Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is Israel politically unstable? Can we expect a clear winner this time?“

The reason for Israel’s political instability today is that we have reached a state where we hate and cannot come close to each other.

Since this flaw has become revealed, now is the time to fix it.

First of all, anyone who enters politics and becomes a government member needs to become corrected. By “correction” I mean that they should undergo a process of inverting egoism—prioritizing self-benefit over benefiting others—to its opposite—prioritizing the benefit of others over oneself. By remaining as egoists, we bring about destruction.

We need to become aware that, as it is written, “man’s inclination is evil from his youth,” and that we need to correct this evil inclination if we are to reach a better state.

How do we reach a state where we mutually understand each other, where we fight our ego instead of fighting each other? That is what we need in order to reach a harmonious and peaceful life without wars, disputes and trials.

There is a single truth, which is love. In contrast with that truth, we were given an egoistic and hateful nature. We simply need to know how to correctly work with the power of hatred in order to reach its opposite, the power of love, and we should invest primarily in learning and teaching how to undergo this transformation.

Based on the video “Why Is Israel Politically Unstable?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Laura Siegal on Unsplash.

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Comment: I read an article in the Russian newspaper News of the Week entitled “Academy of self-hatred,” which asserts that the number of Jews leading their fellow tribesmen to a second Holocaust is growing all over the world. They have honorary professorial titles, big names, and are reaching the point of self-forgetful love for those who long for the destruction of Israel with all its six million Jews.

They are Jews, and openly declare it. The only goal they pursue is to prevent a Jewish catastrophe, but a Jewish catastrophe in Gaza. These Jews are crying out for peace, demanding mass genocide of the Palestinians be stopped, the government of Apartheid be ended, and Israeli Nazism be done with.

My Response: I can understand them, and I will explain why, Israel was created and exists precisely to fulfill its historical mission. Not just to exist or to be a refuge for Jews from all over the world who come here to find a safe place to live. This is far from being a safe place. In principle, it is the most dangerous place. We live here like on a volcano.

However, we have gathered here to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah and give it to all of humanity. This is our destiny!

This is why we came back to this land! This is why we have gathered here again! Only in this should we see ourselves and our purpose. If we do this, then we will justify the entire program of creation, our entire existence, and everything that has happened in the world so far.

Then there will be no more wars, no more hatred since everything negative in the world happens because egoism reigns in it, and we have a methodology of correcting it to universal love and with its help reaching the level of the Creator.

Question: Are you saying that those Jews who hate Jews are a manifestation of some kind of help?

Answer: Yes, this will give a boost. I do not see anything negative in the world at all. It all depends on how to apply it. They are right! Just as I do not blame anti-Semites, so I do not blame anti-Semitic Jews. I believe that it is necessary to use all these qualities in order to convey to everyone what kind of world we live in, why such desires arise in us, and how we can realize them correctly.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Around the World” 2/20/11

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My new article on Linkedin “Occupy Rothschild, Again”

In 2011, the Israeli “chapter” of the Occupy movement began its activities with a huge rally in Tel Aviv, and went on to “occupy” Rothschild Boulevard for the next several months. The media was all for it, and so were the people. The causes were just, and there were many of them, and everyone believed a change was coming to the Israeli society. People felt they had had enough of corporations profiting at their expense. I warned back then that the protests would accomplish nothing because there was no unity among the protesters, and without unity, they were powerless against corporations and politicians. This is indeed what happened. A committee was announced, recommendations were drafted, but the citizens of Israel are exploited now as they have always been, if not more so.

But people seem to have short memories. These days, tents are up again on Rothschild Boulevard because Israelis are fed up with exploitation and abuse of power. And once again, the people are divided; their goals are manifold and budgets are given to those in power, who split them among the many parties that exist in Israel. When everyone pulls the blanket their own way, and the blanket is not big enough to cover everyone, it eventually tears and people are left with nothing.

Therefore, despite all the wealth of ingenuity, start-up companies, advanced technologies, innovative biotechnology and agriculture, and abundance of natural gas reserves, Israel will remain poor and weak. “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them,” writes the book Maor VaShemesh. Division is our only enemy. When we fight for different causes, we increase our separation and vie against each other. In such a state, we have lost before we have even begun.

If Israelis want to accomplish anything, they must first and foremost unite. Only if we make unity and solidarity our top priorities will we be able to prioritize our needs correctly. If each faction lays out its needs and challenges, and everyone discusses what to do and when, knowing that the primary goal is to enhance our unity, then all the problems will be solved in the right time and in the right way.

As long as we remain centered on our own needs, and this is the prevailing atmosphere in Israel, there is no reason why powerful people should not abuse the rest of us, if they only can. But if we unite, they will lose their desire to abuse; our unity will draw them in, and Israel will prosper.
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My new article on Linkedin “UNRWA – Feeding the Fire of Hate”

UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. It was established on December 8, 1949, and began to operate on May 1, 1950. Its mandate has been obscure from the very beginning, though it did mention relief for Palestine refugees.

In discussing its mandate, an official document published by UNRWA offers a rather vague explanation: “Attention is devoted to the evolution of some aspects of the Agency’s mandate, in particular human development and protection.” Subsequently, the article concludes with some remarks on the overall nature of UNRWA’s mandate, without specifying what those really are.

Given that every three years the mandate must be renewed, and that it was never actually defined, the organization grew beyond all proportions and became a behemoth that spends hundreds of millions of dollars, mainly on schools in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority. In fact, “Over half of the 2020 Programme Budget of US$ 806 [sic] million is earmarked for education under the priority that ‘school-aged children complete quality, equitable and inclusive basic education,’” according to the organization’s own statement.

The problem is that what UNRWA defines as “inclusive basic education” is actually a hate campaign against Israel, Israelis, and Jews. These hundreds of millions of dollars go toward feeding the fire of hate in the most volatile area in the world. Recently, the racist content has become so defamatory that even the EU Parliament, not exactly one of Israel’s guardians in the international community, condemned the organization.

The irony is that despite the hate campaign, the squandering of nearly a billion dollars every year, and its complete incompetence when it comes to actually helping refugees, the EU, as does the UN, the US, and the rest of the world, continue to fund UNRWA. Just recently, the EU voted to give UNRWA another boost worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

After decades of warnings about the inappropriate use of funds by UNRWA, we must finally accept that the organization’s use of funds is squarely within the boundaries of the nations’ intent. In other words, they have no problem with its support of antisemitic teachings because it expresses their opinions.

Worse yet, in the coming years, we should expect more and more such “aid” and “human rights” organizations to emerge out of the blue, and all of them will focus on one and only target: condemning, and eventually delegitimizing the existence of the State of Israel.

The only possible solution to the problem is not political, but spiritual. That is, the proliferation or lessening of anti-Israel and antisemitic organizations depends on the spirit of the Israeli people, and specifically our social cohesion. The more united we are, the greater the solidarity between us, the less powerful and successful these organizations will become.

For decades, the State of Israel has been trying to fight the incitement against it. For decades, matters have gone from bad to worse. Were it not for US vetoes, the sanctions against Israel would have made life very difficult for Israelis long ago. In recent years, there has been a growing tendency in the US, too—with the exception of the Trump administration—to lean more toward the Arabs and less toward Israel. In such a state, soon there will be no one protecting Israel in the UN Security Council and sanctions will start landing on the Jewish state.

However, Israel can reverse the trajectory. If it unites its ranks, its unity alone will turn the antagonism toward it into sympathy. We need not explain anything to anyone; we only need to show that we are one nation, united above all our divisions and disagreements. This is what the world needs to see from Israel, and this is what will legitimize our presence in the land of our fathers.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Why Iran Gets Away with Anything”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has recently admonished Iran for not cooperating with the agency after traces of uranium were found in several sites in Iran. In response, Iran disconnected some of the IAEA surveillance cameras that the agency uses to monitor Iran’s nuclear activity. The world condemned Iran for this move, of course, but no action has been taken to prevent its ongoing enrichment efforts, which, according to Western sources, have nearly reached the level that enables Iran to create nuclear weapons. Israel, on the other hand, which makes every effort not to break humanitarian laws in its own conflict, is almost unanimously deviled around the world.

Why does the world hate Israel and not Iran? How can Iran get away with production of nuclear weapons, while Israel is under constant bombardment of condemnations, with on-going committees and delegates whose sole purpose is to find Israel’s faults in its conflict with the Palestinians, delegates and committees with explicit orders to ignore the Palestinian terrorist acts against Israel and even against their own people?

The answer to all these questions is simple: Israel is not Iran. Even when Israel does something good, such as setting up makeshift hospitals for wounded Syrian refugees or sending rescue teams to disaster sites around the world, Israel is still vilified. No one expects Iran to be good to anyone, while all the good that Israel does is never nearly enough.

As unpleasant as this may be for us, I understand why the world treats us this way. Subconsciously, the world feels what we need to be doing, and setting up makeshift hospitals is not one of them. It is great that we do this, and it does help those who need medical services and cannot get them otherwise, but this should not be Israel’s main focus. This is not what the world expects from us, and not what we should expect from ourselves.

We can tell ourselves a thousand stories about how kind we are, what great donors we are, how we help the sick and wounded the world over, and how Israeli agriculture creates food in poor third world countries. We can tell these things to ourselves but no one else listens or accepts them. All we need is to look at the world’s opinion about us as is reflected in UN votes and how the very‎ countries that we help vote against us every chance they get.

I cannot help but justify them; this is not what we should be giving them, and they sense it and react accordingly. What they really need from us, and this may be counterintuitive, is for us to treat each other well, our fellow Jews. Deep down, they feel that our internal division is the culprit behind their woes, and even their own internal conflicts.

The world does not expect us to reverse desertification or cure cancer. It expects much more from us: to reverse hatred around the world. And it expects us to set an example, a living proof that unity above division is possible.

Being “a light to the nations” means that we are a beacon of hope that humanity can overcome strife. After all, it was our king, the wisest of all men, King Solomon, who coined the motto, “Hate stirs up strife, and love will cover all crimes” (Prov. 10:12).

We need to understand that the seemingly insurmountable antagonism and profound alienation among the various factions of Israeli society are purposefully so. These chasms are not meant to be bridged by negotiation or by arrival at some compromise. They are meant to stay as they are, and to realize that our task is not to agree, but to remain one nation even though we disagree. This is the example we must show the world. It is the only thing humanity cannot develop by itself, and the only thing that it expects Jews to establish.

Our ancestors set the precedent. At the foot of Mt. Sinai, we pledged to unite “as one man with one heart,” after which we were declared a nation. Our only merit at the time was our unity, our mutual responsibility. That one merit was the reason we became a chosen nation.

If we live up to our calling, we will be admired and emulated the world over. If we collapse under the burden of hate, we will be deviled, ridiculed, and eventually banished or exterminated.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “On the Defendant’s Stand Once More”

A couple of days ago, the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC ) on May 27, 2021, submitted its first report. To no one’s surprise, the report is completely one-sided. In fact, it did not even pretend to be anything else. Navanethem Pillay, the Commission’s chair, stated bluntly, “The findings and recommendations relevant to the underlying root causes were overwhelmingly directed towards Israel.”

Although accustomed to being the perennial defendant, it seems that the Commission’s statements touched deeper this time. Rather than explain how the Commission is one-sided, apart from its self-explanatory title, I would like to quote a somewhat lengthy but very apropos passage from Israel Hayom’s senior diplomatic commentator, Ariel Kahana: “Russia invaded Ukraine and is committing war crimes there. China locked down cities with tens of millions of people, is menacing Honk Kong, and oppressing the Uyghurs. In Ethiopia, hundreds of thousands more have died in a war no one cares about. In Venezuela, mass protests were forcibly suppressed; and of course, in North Korea, the regime continues to abuse its citizens and threaten its neighbors,” writes Kahana.

“As for these ‘minor’ issues,” he continues, “the international body known as the ‘United Nations Human Rights Council’ either doesn’t address them at all or only partially. When it comes to Israel, on the other hand, the UNHRC has all the time and resources in the world … ‘special investigators’ … and professional, unbiased reports that somehow show that Israel is responsible for every atrocity across the globe. If it weren’t so sad, it would be funny.”

While this report is clearly another step in the campaign to delegitimize Israel, I must say that regrettably, we are complicit in this crime. We are allowing it to happen, even though we can prevent it.

I will say more than that: While every word Kahana wrote is true, the report is correct, as well. By failing to make the necessary changes within Israel, we are making ourselves “responsible for every atrocity across the globe,” as Kahana put it.

I have no wish to blame anyone in the world since, in my opinion, they have no free choice, while we, and only we, do have the choice to do what we must, yet we are not doing it. This is why we are treated as we are.

What is our choice? We have the choice to correct our relations here in Israel, transcend division and hate, and solidify our nation as one unit. We have the choice to place mutual responsibility and solidarity above all other values. We have the choice to practice “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor,” and we also have the choice to practice loving our neighbors as ourselves.

We have the choice, but we are doing none of the above. This is why the world says that our country “feeds resentment and fuels recurrent tensions,” to use the words of the report. We are not doing this by mistreating Palestinians; we are doing this by patronizing and hating one another.

Israel must show the world what it means to be a corrected society, a properly organized country based on mutual responsibility and genuine mutual concern. Then, and only then, will humanity accept us. Until we set such an example, the world’s attitude toward us will keep worsening, to drive us to do what we must.
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You will find more on the link between Jewish unity and hatred of Israel in The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How well is Israel fighting against terrorism?“

After a terrorist attack during Israel’s Independence Day this year, where people were axed down and murdered by two terrorists, there was a general sense of fear throughout the country, and it prompted one of my students to ask me about whether there will ever be a solution to Israel’s problems with the Arabs.

There is a solution, but it is possible on condition that the people of Israel would match the Land of Israel in a spiritual sense. We would then truly feel that we are the owners of this place, and we would feel protection from above, and no one would be able to touch us.

It depends solely on the connection between the people of Israel. As difficult it might be to hear, there is no other way. It is a condition that is set in nature.

The condition is that we need to positively connect, as it is written, “as one man with one heart.” By achieving such a connection, we would not only solve terrorism and physical acts of violence, but people would no longer hold even a single negative thought about Israel. Likewise, if we fail to adhere to this condition, then we have no protection.

While it might appear that we should rise up against the incitement that breeds terrorism, i.e. the glorification of terrorism and terror acts in various societies, what we truly need is to permeate our own minds and hearts. If we come together and unite in mind and heart, then we have no need to fight terrorism. We only need to be united with each other, and our unification would attract the upper spiritual force. Drawing that force into our lives would raise a canopy of peace over everyone, giving everyone a feeling of victory.

For the time being, Israel’s security forces work day and night devotedly over several years just for people in Israel to be able to live in peace. However, strengthening Israel’s security is no long-term solution in developing a true sense of security for the people of Israel. We will live in the atmosphere that we create only when we are united, and that we unite in order to reveal unity as humanity’s salvation—that it is very-much needed today. Without uniting, we will solve nothing, and we can expect terrorism and other negative phenomena toward us to keep intensifying.

Based on the video “The Solution to Terrorism in Israel” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo “Terror Strikes Israeli Civilians in Southern Israel” by the Israel Defense Forces on Flickr.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “No Surprise: UN Promotes Palestinian Sovereignty Plan with Jerusalem as Capital”

Last week, in peculiar proximity to Israel’s Jerusalem Day celebrations, it became known that the United Nations is working intensely with the Palestinian Authority and a Jordanian architectural design company to establish eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state by 2030, drawing up “elaborate plans for the expropriation of Israeli land.”

The plan, built by UN-HABITAT, the United Nations programme for human settlements, the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC), a Palestinian urban planning and development organization, and Arabtech Jardaneh, an engineering and architectural design firm, aims to “see parts of the Oslo Accords appealed.” It also envisions Jerusalem as “the Capital of the State of Palestine, its beating heart, and its foremost metropolitan area,” and has drawn up “elaborate plans for the expropriation of Israeli land for the project.”

While it is unsettling for Israeli ears to hear such news, we should not be surprised. As I have written and stated multiple times, the UN, which represents the nations of the world, does not want us here. It regrets its 1947 decision to divide the land between Jews and Arabs, and would like to see Israel wiped off the map.

We should not be surprised that this is happening since we ourselves are making it happen. There is a very simple formula for the acceptance of the Jewish people among the nations: When we unite with our enemies, they unite against us; when we unite with each other, our enemies unite with us.

Jerusalem should be the spiritual center of the Jewish people. In other words, it should be a powerhouse of unity, a model of solidarity and cohesion for the whole world.

The Hebrew name of Jerusalem is Yerushalayim, from the words Ir Shlema, city of wholeness. This is the place where all the conflicting forces of the world should complement one another and benefit from each other rather than try to destroy one another. Currently, the conflicts are there, but complementarity is nowhere in sight. This is why the city is so full of strife, conflicts, and violence, and why the nations vie over it.

We should not expect peace to prevail in Jerusalem until we make peace among ourselves. We are the ones who have been commanded to unite “as one man with one heart” and thus become “a light to the nations.” We are the ones who gave the world the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and we are the ones who are expected to demonstrate it. This is the meaning of being a light to the nations.

After World War II, the nations decided that we deserved another chance and voted to establish a Jewish state in the historic land of Israel. On the surface, the decision was motivated primarily by the horrors of the Holocaust, but behind it was the expectation that we would also return to our calling.

But we have not returned to our calling to be a light of unity to the nations. Since our return, we have demonstrated division, hatred, collusion with enemies against our own people, and hatred among factions of the Jewish society. We have let down humanity.

The only way we can remain in our historic land is by returning to our historic mission to be a beacon of unity to the world. When we recognize the sovereignty of love for one another over us, the world will recognize our sovereignty over Jerusalem.
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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that fostering national love is the key to the success of the economy, education, and security. How can this be done?

Answer: This is possible only if we attract the upper light, the upper force, because Jews cannot have national unity. After all, this is a gathering of many completely different, opposite groups of humanity.

Question: How can we foster national unity if we have so many different currents?

Answer: We need to raise what we are talking about above these currents. Our attitude to ourselves, to the world, to others should be integral.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

Related Material:
United Culture—Mutual Love
The Foundation of a Nation Is Internal Unity
National Identity

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The truth about the Jerusalem Flag March”

The Jerusalem Flag March that Israel holds every year on Jerusalem Day took place this week. As is the case almost every year, there were heated debates over the course of the march, should it go through certain parts of Jerusalem that were more politically sensitive and so forth. The Israeli government insisted that the march will follow the original plan as a sign of patriotic resilience against political pressure from the far left and from Palestinian leaders and their supporters in Israel. However, the route of the march is the least important point in this debate. The insistence on the route is nothing but a smokescreen for the fact that the country is losing territory to the Palestinians in the south, in the north, and basically everywhere. Because we do not know why we are here, we have no strength to insist on our presence and fight for it.

The pressure from the Palestinians and from the world has placed us in a position where we feel we must apologize for being here. If this is the case, then it is only a matter of time before Israel loses its Jewish majority. If we wave the Israeli flag without knowing what Israel means, then it is nothing but a political gesture.

Israel’s strength will never come from superficial gestures. Nor will it come from military strength. Israel’s power depends on the strength of its spirit. If we know what is our duty and insist on carrying it out, nothing will defeat us. In fact, no one will fight against us, and everyone, and first and foremost the Palestinians, will support us.

The root of Israel is the union our ancestors had achieved at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where they bonded “as one man with one heart.” The people of Israel contain within them descendants from all the nations of the world. When we first became a nation, those descendants decided to transcend their different backgrounds, clashing cultures, and countless beliefs, and place unity above all other tenets and values.

The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 88) writes that God “forced the mountain on [the people of Israel] like a vault” and said that if we accept the law of loving others as ourselves, very well. “But if you do not,” He warned, “there will it be your burial.” Once we agreed and became the most unlikely nation in the history of humanity, whose basis was the idea of unity above division and hatred, He ordained us to be a model of unity so that humanity could heal from its ills, or as Prophet Isaiah (42:6-7) described it: I will appoint you as … a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”

Because unity is the root of our nation, and it is our duty to be a model of unity, our national goal should be to mend the divisions among us so as to help the entire world unite above the countless divisions that are spreading like a brush fire these days. Only when we stop fighting ‎against each other and begin to restore the unity that our ancestors had once possessed will the world stop fighting and the nations will make peace with one another. Until then, nations will continue to blame us for their woes and accuse us of warmongering.

This is why it is imperative that we understand our duty and insist on carrying it out. This is also why if we do so, nothing will defeat us, as I wrote above, and no one will fight against us. On the contrary, the entire world will support us, and first and foremost our neighbors, the Palestinians.
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