory”.
But it ISN’T ”their territory”!!!
It is stolen territory that was murderously ethnically-cleansed by terrorist violence, perpetrated by invader-settlers mainly from Europe.
Can you now try and see how that YOUR depiction is therefore incomplete and biased?
And then the depiction of the events you are constantly basing your viewpoints on have come from ONE SIDE, Israel. And we now know that THEY lied. We know that.
They lied about rapes!
They lied about 40 decapitated babies.
There is even evidence they lied about how many Israeli “civilians” were killed and by whom.
Yasmin Porat survived the Hamas attempt to take hostages from the Be’eri kibbutz and she described their Hamas captors as determined but humane and not intentionally killng ANYONE. Not a single person. She DID witness the deaths of her husbandBut Brian you repeatedly write comments based on false premises. Constantly!
Seriously, I haven’t seen a single thing you have written that doesn’t do that.
At best the premises yo pres3nt as irrefutable starting points are in reality highly debatable.
E.g. the article above you end by writing ”Israel retaliates for a terrorist attack on its territory”.
But it ISN’T ”their territory”!!!
It is stolen territory that was murderously ethnically-cleansed by terrorist violence perpetrated by invader-settlers mainly from Europe.
Can you now try and see how that depiction is incomplete and biased?
And then the depiction of the events you are constantly basing your viewpoints on are from ONE SIDE, Israel. And we now know that THEY lied. We know that. They lied about rapes! They lied about 40 decapitated babies.
There is even evidence they lied about how many Israeli “civilians” were killed and by whom.
Yasmin Porat survived the Hamas attempt to take hostages from the Be’en kibbutz and she described their Hamas captors as determined but humane and not intentionally killing ANYONE. Not a single person.
She DID witness the deaths of her husband all the other Israelis their and she has stated in numerous interviews of them being killed by fellow-Israelis in the IDF.
Yet despite this being explained here on your blog and referenced from credible news articles, yet you keep ignoring that and repeating the one-sided, self-serving, emotionally-manipulative, and refuted Israel version!
Why?
Do you know you are doing that? Or is it unwittingly?
Here is a report that is so devastating that it now has had many ‘fact-checker’ articles trying unsuccessfully to refute it:
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/what-really-happened-on-7th-october#google_vignette
An israeli wrote to me the other day and told me off for approaching the situation in Gaza/Israel in a way they thought was “too black and white”.
My reply was that rules of war and International law IS ”black and white”. It is INTENTIONALLY so.
This situation is NOT complex. Not unless you make it so by IGNORING the breaches of law by just one side.
In reality it is really simple.
We ONLY have to apply international law and basic human rights impartially to ALL.
To ALL!!
WITHOUT BIAS or PARTIALITY.
We the West are not doing that.
The main-stream news reports are NOT doing that.
And I suggest to you that YOU Brian are repeatedly not doing that.
We collectively in the ‘West’ haven’t been doing that with the Palestine-Israel situation ever.
Not EVER!!!
But never has our own hypocrisy, our leaders’ dishonesty and their double standards been so tragically plain to see.
I ask anyone reading, to consider that as people who live in democracies that are deeply complicit in Israeli crimes, WE OURSELVES therefore become more personally complicit if we join in with this bogus, self-serving pretence of impartiality and compassion for “all victims”.
The TRUTH us that this situation NOW would NOT HAVE ARISEN if WE had genuinely been impartial and concerned for the suffering of “both” sets of victims.
If we had insisted OUR govts had been impartial and fair during so many DECADES (yes, decades!!!) then this situation would not have arisen.
And as America is the biggest supporter and arms-supplier to Israel, therefore American citizens are involved in a way no other tax-paying citizen of western democracies is.
The awful truth is that most Americans didn’t care when it was just Palestinian victims for decades of one-sided brutality, racism and state-terrorism.
But now, when about nine hundred jewish civilians living on stolen land get killed — mostly by their own military to stop them being made hostages — THEN they attempt to avoid our discomfort at the disproportionate killing of one side, by trying to pretend there is a symmetry of suffering here, which they/ we feel EQUALLY compassionate about.
If anyone reading this is one of the ones doing that, I suggest you consider that you are practicing a self-delusion. One that regretably only makes you more complicit in the one-sided genocide that is currently being permitted by OUR governments.
Posted by: Really? | November 06, 2023 at 11:54 AM
Really?
You wrote:
"The TRUTH us that this situation NOW would NOT HAVE ARISEN if WE had genuinely been impartial and concerned for the suffering of “both” sets of victims."
If Hammas were truly interested in Palestineans, they would not have initiated their acts of Terrorism. Because the results were entirely predictable. and all Palestine is suffering because of it.
They are Palestine's oppressors, right along with the PLO, the Palestinean Authority, Iran, and, sad to say, Israel.
So, who will accept any nation as soverign that terrorizes it's neighbor?
Who will invest in such a nation?
And who will accept as legitimate any nation that oppresses its neighbor?
And yet I believe there are Palestineans and Israelis who believe in each other, and in their mutual benefit, to respect one another as equals, and to live in safety, peace and freedom, wherever they live today.
These are the ones who will build peace, not the ones who blame. Not the ones who are blind to one another, who can't see each other as equals deserving equal rights.
Blame, at this point, of one side or the other, is simply avoiding personal responsibility. When I see people on Television blaming one side only there I know "that person is part of the problem".
Since all nations were gained by conquest, let us accept those who live where they are as equals, and help each other live in respect, freedom and safety.
Let's not bring up the past unless it brings us to equality. It's not pretty for either side.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 06, 2023 at 02:17 PM
As I see it, you are lying to yourself, Spence.
And you are basing your lies on a self-serving, pro-Israeli, distorted depiction of certain people who you demonise by believing lies-by-omission, exaggerations and blatant deceptions.
You not only never respond to a single point or credible reference given by me that exposes your self-delusional, racist demonisation of certain Palestinian people, but you can’t even spell their name correctly.
I suggest you pause, reflect and THINK about JUST THAT for a moment.
I again suggest to you that your EVERY reply demonstrates a deeply, deeply biased, self-delusional and racist attitude.
And I suggest that your wish to avoid accepting the recent past is a big part of your problem.
As an example of that I cite your repeated blaming of Hamas while simultaneously claiming to be above the ‘blame game’. That exposes your inner confusion and denial.
I also suggest that the reason why you are encouraging everyone to avoid apportioning “blame” is because of a subconscious awareness of which people the blame for creation this situation very clearly lies. And that is why you are attempting to divert attention from that, while FALSELY trying to blame Hamas.
The FACTS refute your transparent avoidance. Hamas was created by Mossad in 1987!!!
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2302309/how-and-why-israel-helped-create-hamas
And this unjust ethnic-cleansing, land-theft and illegal occupation existed long before that.
Plus Hamas have no control or influence over the West Bank, yet the same Israeli occupation, land-theft, illegal settlements, settler violence, murder and persecution of Palestinians is occurring there NOW!!
What concerns me is that you — and the many like you — are eroding your own sense of common humanity with your bogus pretence of impartiality and self-delusion of having equal humanitarian concern.
My concern is that by refusing to be in honest communication, YOU are making yourself increasingly more complicit and thereby responsible for the slaughter of nearly 10,000 innocent, captive people who are RIGHT NOW being mass-murdered purely because they are seen as being of less human worth BECAUSE OF THEIR NON-JEWISH ETHNICITY!!!!
You constantly want to reframe the discussion and move it AWAY from THAT REALITY. Therefore all your camouflage-rhetoric of “equal rights”, “peace” and avoiding “blame”. Israel and its supporters have NEVER wanted that. They want Palestinian territory.
If we are genuinely interested in peace we need to STOP the genocidal slaughter NOW.
Then, once that is done, peace and reconciliation can only come about TRUTHFUL dialogue: i.e. dealing honestly with the past and facing the facts.
Posted by: Really? | November 07, 2023 at 02:19 AM
MBW in the house! Yes, really!
Posted by: Sant64 | November 07, 2023 at 05:04 AM
Really?
You don’t seem to realize that Spence is a Prophet of God. He sees beyond external reality and has higher understanding that transcends ordinary, limited thinking.
Our association with Mind and Maya over countless incarnations keeps our attention outward. Start with a violence-free vegetarian diet to begin disentangling.
Posted by: umami | November 07, 2023 at 09:20 AM
Can’t we all just agree that violence and suffering are wrong?
Posted by: Janna | November 07, 2023 at 03:47 PM
Violence, war, and suffering are not god’s will. They are the things that result when humans impose their own ego-driven will.
Posted by: Janna | November 07, 2023 at 03:49 PM
Hi Really?
You claim I am pro-Israel. Well, you are half right. I'm also pro-Palestine. Both peoples deserve better leadership.
I don't think land is the property of anyone, actually. But as it is necessary for life and survival, I advocate sharing equally among all.
And I believe that with third party assistance it will happen.
I don't think anyone who is not pro-Israel AND pro-Palestine can offer much help, and are likely part of the problem.
Anyone with an ounce of rationality knows that terrorism only leads to retaliation, never progress.
Progress has to start within, Really?, when you recognize the dignity and divinity within all human beings, and indeed all life.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 08, 2023 at 10:15 AM
Ho-hum. (sigh).
Yet another reply that doesn’t reply to a single thing I wrote.
Just another attempt at avoidance of Israel’s on-going genocidal mass-murder of a captive, defenceless population.
And written by someone posing as somehow having a morally superior position.
Shameful.
Posted by: Really? | November 09, 2023 at 12:18 AM
Hi Really?
I have only offered that all people should learn to honor each other and live together in peace, safety, freedom and respect.
You think this ignores the problem as you see it. But I see the problem as much larger than you do. It touches on every nation, every town and indeed within each of us. And that is the tendency to value land, wealth and things, as more important than people. And to grow angry and hateful as a result.
Yes there are bad players on both sides, all sides, and they are not the ones who will lead the way. But there are innocent citizens on all sides who only seek peace, freedom, and respect for all. Try to find the good Israelis and the good Palestinians. Look for them. That's where the solution lies, if you are interested in solving the problem.
If you find even one, it will open a door that cannot be closed. And allow a little light to shine in.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"
Gandhi
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 09, 2023 at 07:50 AM
Imagine a UFC heavy-weight world champion stealing an infant child’s sandwich and then pummellng, kicking and mercilessly beating child because, in an effort to get the sandwich back, the child had bitten him.
Got that picture in your mind?
Now, imagine someone watching that ongoing brutal attack on the child, saying: “in this UFC fight, ageism plays an important part”.
Clearly a preposterous comment when it isn’t a “fight”, nor did age play any role in the cause of the situation.
I suggest that is what Brian Hines effectively did when he wrote: “Religion plays a large role in the horrible Hamas-Israel war”.
Then, imagine someone looking at the prize-fighter still beating an infant child for hours and nearly to death and opining: “this infant-UFC champion fight is bringing out the worst in both sides”. I suggest that is what Brian has done in THIS particular blog-article of his.
Then imagine someone else commenting: “I am pro-the-UFC champion BUT I'm also pro-the-infant BECAUSE I recognize the dignity and divinity within all human beings, and indeed all life”.
That in effect is what Spence Tepper has just written in the comment section.
Now, imagine hordes of people horrified and outraged by the merciless attack upon the child and demanding watching policemen stop the UFC-fighter. To which they in unison reply: “the UFC champion fighter has a right to defend himself”.
That is what world-leaders like Biden, Macron, Sunak, von der Leyen, etc., are doing. We are watching day after day the murderous attack by the fifth largest army and airforce in the world, attacking a captive people with no army or airforce, nor ANY way of defending themselves, the overwhelming majority of those who are dying, being maimed, made homeless had no part in any way with the claimed reason for the Israeli behaviour.
Posted by: Really? | November 09, 2023 at 08:25 AM
@ Really
In the past when upset and not finding the proper response I would turn to my late friend for solace. In great detail I would explain the whole matter and the resulting frustration. When finished he would say ..do not worry Um, you are right but why does it upset you so much.
Thinking he did not understand as he would have given an other answer I explained the whole issue again in even more detail and vigor and he? ... he would give the same answer.
Etc ... it too me some yeras to fully grasp his reactionj ... these days I do not explain and do not get upset.
Posted by: um | November 09, 2023 at 08:46 AM
Really?
The history of the world is filled with injustice.
So where has justice been achieved?
Largely through peace, respect, safety, forgiveness, and the freedom of all people to live as they choose where they choose so long as they harm no one.
Find those people. They exist. In Isreal, in Palestine.
When one individual chooses to murder an innocent person they are now taking matters into their own hands and must assume all responsibility. Their parents, their friends, their entire society is merely a background. The full responsibility for what their hands of done rests entirely on their shoulders. It matters not whether they wear a uniform or not.. They know this, subconsciously. It's right there. Rage and hate for evil are their escape from the reality of what they have done. What they accuse they themselves have done.
A burning house is no home. No one can live for long in a burning house.
Come out of there, Really, for your own well being and sanity. And for the well being of those around you.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 09, 2023 at 06:45 PM
I am one of the millions of people AROUND THE WORLD who RIGHT NOW are calling for impartial application of International law regarding occupied Gaza and the West Bank.
And for wanting that, an American who self-identifies as ‘jewish’ has suggested on these blog comments that therefore I am “in league with Hitler”. 😮 🙄
I am one of the millions of people AROUND THE WORLD who RIGHT NOW who wants an immediate to a racist motivated genocide that is occurring with our governments support.
For that Spence Tepper — the American mentioned above who self-identifies as ‘jewish’ — wants YOU who are following and reading this to regard me as someone who wants to “live un a burning house”.
He also now wants YOU to question MY sanity and suggests I am a danger to “the well-being if those around” me. 🤔
I ask you people who are following and reading this to understand what is occurring HERE on Brian’s blog. I suggest it is a microcosm of the macrocosmic misrepresentation of reality that is occurring in TV studios and the MSM. I encourage you to question why this kind of inversion of reality is being used to AVOID the FACTS I have posted here.
I ask anyone who is following and reading this to understand WHY someone who supports Israel (and thereby also supports the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza):
~ will not address those FACTS,
~ will not talk about INTERNATIONAL LAW,
~ will not discuss blatant, ongoing, horrifically cruel Israeli war-crimes,
~ will refuse to have a dialogue that could expose American, British and European government complicity in ISRAELI WAR CRIMES OCCURING NOW.
I suggest there is a reason why Spence won’t discuss these things. There is a reason why instead he wants others to regard me with disdain, suspicion and pity by constantly MISREPRESENTING me, my point of view and misrepresenting what I really want.
Why would anyone need to do that, if there position was the sane, humane, lawful and morally correct one?
I leave it to the sagacity of the humane, compassionate, fair reader to decide why this distortion of reality and WHO (which nation and people) is served by it.
Posted by: Really? | November 10, 2023 at 11:17 AM
@ Really
He is just giving his opinion .. he does not have the power to distort the opinion of others let alone the reality .... unless one gets personally and emotionally involved as a reader in what he writes
The effect of his writings is not in his hands but in those that read his words.
Posted by: um | November 10, 2023 at 11:38 AM
No.
We have to be objective here.
1. he is not “just giving HIS opinion”. He is instead repeatedly avoiding facts presented by MISREPRESENTING what I have written here.
2. Of course he has the ability to influence the opinion of others and distort their perception of reality. We ALL have that ability.
That is why it is unethical to do that when by doing so you are permitting mass-murder and genocidal war crimes.
And as evidence that he deliberately — and Brian hopefully for his sake unwittingly — are doing that I encourage watching a courageous Jewish Israeli journalist refute Sri Tepper’s arguments back in 2015. Everything Gideon said then still applies today, and I believe even more so:
https://youtu.be/DGO3eBxQX7Q?si=f2eObYVDCVlH7FOZ
It is only 21 minutes long. But start to watch from 10:30 if you have a short attention span.
Posted by: Really | November 10, 2023 at 01:37 PM
@ Really
It is your believe that he has that power.
YOU attribute things to him.
For me whatever Spence writes is just telling me how he looks into the world .. it has no value as far as telling what the world is all about.
And ... after sending I will have a look at the video
Posted by: um | November 10, 2023 at 01:46 PM
No.
We have to be objective here.
1. he is not “just giving HIS opinion”. He is instead repeatedly avoiding facts presented by MISREPRESENTING what I have written here.
2. Of course he has the ability to influence the opinion of others and distort their perception of reality. We ALL have that ability. The Israelis train zionist-supporting Jews worldwide in how to do that. It is called by them ‘hafrada’.
That is why it is unethical to do that when by doing so you are permitting mass-murder and genocidal war crimes.
And as evidence that Spence deliberately — and Brian hopefully for his sake unwittingly — are doing that, I encourage watching a courageous Jewish Israeli journalist refute Sri Tepper’s arguments back in 2015. Everything Gideon said then still applies today, and I believe even more so:
https://youtu.be/DGO3eBxQX7Q?si=f2eObYVDCVlH7FOZ
It is only 21 minutes long. But watch from just 10:30 into the video for only a few minutes if you have a short attention span.
Posted by: Really | November 10, 2023 at 02:12 PM
@ Really
All the points mr Levy spoke about have been spoken here,.
It is a psychological, issue.
It is a matter of identification.
If humans identify themselves with something that has no existence of its own and is not share with others, they isolate themselves, and start to believe that only they are humans
Posted by: um | November 10, 2023 at 02:20 PM
@ Re4ally
Why would they give up that identification with being something else than being human??
By believing that identification they can live as Levy states in a lie, in an artificial garden of eden, a land of milk and honey, ...and .. what is made possible and payed for by others!!! .... hahahaha
The question is why does the western world in general and the USa in particular makes it possible.
They are all "christians".. they are all AFRAID of the wrath of their god ....
Posted by: um | November 10, 2023 at 02:37 PM
@ Really
They are afraid of being labeled as ..anti-semitic ... is anti- chosen ones ...is anti their own god.
You see in the days of slavery the children of the slave owners would play with the children of the slaves ... the children of the slaves, would think twice of hurting the feelings of the children of the slave masters.
We have to wait until the abrahamic religions are forgotten and seen as an curse for humanity
Posted by: um | November 10, 2023 at 02:52 PM
CORRECTION: The Israeli programme that trains zionist-supporting jews worldwide in how to manipulate public opinion on social media platforms and in comment sections is called ‘hasbara’.
Read about it here: https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-israels-million-dollar-troll-army/27566
The hebrew word ‘hafrada’ is the word used by Israel for its illegal wall = ‘ha-hafrada’. The equivalent word and translation of ‘hafrada’ in Afrikaans language is the word ‘apartheid. ‘Hafrada’ is the official Hebrew term for Israel's vision and policy towards the Palestinians of the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
Posted by: Really? | November 10, 2023 at 03:03 PM
Really?
If you look carefully at my comments you will see they apply universally to all people. They do not single out anyone.
This is the basis of finding peace, to live on a platform of basic respect.
Yes there are bad players in the world. But to assume all people of one land or religion are bad, especially when you don't know most of them, is by definition bigotry.
What you identify as bad behavior belongs to specific individuals, as their culpability is established in a court of law, not to all the people of any nation.
It is fine to ask for justice, but that only works if it is applied justly to the individuals involved.
To harm anyone who isn't an instigator is to commit the very injustice you are complaining about. How can a demand for justice be an excuse for injustice?
Yet this has been the thinking of terrorists and bullies. It is made out if ignorance, and poor education.
Kustice can only work if it carries no retribution at all, but an effort to reliabilitate while establishing safety, freedom and respect for all others regardless of system of belief, philosophy, orientation, history, color, disability or orientation.
The point of rehabilitation is to restore every person to brotherhood. Equality. So they can return to freedom, peace, safety and respect.
You get the idea. We must apply the basic standards any good business applies to serving the entire public in all words and actions if we hope to be of service.
And what else is an opinion worth if it doesn't serve the innocents everywhere?
When we cannot do this, when emotion overtakes us, that is God / Unconscious / Conscience raising a flag begging us to look in the mirror and get back to peace, freedom, safety and respect for all.
If you want peace, freedom, safety and respect it starts within, and extends to equal rights for all... All people are created equal with inalienable rights.
They may not be equal. But they are all created in the exact same way but the powers of the entire creation, with the same potential for kindness. It just gets buried under emotion and conditioning. But it's always there.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 11, 2023 at 07:33 AM
Oops, typo
They may not be equal. But they are all created in the exact same way by the powers of the entire creation, with the same potential for kindness. That kindness just gets buried under emotion and conditioning. But it's always there. Let's uncover it!
The book of life has many chapters, and we actually write them.
So now the chapter on hate has come to a close. The story lost all purpose and meaning. If it ever had any. But the next chapter. Let's make it a chapter in love. Let's open that door and go there.
We may get hurt there, too. It can happen. But no one can be hurt in the chapter of Love without having experienced love. And experiencing love, hurt no longer exists.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 11, 2023 at 07:54 AM
Another reply that misrepresents what I have written in order for you to deceitfully take the higher moral ground. (sigh! 🙄🤦♂️).
I have been — and still am — calling for us all to insist on an immediate ceasefire and a stop to the genocidal mass-murder being committed NOW by Jews against non-Jews BECAUSE they are regarded as less-valuable as humans by their JEWISH murderers.
I have repeatedly been saying that we can SOLVE this decades-long, tragic situation in occupied Palestine by:
1. implementing INTERNATIONAL LAW to ALL without partiality or bias. TO ALL!!!
2. by respecting the human rights of ALL PEOPLE, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or nationality. EQUAL HUMAN RIGHTS for all people, applied equally!!!
I haven’t “assumed all people of one religion or land are all bad”. That is another deceitful misrepresentation. It looks to me like psychological projection, as that is precisely what Brian and many other misinformed, manipulated people are doing that with ALL people who you unspecifically call Hamas. Hamas is a political party, and a charitable organisation that has a police force AND a militant wing. You are demonising and dehumanising all those people and our brothers of the one human race despite knowing almost nothing about them, their lives under illegal occupation and how much they were involved in any acts of violence. Don’t you see how it is YOU doing what you falsely accuse me of?
What I have been “identifying as bad behaviour” you want to believe “belongs” ONLY to what you call “specific individuals”.
I again suggest to you, and to anyone else still reading this, that THAT is a deceit and a denial of reality.
Only you can know if you are deliberately spreading deceits or if it is because of stubborn and wilful self-delusion and denial of obvious and irrefutable facts.
The truth is that what you present as “bad behaviour” by only “specific individuals” is in reality a calculated and planned state policy by at least two generations of Israelis who are engaged in ILLEGALITY and decades of committing, justifying and/or obfuscating war crimes. War crimes of genocide, land-theft and institutionalised, racist persecution of their neighbours. And all BECAUSE they are regarded as lesser beings for not having the same ethnicity/religion as themselves.
You appear to not want people to understand this.
Presumably because you support that genocide, racist ethnic-cleansing and land-theft. Which I presume is why you excused it by once writing “all land is occupied by conquest”. Falsely presenting this situation NOW in Gaza as something that happened long ago and can’t be altered. THAT IS A LIE.
IF we do want justice FOR ALL that definitely DOES involve PREVENTING it by punishing WRONGDOERS.
Not supporting them and giving them financial and military aid to perpetuate racist mass-murder. As USA, Britain, Germany, France and the EU are currently ILLEGALLY doing.
Remember, this is about EQUAL HUMAN RIGHTS for ALL people, and that means including Palestinians!!
This is about EQUAL PROTECTION against INJUSTICE and breach of international law for ALL people, and that means including protection and JUSTICE for Palestinians!!
Posted by: Really? | November 12, 2023 at 03:59 AM
@ Really
Our parents, renting a building for their business, could no longer rend the place.
In this country we have very strict legal protections for those that rent a place. It is not so easy to throw one out and give it to another. Sop our parents went to court and were convinced that the judge would not allow the owner to change the rent but he did. So our parents sought justice be done at higher courts and every time they lost the case.
WHY?
They HAD to lose the case as there where several interests of different parties, not only that of the owner, but also those of the city and a supermarket that wanted the building, to start in the centre of the city. All interest that were attributed more value and meaning to that the interests of my family
Our dad knew he would lose, but he would not accept before having defended his case before the court. After the verdict he never spoke word about it again. He had stood up against these powers as best he could, he had saved his honor and that was it
Our mother however could not digest this injustice done and would go on and on speak up.
What is going on In Gaza and the middle east is of interest to MANY different parties, not only that fight one another directly. It is in THEIR interest to stand by and support Israel in its actions.
They too, exactly what you know, have no doubt about it, but they will act differently as you would hope.
Spence too knows all about what you write by he too is bound to his personal interests.
They will go on serving their interests and you have not the power to change that.
Winners take it all / that is the bitter conclusion of history.
Posted by: um | November 12, 2023 at 04:45 AM
@Really
Last president election orthodox devote christians and mothers voted for Trump as their president.
Have not a second of doubt that they all knew what kind of man Mr. Trump is yet they voted for him as he promised to adores their values irt abortion etc ... most of them will have known that the man is personally not interested in the values even.
So these devote christians would even make a pact with the devil if he would stand up for their interests.
AND ....
they will do it again nex election
Find peace in the knowledge of yourself having done what you consider as right ... you have no power over others.
Posted by: um | November 12, 2023 at 05:26 AM
What are you doing, Um?
C’mon. This isn’t about being cheated of renting property in a city centre! 😮😢
This is a life and death situation!
LIFE or DEATH for people in Gaza and the West Bank!
Over 10,000 people have been murdered by Israeli JEWS in the last few weeks.
Over 4,000 of those murdered are CHILDREN!!!!
That isn’t taking into consideration all the others who have been seriously wounded, blinded, maimed, crippled for life. MAIMED FOR LIFE!
Sorry, but to compare THAT to your parent’s rent problems I suggest to you is obscene!
People are being mass-murdered NOW and they are being targeted not because they have anything to do with the Hamas military wing. It is because they are not Jewish! Its a racist-motivated genocide. And all because Israeli Jews want their land. They want it for Jew-only ‘lebensraum’.
Why are you supporting that with your obscenely inappropriate comparisons?
And of course we have power to change that. Of course we do. Of course we have power over others, by refuting lies and propaganda that less well-informed people are believing and spreading. If we didn’t have that, why are you bothering to reply here?
We ALL have a duty to resist tyranny, institutionalised racism and mass-murder whenever we are confronted by that. I thought that was what the “never forget” and “never again” holocaust slogans meant. 😕
And we DO have the power to do that. So I suggest we should NEVER EVER relinquish that power to influence the narrative, and to refute lies that serve such behaviour.
So... even if it is just refuting and exposing on social media platforms the misguided or devious people who BECAUSE they self-identify as Jews (like Spence Tepper) are spreading lies for Israel.
Israel is founded on terrorism and genocidal racism. That is a fact!
It is continuing its illegal land theft, terrorism and mass-murder by state-sponsored terrorism. Another fact.
That is not inflammatory rhetoric: we are witnessing an escalation of it every day now and have been for a month!!
If anyone doubts it watch this video by an Israeli Jew ex-IDF soldier. Start just at 39:00 minutes in and listen how he explains what the innocuous sounding policy of Israeli Jews “making our presence felt” actually means for Palestinians living under this decades-long occupation.
https://youtu.be/JxHE4KrLvj0?si=IUx2MLNVJzalps75
What is happening now in Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas. You really believe that militants were allowed to penetrate the most sophisticated security wall in human history? Not even a cat can cross it or walk within twenty feet of it without it being detected.
What is occurring is merely an acceleration of a Israeli policy of long-planned ethnic-cleansing.
Posted by: Really? | November 12, 2023 at 06:45 AM
@ Really
>> What are you doing, Um?<<
I tried to talk to you...not about the facts ... not about the meaning and value you and others attribute to it but how to deal with it.
Give how my words affect you I will abstain from further reactions on the matter
Posted by: um | November 12, 2023 at 06:58 AM
Hi Really?
Here is my perspective:
All peoples, wherever they are, deserve to live in safety, peace, respect and freedom.
I saw a video last night where someone was arguing for collective punishment. That is to say, punishing everyone from a region or culture for the bad behavior of a few.
I don't believe in that. Do you? In fact I think that is immoral, whether it is something Hammas has done, the PLO has done or Israel has done.
I don't actually believe in punishment. I was trained as a behavioral psychologist. The father of modern Behaviorism, B.F. Skinner, proved through painstaking work that positive reinforcement was far more powerful in changing behavior than punishment, which has a whole host of negative consequences.
But who will invest in economic growth in a region where terrorists disrupt the land?
Where the local government would rather spend aid to build a system of tunnels to support terrorism rather than to build infrastructure for gas, electricity, schools, etc.?
In watching the news and investigating a little more deeply, it seems the situation is a little more complex than Palestine vs Israel.
Apparently the Gaza strip doesn't just boarder Israel. It also boarders Egypt to the South. Egypt doesn't want Palestineans either.
Neither do the other Arab nations.
I read this was because they would rather watch Palestinians die than lose the land to Israel. But apparently Israel doesn't want the land either. They just don't want to have terrorists killing their people.
When I looked into it more deeply I found that there was another, more convincing reason why the other Arab nations don't want anyone from Palestine in their lands: they have already had Palestinean terrorism on their own soil and refuse to allow it again.
Apparently Hammas and the Palestinean Liberation Organization have a history of terrorism towards Egypt,, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Apparently "refugees" from Palestine engaged in armed conflict and revolt while in those lands against their governments and leaders, including support for Sadam Hussein, the invasion of Kuait, and the assassination of Lebanon's President. They disrupted their governments and left those places in shambles, chased out by the very people of those lands.
https://youtu.be/r7GAg8sWDpI?si=csQmtEecgcon6Ohh
Apparently Palestinian leaders during WWII supported Adolph Hitler's call for the eradication of the Jewish people throughout the world:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-official-record-what-the-mufti-said-to-hitler/
I don't think the perspective you have offered is by any means complete or balanced picture. But it does support my view that no one's hands are clean.
If our goal is equality, peace, safety, and freedom for all, including economic opportunity, I don't think more bloodshed from anyone is the answer.
And so I don't think supporting either Terrorism or Bullies is the answer either.
BTW Neither the Gaza strip nor Palestine is a prison and Israel hasn't occupied it since 2015. Gaza also boarders on Egypt. If Israel is keeping them imprisoned, so is Egypt. In fact, all of Arabia is keeping the terrorists from Palestine from going anywhere else. Unfortunately, they are doing this by keeping all Palestinians there. The "Open Prison" of Palestine and its terrorists is the creation of the entire Arab and Israeli region.
Although hundreds of millions of dollars in aid have been sent to Palestine over many decades, they didn't use it to build infrastructure, such as electricity and gas utilities, schools or education. They used it to build an extensive network of tunnels for terrorism and to purchase the tools for murder.
The Palestinian people need to be freed from the terrorism of Hammas, the PLO, the Palestinian authority, and the brutality of the Israeli government.
And that will require diplomatic intervention from a trusted third party.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 12, 2023 at 07:34 AM
@ Spence
The story goes that the two nuclear bombs on two japanese cities, ended the war and in doing saved the life of thousands.
Without delving into history and disputes of intentions my point of view is simple.
The USA by means of its president, could have decided NOT to drop the bombs, he could have decided to drop just one bomb, he could have decided to drop that one bomb at the outskirts of a city, for everybody to see its effect, its terror and by seeing it surrender.
But that is not what is done Spence:
the choice was to drop 2 bombs\
on two cities
Something of the same purpose ios going on in Gaza..
The reaction of israel is not the only possible ... it is a deliberate choice out of many.
Just to give an example, not one that easily pops up in people mid, would be.
Allright Hamas, allright people of Gaza, alright Palestinians we understand, that what happened on the 7th is a desperate action to make us and the world understand that the way you live is no longer bearable and we will do what ever we can to change it for the better. We feel sorry that we have let it escalate and have been blind for it.
Posted by: um | November 12, 2023 at 09:10 AM
Hi Um
I don't think you can blame Israel for the terrorism they have had to endure for decades at the hands of the PLO, Hammas etc. that is entirely on the shoulders of the terrorists. Not the rest of Palestine. Not Israel.
You can't blame Palestine for Israeli bullying. That oppression is entirely on the shoulders of the Israeli bullies who chose to abuse innocents in Palestine.
But how do you create safety by bringing the murderers to justice? And how do you build peace without safety?
This will require third party intervention. Terrorism must be stopped, and so must oppression.
But they tend to become careers all on their own.
I think the first step is for all parties to understand they have blood on their hands and should help each other bring to justice the perpetrators, or submit to a trusted third party to help do so. All while drawing up documents for each side to recognize the Sovereignty of the other.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 12, 2023 at 01:38 PM
@ Spence
Its is no longer possible as their will be no land left for palestinians to live their own life.
Sovereignty over what ...land illegal taken in possession by settlers ....hahaha
Land that most Israeli's belie to be given to them by god, an idea endorsed by the wealthy orthodox Christian americans and elsewhere ... hahaha
I better have some coffe
Posted by: um | November 12, 2023 at 02:00 PM
Hi Um:
You wrote:
"Its is no longer possible as their will be no land left for palestinians to live their own life."
Land is the issue isn't it? And strange notions about the past.
Whenever those notions corrupt a person's ability to love anyone as they love themselves, the history is a problem and should be forgotten. It has become a ball and chain around the living.
The answer is simple, but will require third party assistance, precisely because the wrong lessons were learned from the past, lessons of retribution, lessons of hatred.
The answer is that anyone who lives anywhere is to be honored and respected as an equal, with full civil rights, including the right to live where they were born, and where they live today, with all effort to cooperate and provide security, and freedom. No one is to be displaced.
If others have terrorized or brutalized, a system of justice must be enacted to bring perpetrators to justice, and without any civilian casualties in the process. Because those terrorists and brutalists are entirely responsible, 100%, for what their hands have done. No one else carries any responsibility for that.
They are entirely responsible. It is this basis that will be a firm foundation.
There can be a sovereign nation of Palestine and Israel, but if anyone wishes to sell their land, they are most free to do so. And if anyone wants new land, they are most welcome to buy at from the current owner at the price the owner sets.
So simple....Forget the past. Today is a new day.
Land is here to serve people, not enslave them.
But when anyone claims that either Palestine or Israel has no right to exist, they are actually indulging in bigotry, which will solve nothing, and adds to the problem.
They exist today. The people living there have done so for their entire lives. They need to be respected and honored, supported in fact, as members of the same race, children of the same God, good neighbors, even brothers and sisters.
So simple. It is the history, however it is twisted, that results in people being labelled "illegal".
But there is just people today. Honor them. Work at that. Then you participate in the solution, not the problem.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 12, 2023 at 03:24 PM
@ Spence
>>Whenever those notions corrupt a person's ability to love anyone as they love themselves, the history is a problem and should be forgotten. It has become a ball and chain around the living.<<
People identify themselves with what they are not, in order to survive in their artificial abstract copy of nature. They believe themselves to be this or that and this believe being related to the instinct of survival will force them to kill and be killed.
They are fighting for a cultural territory as animals do in order to survive.
The natural law is that the winner will take it all. Whatever means or tricks are to be used will be used. Some will look nasty and others not, what matters is that it works.
History tells a tale of what identification with religion, race, nationality does with humans.
Mystic lore tells how difficult it is to get rid of identification.
Psychology tells us what the effects of social cultural conditioning is on the mind
Those that fight are just the tip of the iceberg. The real powers that keep that tip above the water for all to see, are more or less out of sight
Even you are effected and your enlightenment has not freed you from it.
The winner will win and take it all.
P.S.
most people living in Israel are "Europeans" ...they are by "nature" very nationalistic. minded. ... hahaha ... have a look around in the world ... even after many generations they happen to live in ... yes ... APPARTHEID
Posted by: um | November 12, 2023 at 11:45 PM
@ Spence
and Spence ... APPARTHEID ... is married with feelings of superiority ... and these motivate to go out into the world iin order to bring the "good news" ... to educate the "little children" hahahawhat created kolonies, slavery and to sum up to a total
The ...EVIL OF WEALTH
EVIL,
Posted by: um | November 12, 2023 at 11:50 PM
Hi Um
Identification is a learned behavior.
It can be unlearned.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 13, 2023 at 08:41 AM
@ Spence
Hahahaha .... than you know something the rest of us doesn't know ... hahahaha
What you learned to be at the diner table long long ago you demonstrated here every day
Hahahaa ... you have not changed nor can you can get rid of your identifications ... your roots
Posted by: um | November 13, 2023 at 08:45 AM