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: “In Response to Norwegian Labeling, Israel Should Cherry-Pick Its Goals”

Norway has just joined the group of European countries that implemented a 2019 European Union and UN Security Council resolution that establishes an obligation to label products originating in “Israeli settlements”—areas Israel gained control of in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, which are disputed by Palestinians—so consumers can make “informed choices” when shopping.

The EU court’s decision has long been viewed by Israeli authorities and manufacturers as antisemitic and discriminatory since Israel is the only country singled out. Despite the fact that there are more than 200 territorial disputes worldwide, the labeling measure applies only to Israeli goods.

Wine from the wineries in the Golan Heights, oil from the olive groves in Judea and Samaria, and a selection of fruits and vegetables from East Jerusalem exported to stores in Norway are labeled as coming from the “Israeli settlements” or from the “occupied territories.”

It may be necessary to condemn such decisions, but in reality, there is no need to lose any sleep over it. Nothing will happen if Norwegians will not drink Israeli orange juice for breakfast or will not season their salmon with Israeli olive oil. Israel will know how to export and distribute its products all over the world. Also, there are shortages in many countries due to the war in Eastern Europe, so it is not difficult to market products where there is a demand.

Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark already implement labeling practices for Israeli products. They have long been known for their anti-Israel stance. It is due to their nature and common spiritual root with Germany. They are also ideologically closer to the Arab world and lean toward them.

Fighting directly in international organizations like the UN or condemning the decisions of world governments like the government in Oslo is a war without any chance of winning. It’s like fighting windmills. The reason is that behind the labeling of our wines and olives there is a deeper story.

In the depths of their hearts, haters of Israel feel that we hold the key to their good future in our hands. Hatred of Israel is not a transient phenomenon, but a measurable law of nature. When we unite across all conflicts and disagreements, the hatred against us diminishes. On the other hand, when we are separated and emotionally distant from each other, hatred toward us grows in the world, and it strikes us again and again with bursts of antagonism, such as in the form of UN resolutions calling for labeling products from Israel.

The correct spirit that should be created between us is a spirit of connection and unity, an Israeli spirit of mutual guarantee, which is the only force that is able to neutralize the negative forces against us. There are even stronger and greater forces between us that even we are unfamiliar with, and even if the whole world were to slam the door in our faces and lock it with seven locks, by virtue of the spiritual connection between us, we could open it, or rather, induce our great enemies to open the door to us.

We are a nation that carries within it the social idea of ​​”love your neighbor as yourself.” Only a return to this love can eradicate the hatred of the world toward us. It’s not about holding hands and singing in a circle like in kindergarten, but the feeling that should be in our hearts that we are connected in a circle like friends, united like a warm family, united like a nation characterized by reciprocal care and support.

If we act in this way we will become a “light unto nations,” a light that will pass to all the nations of the world, and that will not only bring about a change in the punitive Norwegian labeling, but change in every area in our reality. As it is written, “The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.” Rav Yehuda Ashlag, (“The Arvut – Mutual Guarantee”)
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My new article on Linkedin “Time for the Next Impact”

In the first wave, Israel went into a strict lockdown. It was nothing like the curfew that we see in China, but still, businesses were closed and people’s movements were heavily restricted. In the second wave, the lockdown was not as strict, not all businesses were closed, and people’s movements were restricted less than in the first. The third wave was even more lenient, and so on. Now that we are at the beginning of the sixth wave, no one is paying attention. People, even those in charge of coping with the pandemic, have come to treat Covid as another type of flu.

It is not as though the virus had no impact on humanity, because it did. However, for the time being, it seems as though it did what it came to do and it is time to move on to the next phenomenon that will bring about the next change in humanity.

Speaking of which, I think that the next phase will have a bigger impact on our feelings than on our bodies. It will impel us to draw closer to each other emotionally as a means to protect ourselves against illness. It will somehow be combined with human relations and will be less about physical closeness and more about emotional, internal closeness. This phase will force us to examine how we relate to one another, and how that relation influences us—positively or negatively.

It is still not clear to me how this phase will manifest, but I do hope that we will see it in the near future.

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Medium published my new article “Understanding Social Impact”

Humans are social beings; this is how nature created us. As such, the society we live in has a decisive influence on us. We already know about mirror neurons and other mechanisms of social influence, but there are other forms of social influence, as well.

For example, there is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other, aka six degrees of separation. Yet, this is true not only of familiarity, but of every aspect. Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler write in their celebrated book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives — How Your Friends’ Friends’ Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do, that good behaviors — like quitting smoking or staying slender or being happy — pass from friend to friend almost as if they were contagious viruses.

Even more surprising was their discovery that these infections can “jump” across connections. It turns out that people can influence each other even if they have never met or even heard of one another. Moreover, Christakis and Fowler found evidence of these effects even three degrees apart (friend of a friend of a friend).

Since we are all connected, we are all affecting one another. Everything we do, say, or think, inescapably affects everyone else.

Moreover, we already know that the entire planet is one ecosystem, and any change in any part of it affects all the other parts. As a result, any change in human society affects not only all of humanity, but the entire planet. And the opposite is true, as well: Any change in any part of nature, on any level, affects all other parts of nature, including all of humanity.

Even if we are unaware of it, we feel our connectedness. This is why wherever we are, we want to “fit in.” To feel secure, that we belong, and to guarantee that the environment accepts us, we adapt ourselves to the social norms and values around us. If we do want to stand out, we first check what the society around us appreciates, and then try to stand out in these activities or values.

Even the most negative values in our eyes today can seem perfectly acceptable and even desirable in the eyes of others, or even in our own eyes at different times and different circumstances. The Nazis, who perpetrated the extermination of European Jewry, were not born genocidal; their values changed as their social environment had changed and molded them into what they eventually became.

The same process took place during the notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, where volunteers were chosen after assessments of psychological stability, and then randomly assigned to being prisoners or prison guards. The plan was for the experiment to last two weeks, after which the results would be examined. Instead, the volunteers selected to be guards quickly became so brutal and abusive that the experiment had to be terminated on the sixth day.

Because the environment has such a critical effect on people, we should dedicate the majority of our efforts into creating a positive social environment, which creates socially positive people. With narcissism constantly on the rise, and with people’s self-absorption running amok, the global society is heading toward a very negative place.

We cannot influence every person, but we can influence the social environment that we create around us. We can monitor the media we consume, the people we hang out with, and the people that our children hang out with. We can also select the educational programs where we place our children, and the values we live by at home.

The reason for the growing frustration and depression in all parts of society is that we are trying to succeed alone. If we realized that we are all dependent on each other, and began to work on bettering our social environment, we would be in a completely different place, both personally and socially.

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My new article on Linkedin “Queen Elizabeth and the Eternal Kingdom”

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service.” Those were the words of commitment of then princess Elizabeth before becoming the Queen, and the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking this month seventy years of service to the people of the United Kingdom. People can learn from her example how to stand by one’s words and hold a role in steady devotion even when surrounded by storms.

For seven decades this petite but strong of stature lady has ruled Britain, containing the contrasts between the longing for empire and modern multiculturalism. She has showed stamina when intimate and embarrassing details of her family have spread across the world’s media.

At 96 years old, although showing physical fragility, she provides stability to the turbulent world of modern societies. I do not know another leader like her —a woman who recognizes and assumes the power of her role with unparallel commitment, acts with a determined spirit and impressive willpower, knows exactly how to function to give the world the degree of steadiness it needs.

She receives guests, attends ceremonies, even goes hunting in Scotland —not for her own pleasure, but as part of a royal protocol. Well done to her.

Elizabeth II seems to be the last of the queens. Time is doing its thing, and all the descendants of the crown exhibit an emptiness that does not fit into a throne. True kings or queens are not allowed to function according to their private will, according to desires and gut feelings, but to act according to what is desired for their role.

A king is a single leader who stands at the head and under him the others. This pattern is rooted in the plan of creation. Similar to the kingdom of the upper nature, the kingdom of heaven, the dynasties of kings on earth are a permanent, stable and unchanging factor that runs like a thread through the periods and generations. A kingdom is like a material branch that emerges from a spiritual root. Just as a hierarchy prevails in nature, a royal monarchy can be a suitable form of government in human society.

For several centuries in human history there has been such a close and visible connection between the people and the king of the world. It was the dynasty of the House of David that operated in Jerusalem until the destruction of the Temple, a passing episode that ended about two thousand years ago. The people of Israel are essentially not built to exist under a royal house. By nature, we despise anyone who jumps and wants to be bigger than the others.

The rest of the nations are willing to surrender under who among them knows how to lead them. For Israel, this is not appropriate and will not happen. From the beginning we were meant to exist in equality, to bow only to the supreme power of nature, and not to a king of flesh and blood.

We will succeed as a nation only if we unite with one heart and as a consequence reveal the hidden force of nature. This force will then truly rule over us and will cleanse us of our egoistic nature. We should do this not only for the sake of our good future, but to demonstrate to the world the kind of heartfelt connection it must reach in order for all of us alike to cling to Him, the eternal King of the world.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Debunking the Myth that America Loves Israel”

Americans have probably long known this, but for Israelis, the realization that America may not be our best friend and faithful guardian is somewhat of a shocker. Now, for those still in doubt, a new book by Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Maryland Jeffrey Herf, exposes the “extent and intensity of opposition to the Zionist project in the entire top leadership of both the State Department and the Pentagon.”

Herf’s extensive research draws on new research in government, public, and private archives. The research reveals, for example, that on September 13, 1947, two and a half months before the League of Nations’ vote on the establishment of a Jewish and Arab state in Palestine, William Eddy, special assistant to secretary of state by George Marshall, wrote to his superior of his objection to the establishment of a “theocratic, racial Zionist state.” According to Herf, “Eddy found the Zionist project morally objectionable.”

Eddy was far from being a lone voice. The objection to the Zionist project “was shared by Secretary of State Marshall; the under secretary of state, Robert Lovett; the head of the Department’s Near East Division, Loy Henderson; the secretary of defense, James Forrestal; members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency; as well as Kennan and his Policy Planning Staff in the State Department.”

On February 1, 1944, Senators Robert Wagner and Robert Taft introduced a resolution seeking to abrogate the 1939 White Paper issued by the British Mandate authorities in Palestine, due to its anti-Zionist bias. According to Herf, “Critics of the Wagner-Taft Resolution denounced the Zionist project as an effort to establish a theocratic state,” and argued that Wagner and Taft were proposing “to establish a theocratic state based upon religious or racial discrimination.”

I am always in favor of exposing the truth as a first step toward correction. Indeed, America’s attitude toward Israel has always been very pragmatic. It has always sought to do what is best for America and nothing else.

America has no regard for Jewish or Israeli interests or for anyone’s interests but its own. Nor do they care about pressure from Jewish lobbies or the State of Israel; they simply have no regard for it. Whatever is good for America, this is what they will do, and the sooner everyone in Israel realizes it, the better it is for Israel. If at some point, America decides that supporting or protecting Israel does not serve its interests, it will kick ‎ Israel out the window just like that.‎

We should wake up from our naivety that leaders and countries that smile at us do so because they like us. I understand that centuries of persecution and suffering have made us receptive to such gestures, but they are illusions, and like all illusions, they always shatter painfully.

If Israel wants to be accepted by the nations, it must nurture its inner solidarity, and abandon its futile attempts to appease the world. The only thing that the world needs to see in Israel is Israelis striving to unite above all their divisions. This should be the sole interest of the State of Israel. However, unlike America’s interests, Israel’s interests are congruent with the interests of America, and with the interests of the entire world.

Our duty is to be a model of unity, solidarity, and mutual responsibility. Nothing else will legitimize our presence in the land of our fathers, who taught us that “Love your neighbor as yourself,” is the comprehensive law of our nation. Until we strive to set an example of such unity, no one will accept us. But if we learn to embrace one another, the world will embrace us in return.

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And speaking of books, you will find more on the link between Jewish unity and hatred of Israel in my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.
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My new article on Linkedin “Every Boom Has Its Bust”

“US Bonds Flag Recession Risk,” says today’s headline on Bloomberg.com. “Futures Put S&P 500 on Course to Enter Bear Market,” reads today’s headline of The Wall Street Journal. Other newspapers, too, devote their business sections to the worsening economic outlook, and everyone seems alarmed, and mainly surprised, as if they did not expect the rise in commodity prices, the war in Ukraine, the semiconductor shortage, the shipment delays, and the (very) generous Covid relief packages to have a negative impact on the economy.

In fact, even without so many good reasons for a slowdown, nothing in reality evolves in straight lines; things evolve in sinusoids, in waves, and so does the economy. A straight line means death, and the economy reflects the relationships between people. As such, it is always changing, and after every boom there is a bust. Therefore, I do not think that the downturn is such a disaster; it is actually a sign of vitality.

When I was in high school, many years ago, we learned something called “politiconomy.” Even back then, they taught me that the economy always moves in waves, that there is a constant up and down motion, and the line of its progress is not straight but sinusoidal.

This is why every time I hear about bear markets and crises and busts after booms, I am reminded that it cannot be otherwise. We will always advance in sinusoidal waves, there is simply no other option because this is how all the laws of nature work, including in commerce and economics.

The only time you see a straight line in regard to something that is supposed to be alive and changing is when that something has died. This is why it should not alarm or surprise us when someone lost billions of dollars, since it is simply a part of the wave.

Recently, it has become clear that the economy is over-inflated and a bust is imminent. Corporations and wealthy investors have accumulated enough surplus to ride out the slump, and there is no major breakdown on the horizon.

On another note, I personally would not recommend my children to get into the high-tech industry where these waves are felt the most. People burn themselves out and end up with no real benefit. If anything, it makes them condescending, as if they are superior, but it is completely unwarranted.

If I were to recommend a good career for my children, it would be a career in teaching people how to connect positively to other people. This skill will be in high demand in the years to come, and people who work in it will reap rewards that no other career can give.

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Medium published my new article “The Desire to Make It Big”

We all want to succeed, to achieve things. That is what society instills in us from a very early age. Some people end up being very successful, and some simply shuffle along through life. In this endless quest, few stop to think: what should really be considered success in life? With what should we reach the finish line so that we can sum up for ourselves in the last moments the measure of our success and say: “Great! I succeeded in life!”

Our inner engine is a desire to have pleasure and enjoyment. That’s why we want to achieve all kinds of things, and when we succeed in achieving them, we feel satisfied. We have existential desires like the desire for food, sex, family; human desires like the desire for money, honor, control, and also a desire for knowledge and education.

The mix of desires we have at any given moment is influenced by our personal inclinations and the environmental influences we absorb. As a result of all these, we set goals for ourselves. On the way to their conquest, we usually encounter competitors and try to win. Achievements and successes are measured in relation to them, of course.

Margaret Thatcher was the daughter of a small grocery store owner. At the age of 24, she ran for a seat in parliament and lost. Thanks to her adherence to her goal, she finally managed to reach the position of British Prime Minister and became known as the “Iron Woman”. For many, she is a symbol of a person who built her success from scratch.

In contrast, those born with a golden spoon in their mouth and who reach high positions through the arrangements of their parents, are treated as less personally successful in life. This is to say: success is measured by one’s degree of investment, effort, and achievement. As we proceed through life, the desire to succeed becomes increasingly clear, sharpens, focuses, and overcoming obstacles on the way to the goal requires that we go through internal changes, building ourselves.

Throughout history there have been people who have aroused a desire to be unique — a desire to realize life to the very fullest. They set themselves the goal of exploring the secret of life itself, the secret of success from a top-down perspective.

These same individuals asked themselves: Are we born to live, and die like all other creatures in the world, or is there something higher we can achieve during our existence on earth? Is there some eternal goal which will remain in our hands even after the death of the body? After all else — family, wealth, respect, status, expertise, education — all of these things that we cannot take with us when we leave this world?

Usually, people do not think about success at such a level for the simple reason that there are no apparent answers to such big questions. And if this is the case, then why should I delve into such matters? It is better to flow with what unfolds without over scrutinizing. Just set goals for ourselves, invest, achieve, succeed in life like everybody. Eat, drink, enjoy as if there is no tomorrow, because tomorrow we may die.

This is how we have lived from generation to generation, but today we are already beginning to see a change. More and more people are asking themselves, what is the point of all this success if it is clear in advance that we all have an expiration date?

The most advanced discoveries of science, too, reinforce the sense that there is something beyond what we are now able to perceive in our senses, beyond what we now describe as a solid reality. They explain that the image we perceive is completely subjective, and if we were different, we would probably perceive a different picture of reality.

The real space of success is open to those who do not agree to continue living only for the sake of living, but to those who aspire to reveal a wider picture, a higher reality beyond our narrow existence. Gradually, through this research, we are able to attain true success: When we learn and understand that there is a colossal mechanism surrounding our life and our world, a great system which operates and guides us. This goal prepares us in great depth to develop from the animate level to the human level, to enter the wide world of eternity and to understand why it exists.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Disinformation in a World without Truth”

Not long after the announcement that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is setting up a Disinformation Governance Board (DGB), its intended czar, Nina Jankowicz, announced her resignation. Several days later, the Biden administration announced the disbanding of the entire board and the abandonment of the whole idea. Apparently, the criticism that the DGB drew, including some that “likened it to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s book ‘1984,’” and Jankowicz’s assertion, “I am eligible for it because I’m verified, but there are a lot of people who shouldn’t be verified, who aren’t, you know, legit, in my opinion. I mean, …they’re not trustworthy,” contributed to the decision to shelve the initiative.

I think that no one can truly claim to know the truth because truth is not at all a matter of opinion or a statement, or even this or that action. Truth is what exists, and falsehood is what does not exist, and the only thing that exists is the unbreakable connection among all people and all things.

Currently, people think that only their view is correct, and everyone else’s opinion is wrong. But since all the views are part of the network that connects us, all the views are inherently incorrect when they are viewed separately, and inherently correct when viewed as part of the network. This is why the network itself is the truth, and nothing else can be regarded as true regardless of its place and function in the network.

To make it a little clearer, think of the liver and the heart in a person’s body. From the perspective of the heart, everything that the liver does is false, wrong, and deleterious. From the perspective of the liver, everything that the heart does is equally absurd and detrimental. However, when viewed from the perspective of the person’s body, which connects the two and derives benefit from both, the two are priceless, indispensable. The truth, therefore, is visible only from the perspective of the network.

As our bodies, so are we. We are living in a network that determines everything that happens to us—good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. The course and the events of our lives do not depend on any single person or action because we are all part of a network of connections, and the network determines everything for those within it. In other words, no one thing or element determines anything, but the connection among the elements determines their attributes, value, functionality, and longevity. Put differently, the connections between the elements determine everything.

Returning to the statement about what is true and what is false, what exists, and is therefore true, is that which enhances the connections in the network, the connection between people. This connection in the network is what we call “the upper force,” the “Creator,” or “God.” This is the truth. Accordingly, falsehood is anything that contradicts connection.

We can easily tell that the world is currently based on falsehood because it is falling apart, disintegrating. Currently, we strive to dominate, abuse, disengage, alienate, and divide. Because of it, we are contradictory to nature and are living in a lie.

As a result, however hard we try to curb CO2 emissions, deforestation, and use of plastics, we will not reverse the downward spiral of the world. As long as we do not strive to enhance connection among people, above all differences and antagonism, we will keep going in the wrong direction, a false path that will lead to nothing but defeat and agony.

It turns out that if we want to know the truth about the world, we must look at it only from the perspective of the network, the entire system that is our world, and even our universe. To do that, we must first rise above our narrow self-centered vision, as if we are liver cells judging the universe from the liver’s perspective, and adopt the perspective of the person where the liver and the heart reside. From that transcendent perspective, everything that we will see will be the true and actual reality.
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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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