Entries in the 'Israel' Category

Will the US Really Support Israel?

448.8Question: Biden and Lapid signed the Jerusalem Declaration whereby the United States and Israel affirmed strategic cooperation and the US committed to enduring support of Israel’s security. The main point is both countries commitment not to allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. How much value is there to these declarations?

Answer: Zero.

Question: That is, in “hour-x” everyone will still do what is beneficial to them?

Answer: Circumstances change, everything changes.

Question: Why do we sign these declarations?

Answer: It is politics, it is a game. They live by it.

Question: Do you think that both sides understand that this is all fiction?

Answer: Yes. Sometimes it delays advancement toward one direction or the other for a while, but no more than that.

Question: So Biden or someone else will not say: “I gave my word, so I have to keep it”?

Answer: Such words and generally such communications are not embraced.

Question: And when will the declaration be 100% fulfilled?

Answer: When you hold the opposite side by the throat.

Question: Are you talking about our world today? We have to hold someone by the throat and then he will do what he signed up for?

Answer: Sure.

Comment: In general, ideally two parties sign the declaration…

My Response: It is only if people and countries are under the influence of the upper force, then they perform. Then they do not need any extraneous restrictions or pressures.

Question: And what is it? Do they perform out of shame, out of some duty? When they are under the upper force, then they are, so to say, obliged to keep their word?

Answer: They are obliged because they determine their future by this. I am not signing with the opposite side, with some people, but with the upper force. That is all. So there are no other conversations here anymore.

Question: In that case, what works more, respect for the upper force or fear?

Answer: Respect that comes from the fear that I am under His power in an absolute sense. This is the most reliable. And I cannot break my word. It is the same as if I am killing myself, the people, the state, the world.

The declaration will work only if we are afraid of the Creator. Otherwise, nothing will work.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/18/22

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“His Legacy Is Our Duty” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “His Legacy Is Our Duty”

This month, eighty-two years ago, one of the founders of the State of Israel, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, passed away. Jabotinsky was a gifted poet, a celebrated author, and an eloquent orator. But most of all, he was a Zionist leader who had fought his entire life for the establishment of a Jewish state in the historic land of Israel.

From my nation’s elders I did hear,

As He formed every nation and tribe

He vowed that in this land here,

A Hebrew nation will reside…

These lines from the poem A City of Peace reflect Jabotinsky’s passion for Zionism, which he felt was the only way to prevent a Jewish slaughter and annihilation in Europe. He was right about the slaughter, but he did not manage to bring European Jewry into the land of Israel in time.

Jabotinsky was a contemporary of my teacher’s father, the great kabbalist Baal HaSulam. Both were born in Eastern Europe, and both believed that the vocation of the Jews is to come to the land of Israel. In that sense, not only Baal HaSulam, but all the kabbalists were Zionists, as was my teacher, RABASH, Baal HaSulam’s firstborn son and successor.

However, where Zionism sees its end goal in the physical return of the people of Israel to the land of Israel, kabbalists see it as merely the beginning of the fulfillment of Israel’s calling, and not the zenith of it, but rather the basis for the realization of Israel’s vocation: the unity of the world.

As just said, RABASH, Baal HaSulam, and all the kabbalists were avid Zionists. Baal HaSulam even had the words “State of Israel” etched on his Sabbath knife, with which he would slice the bread on the ceremonial reception of the Sabbath. But their Zionism was not an aspiration for physical relocation from Europe to Palestine; it was a yearning to see the people of Israel unite as one, and the world unites along with it. The physical return, therefore, was a significant step toward it, but only a step, and certainly not the ultimate goal.

Jabotinsky’s dream was to see the Jewish people dwelling in the historic land of Israel. I believe that if the people of Israel focus on their unity, and intend for it to be a model for humanity, a proof that people who hate each other from the bottom of their hearts can unite as one man with one heart, then Israel’s unity will spread throughout the world without any borders whatsoever.

When kabbalists speak of “the final correction,” they mean the final correction of hatred, the abolition of enmity, and the establishment of complete and undying love among all people. In such a state, no borders are needed, and no borders are erected between people or nations.

Like my teachers before me, I am a Zionist. Like my teachers before me, my Zionism is dedicated to the unity of our nation as a model for the unity of the world. Like my teachers before me, I believe that the place where the people of Israel can unite and become that model of solidarity and love of others is here in the land of our fathers, the land of Israel, where Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your neighbor as yourself, this is the overarching rule.”

Jabotinsky’s anniversary is a good time to reflect on Zionism, what it means for us today, and what it should mean. Today, Zionism is disintegrating. To many people, the very word has become derogatory. However, if people only knew the real meaning behind the word, the love for all of humanity that was the cause of the establishment of the Israeli nation, I believe that they will change their attitude.

That said, unless we Jews rekindle the spirit of unity that is the basis of our nation, no one will understand what Zionism is about or why we need a Jewish state. We, Israelis, through our choice of unity or division, determine our own fate. Zionism must be taught at all the schools and educational institutions, but it must be the complete version of it, the one that sees its end in the unity of the world, and the unity of Israel as a means to the final end. If we do this, we will have no enemies to worry about. If we do not do this, nothing will prevent Israel’s decline.
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“Devoid of Jewish Identity” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Devoid of Jewish Identity”

The national Jewish identity and the fear of losing it has become a question that troubles many people in Israel. On the one hand, there is no fear that we will lose our identity even if we want to since the hatred of the world toward us reminds us that we are Jewish. Our Palestinian neighbors also assist in that through their pressure. Were it not for their hatred, we would be long gone.

The Jewish national identity is derived from realizing a certain demand from the Jews as a group, as the Israeli nation. We have a common language, we have our politics and politicians, and even a distinct Israeli mentality. Yet, as long as we do not know why we are here, we are not really a nation.

If our spiritual calling is to be “a light to the nations,” but we are not sure what it means, the world will remain lost in the dark, not knowing why it exists. The more humanity advances, the more the questions about the purpose of life become poignant and painful. In consequence, the nations are growing angrier and crueler toward us, Jews.

Now we have come to a state where everything material is in abundance. The only thing we do not know is the purpose of it all. That aimlessness leads the nations to remember the calling of the Jews, so when we do not provide the answer they want, they hate us.

Since we are unaware of our calling, we do not understand why the world hates us. We think that leading the world in advanced technologies, contributing to the world in culture, medicine, agriculture, science, and entertainment should win us the world’s gratitude. However, it does not win us gratitude, much less favor. We do not understand why, but if we realized what it is that we must give the world, we would see what we are not giving it, and we would understand why the world hates us.

We may think that we do not have what the world wants, but we do. The world wants to know how people can live together in peace, since hatred is the only plague that ruins everything we do. The Jews have had the method for achieving unity since we formed our nation by rising above the vehement hatred that our ancestors felt toward each other and uniting “as one man with one heart.” Immediately after we became a nation, we were tasked with passing our method to the rest of humanity. The Bible defined it as an obligation to be a light to the nations, namely to pass on the light of unity.

Over the centuries, we had achieved high levels of unity. We lived out the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and for a time, we really shone the light of unity to humanity. However, our unity was short-lived and with its decline, the world has plunged into eons of war, bloodshed, and hatred.

Now it is time to return to our Jewish identity—to shine the light of unity to the entire world by uniting among ourselves and setting an example to the world. The growing hatred toward us, which seems so unjust, is the world’s demand that we unite and show humanity the way. When we achieve unity among ourselves, the world will unite with us, and we will not need to search for our identity or justify our existence as a nation.
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“The Need to Get Out – My Personal Story” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Need to Get Out – My Personal Story”

I remember how everyone looked at me 50 years ago in Belarus when I said that I had to leave there and go to Israel, that I had no other choice and wanted nothing else in life ‎other than to come there, to Israel. People pressured me from all directions, “Don’t leave!” “What will you do there?” “They might put you in jail!” and many other warnings. But I could not listen; I knew I had to go, that that was my way.

After I submitted my application to the Soviet authorities to emigrate to Israel, I became a refusenik for several years. Refuseniks were people who applied for an emigration permit from the former Soviet Union to Israel, but the authorities rejected their application. Eventually, however, I received the permit and made Aliyah (lit. “ascent,” a term that designates ‎ emigration to Israel).

But when I arrived in Israel, the story repeated itself. I started asking questions, looking for someone to explain to me why we live, what is the purpose of life. Again, people looked at me awkwardly. “Why? What is it you need?” they asked me. I had to get answers to the questions about the universe and existence, and I knew that here, in Israel, the answer must ‎be found.‎

In this way, I was led from above to the land of Israel, where, after a long search, on a rainy winter night, I was led to my wise and kind teacher, RABASH. He opened the books of Kabbalah to me and showed me the inner meaning of the teachings of Israel. He answered my questions one at a time, with scientific logic and in perfect order, questions that had been ‎haunting me since childhood.‎

Like RABASH’s father, the great kabbalist Baal HaSulam, my teacher lived and taught within the Jewish Orthodox community. My calling was to be a cornerstone in bringing the wisdom of Kabbalah to the general public, to secular people. When I began teaching, people had no need for it. “What is it, philosophy?” they asked, “Is it some kind of psychology?” “Why do I need it? Isn’t it a religion?” “Do I have to pray three times a day?” Very gradually, I learned to explain the wisdom, and people began to understand what it is ‎really about.

In part, my own efforts contributed to this process. I was willing to do literally anything to make Israelis realize what a treasure they have. In time, nature took its course and an inner urge to know the wisdom began to emerge in people, a craving to understand where we ‎come from and where we are going.

Today we are approaching the same state that I felt in Russia and in Israel, a state that until ‎today came only to a few. It will become a torrent that will push us into the straits, because if ‎previously, we could settle for an apartment that we bought with great efforts, a good salary, a guaranteed pension, and even occasional trips abroad, soon these satisfactions will no longer motivate us to get up in the morning. We will feel that we cannot go on ‎living like this; material satisfactions will no longer satisfy us.

The worsening situation in Israel will add to the heaviness, and we will feel that we are suffocating, that we are cornered and have nowhere to run, that we must break out, out of the dark and narrow dungeon and into the daylight, to a place where there is spirit!

This narrow place is our life, where we feel alone and our eyes are always looking for fleeting corporeal pleasures. We feel the spirit of life only when we break out from the straits ‎ into the feeling of others, when we include our brothers in us, care for them, and unite with them as one.‎

This duty is hidden in the teachings of Israel, in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the method ‎to break out of our own boundaries into the hearts of our friends, and from there to include the whole world, all the people, and even animals, plants, and minerals. Kabbalah is the teaching that leads us into connection with the upper force that creates everything and sustains everything, and includes everything and everyone within it.

Spiritual Fall of the People

421.01Comment: Eyewitnesses say that when the country of Israel appeared, there was a sense of a common family between the Jews who moved here.

My Response: Naturally, as in every young country. First, there were more men than women back then. Second, everyone united in order to survive. The first settlers came from one area, the south of Russia, with a common language and a common mentality.

From the 80s of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, the whole of Palestine was populating with refugees from Russia and Eastern Europe. Only then, after the country was organized, refugees from Arab countries began to arrive.

But over the years, everything has changed. Today, relations between people have acquired such miasmic forms that only spiritual correction will help correct them.

Of course, it is a pity to look at what is happening. Once they found themselves in one place, instead of jumping up spiritually, the Jewish people fell morally, spiritually, and culturally. I hope that this is the initial stage of development, and then everything will pass.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Who Rules the World” 2/9/13

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“Bring Back the Pioneer Spirit” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Bring Back the Pioneer Spirit”

When I came to Israel in 1974, I was sent to a hotel that accommodated new olim (Jews who had just immigrated to Israel). Each family was given a room and we slept, dined, and learned Hebrew there. One day, I found out that one of the waiters serving us in the dining hall was actually the owner of the hotel. He had donated his hotel for several years to help new olim in their first steps. I was amazed to discover that there were people with such spirit. That man was a true pioneer, and it was the pioneer spirit that drove him to do what he did. That spirit did not let him sit by, but galvanized him to do something meaningful in his life. Today, this spirit is a rarity, and we desperately need to find a way to bring it back to life.

The pioneer spirit exists in the heart of every Jew. After all, every Jew is a descendant of pioneers who paved the way for a new social model of mutual responsibility and solidarity, which was unheard of at the time. Until Abraham began to spread his ideas about mercy and love of others, and until Moses had turned the descendants of Abraham’s group into a nation, the idea of a nation fashioned by transcending one’s ego was unthinkable. The prevailing conduct was that the strong rules and subjugates or annihilates the weak, both among nations and among individuals. Here, however, was a new concept, embodied in the words of King Solomon (Prov. 10:12): “Hate stirs up strife, and love will cover all crimes.”

The Golden Rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” represents the core of being Jewish. It is not a commandment to do something or say something. Nor is it a commandment to praise a deity or worship it. It is simply a commandment to love others as much as you love yourself.

The pioneers who established the State of Israel did a great job at founding a sovereign country in a land that was largely swamp and desert when they came here, and against six charging armies that sought to annihilate the Jewish presence in the Middle East. However, they did not finish the job. They established a state, but now it is up to us to nurture the soul and spirit of that state so as to merit the name the “State of Israel,” a country that hallows one and only law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

If we take the next step and fill the heart of the Israeli people with the Israeli spirit of solidarity, mutual responsibility, and above all, love of others, it will be our final triumph. No one will challenge our presence here because everyone will realize that we are not here for ourselves, but for the world, to carry out our calling and be a light to the nations, spreading the light of unity and friendship above all differences and conflicts. If we rise above our internal divisions toward unity and love, we will complete our ancestors’ task, and their pioneering spirit of caring for others will spread around the world.

Therefore, the only war we need to wage is against our egos. The only victory we need is the victory of unity over division.
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“The Age of Togetherness” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Age of Togetherness”

Why does it feel more and more like humanity is the bully in the neighborhood? Between nations, in personal relationships, with coworkers, among peers at school, and toward nature, we are as clumsy as an elephant in a china store, breaking everything we touch and leaving a chaotic mess behind us. There is a reason for this: The world around us is changing. While we are trapped in a mindset of having to work only for ourselves and that if we are weak, others will eat us, life has revealed its connected nature and shows us that if we act alone, we fail. Reality has ushered in the age of togetherness, and if we want to succeed, we will have to adapt.

In this new age, we cannot succeed alone. People’s strength comes not from their own abilities, but from their ability to connect and collaborate with others.

When we think of collaboration, we often think of having to compromise and give up things we would like in order to maintain a connection. That is no longer the case. On the contrary, the new togetherness requires that we use all of our skills, talents, ideas, and aspirations. However, we will use them for the common good rather than our own.

Currently, we use our abilities to benefit ourselves and prevent others from hurting or surpassing us. This puts us in a constant war with others. As a result, we frequently cancel each other’s good ideas and strengths, they often cancel ours, and we all end up tired, worn out, with unfulfilled potentials, and the whole of society loses.

When we use our individual advantages for the common good, we boost each other’s qualities, enhance each other’s achievements, and facilitate the realization of each other’s full potential. Everyone benefits from this. We feel fulfilled, confident, welcome in our social environment, and all of society benefits from our contributions. The energy we used to spend on self defense is geared toward development, and the achievements spur us on to give even more of ourselves to the collective.

The only thing that stops us from living out this dream society is our obstinate ego. As long as we let it rule, it will continue to destroy us and demolish our society. Eventually, it will destroy everything, and we will realize that we have no choice but to let go of our ego.

If we realize this now rather than later, we will spare ourselves that dismal outlook and bring the future into the present. If we help each other rise above ourselves, we will be able to do this, because in the age of togetherness, even rising above the ego is possible only if we work together.
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Prevent the Holocaust All Over the World

400Comment: Before the Second World War, Jews were very closely integrated into all spheres of activity in Germany, Poland, and other countries. Then the Nazis came and began to drive them into ghettos; they were not considered human and were burned alive. The Jews have suffered a lot and it has all dulled now. In most countries of the world, they have returned to the same stage again where they control everything.

My Response: Physically, Jews do not rule in the world. And it didn’t happen before. Of course, they were present in many aspects, but more like doctors, lawyers, and not empire governors.

And the feeling that Jews control and twist everything comes from the inner nature of man, because the fate of each person in the world depends on whether he or she goes, so to say, along the Jewish, Kabbalistic path or not.

Moreover, it seems to people that Jews rule the world through the usual systems: financial, economic, political, industrial, commercial, and so on. No! Of course, they take a place in this, but not to that extent.

The fact is that the nations of the world really have a feeling that their fate depends on the Jews, because their correction depends on the correction of the Jews. To the extent that the Jews would rise up the spiritual ladder and pull all other nations with them, they would feel that the Jews are doing the right thing: “We will follow them, it will be better, they are smarter.”

There is an understanding in the world in this regard. As soon as the Jews begin to do their job, the nations of the world will accept them calmly as teachers, as leaders.

Why not, if this is actually how nature works? Rabbi Akiva was the first among the Jews, although he was not a Jew by birth (Please! The way is open to everyone). Therefore, the problem here is not a material advantage, but only a spiritual one.

But, firstly, the nations of the world do not feel this and secondly, they do not treat Jews badly, but the fact is that Jews do not realize their destiny. And not because the nations of the world are smart or stupid, but because in this way the Creator puts pressure on the Jews through them.

After all, the Spanish Inquisition did not treat Jews badly. It treated the Marranos badly, those who were baptized and converted to Catholicism.

Which means, if you are a Jew, be a Jew; if you are an Arab, be an Arab ,and if you are a Christian, be a Christian. Therefore, it was suspicious and disgusting for Spanish Catholics when a Jew converted to Catholicism. Why was this launched from above by the Creator? Because a Jew must fulfill his function, must lead people to integration and correction, and must rise above egoism. Instead, he departed from his mission and also went to Catholicism. It was precisely from this that the Inquisition began.

The same happened in Germany. At first, the Germans wanted only one thing: to evict all Jews to Palestine. Through them, subconsciously, there was a clear decree of the Creator to create a Jewish state in Palestine, so that they would begin to fulfill their mission.

But they rested their hands and feet, like a donkey being pushed from behind, saying, “We are Germans, Germany is our home” and all that sort of thing until they were just thrown out because the Creator instilled such hatred. This is a law of nature. If you do not fulfill your mission, you have no option for further existence.

Today, this applies not only to Jews, but more and more to the whole world. There will no longer be a Holocaust with only the Jewish people; there will be a Holocaust with the whole world.

We have come to a state where everything is open to the world, including the theory and practice and everything is set out on the Internet and everywhere. Please get it! Listen up! Accept it! Begin to understand that this is your salvation. But neither the Jews nor the nations of the world do this. Now everyone will get into trouble if they don’t start implementing the methodology on themselves.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Who Rules the World” 2/9/13

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“Parallel Universes in Israel” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Parallel Universes in Israel”

Recently, it seems as though Israelis live in parallel universes. Everyone seems to have their own perception of reality, and anyone with different views is regarded as shortsighted, misguided, ignorant, or plain dim-witted. The government has been dissolved because of such disagreements; the police and the country’s attorney general are accused of corruption, and no one knows whom to believe; Israel’s former prime minister is on trial, and media reports are so contradictory that you would think they are reporting unrelated trials; the media, as a whole, has lost the public’s trust, and each side consumes only the news that cater to one’s views. As a result, the worlds Israelis live in seem completely unrelated and disconnected, parallel universes indeed.

Yet, these universes exist in the same space, and therefore frequently collide with one another. The perpetual clashes have weakened Israeli society to the point where it is disintegrating from within. The complete absence of solidarity makes everyone pull their own way, regardless of others, and everyone thinks that only their side is right and the other side is wrong. And as people behave, so do parties, until the entire structure crumbles.

The Jewish state is unlike other countries because the Jews are unlike other people. Each of us carries within him contradictory forces, desires, and discernments equal to those of an entire nation. Therefore, the only way to reconcile between us and connect us is to make mutual concessions. As long as we avoid it, we are sliding closer to complete and irreversible dissolution. In the summer of 70 CE, around this time of the year, a terrible disaster had happened to us. Now we are approaching a replay of that tragedy.

From the moment we began to endeavor to reestablish a Jewish state in the land of Israel, we began to feel as though we are locked in a cage with people we cannot stand. We are like wild beasts, gnawing at each other, while our enemies gleefully wait for us to finish each other off or make a run for it.

Even if we attempt to split the country into several smaller countries where people more or less agree with one another, it will still not help. The division is not only between us; it is within us! We need to make ourselves whole just as much as we need to make our society whole. Until we understand who we are as people, as Jewish people, what we need to do as Jews, and accept that we must carry out our calling, we will not make peace with one another, let alone with other nations.

Jews have always had disagreements. Parallel universes have existed between us and within us since the inception of our nature. They cannot be canceled, nor should they. They were given to us; they are inherent in our nature, and therefore cannot be revoked. Our task is not to make them disappear, but to build above these rifts such ties of love that will be stronger than the chasm and fortify our structure as a nation.

The connection and the unity of the people of Israel are very different from those of other nations. Other nations maintain unity by maintaining similarity of views, culture, or faith. Jews, on the other hand, maintain solidarity, if we succeed, by understanding the vitality of contradictions, embracing conflicts as an impetus to foster stronger ties, and building a stronger bond precisely because it has to overcome a deeper gap than any other nation feels.

It is an unnatural bond, a manmade love that challenges the natural hatred that nature has installed in us for anyone who is dissimilar to us. Nevertheless, it is precisely this connection that makes us sturdy, that builds a new nation based on people’s free choice to unite above their hatred.

This unique unity is the secret to the robustness and durability of the people of Israel. Understanding how to form such a bond is the secret wisdom that our nation must teach the world, and our inability to teach it is the reason that so many people hate Jews.

The parallel universes that exist among the Jews and within the Jews will never disappear, nor should they. But when Jews learn to build bridges of love between their parallel realities, they will find peace and happiness, and the world will find it with them.
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“What Hamas Leader Knows, and What He Doesn’t” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “What Hamas Leader Knows, and What He Doesn’t”

A few days ago, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called on Palestinians to prepare to return to Palestine. He declared that Israel is in a state of political disintegration that reflects the dead-end to which the Zionist enterprise has come. “The beginning of defeat,” he said, “is disintegration from within.” Haniyeh added that because of it, the Palestinians are “at a time of victories, and a generation of great changes.” While his observations are correct, he does not know that from the place where Israel falls, from that same place it rises.

In many ways, Haniyeh is like Haman from the biblical story of Esther. As with Haman, Israel will suffer more and more blows from the wicked, who will grow stronger and stronger and become ever more confident. As with Haman, in the end the Jews will unite and everything that the wicked one has built will turn against him.

For the time being, Israel is indeed disintegrated. We are a divided society whose views range from one extreme to the other on every single issue. We are wholly divided on the issue of the conflict with the Palestinians. We are equally divided on the issue of imposing religious laws, on identity politics and wokeness, and on anything that concerns more than one person.

We know we are divided but we do not care. We do not care even when our worst enemy tells us that this is why we are weak. When will we wake up? On the edge of the precipice.

When we wake up, we will realize that all our divisions are incentives to unite. Since we do not want to unite, and instead choose division and derision, our separation worsens, our enemies point out that this is our weakness, and warn us that they will defeat us because of our division.

Now that our division is well in place, as are the warnings of our enemies, we must decide whether to heed the warnings and unite, or wait for the whip to lash and painfully force us to rise above our mutual aversion. If we choose unity before we are whipped, no lashes will be necessary. The sooner we move toward each other, the sooner the world will understand that the reason they hated us was our disunity, and that unity is our protection from hatred, our guarantee of safety.
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