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during this fraught time, when we are being asked & pressured to take sides on whose lives & whose suffering is worthy of our attention & empathy, how we define “all beings” can make a difference. it’s worthy of our time to ask ourselves this question.

1200 Israeli lives ended

240+ hostages waiting

11,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza ended

200+ Palestinian lives in West Bank ended

hate, terrorism, vengeance, war, violence take a terrible toll on the innocent. the horrific loss of children inflicts an endless wound on the hearts of mothers & fathers regardless of geography, ethnicity, or religion.

push back with all the love in your heart against the pressure to choose whose suffering is deserved & whose is not, whose suffering is accepted as “resistance” & whose is accepted as “collateral damage”.

we can love & wish for the security, safety, well-being & peace of Jews & Israelis, & still be critical of Netanyahu & the Israeli government’s military actions, policies toward Gaza & West Bank, & call out anti-Arab & Islamophobic rhetoric.

we can love & wish for the security, autonomy, safety, well-being & peace of Palestinians in Gaza & West Bank, & still stand against the terrorism of Hamas & rise in anti-Semitism.

the dualism embodied in Hamas’ hate filled nihilistic ideology, or Netanyahu’s (career long) refusal of a two state solution, marginalization of Palestinians & embrace of unfettered settlements will not bring peace. the result is a continuous dark cloud of conflict & suffering over the innocent.

so, regularly asking ourselves how we define “all beings” can be a beneficial practice, a way of bringing us back to our heart through all the noise. who we consider “all beings” has real world consequences. are we adding to the healing or the suffering of our world?

may hearts open, may wisdom arise.

~j

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#Israel #Jews #Gaza #Palestinians #suffering #violence #terrorism #war #OpenHeart #empathy #compassion #MettaSutta #JinpaLhaga #BuddhaQuotes