All Comments (176)

You are taking sides again...what is the food like in a Palestinian Jail. Jack G

Denied Entry speaks to a few illusions falling away from my life. I appreciate that pain, pride, and disappointment are all part of Starhawk's relationship with Jewish heritage. Being a grandchild of Danish immigrants, I once embraced my heritage uncritically. Denmark has done so much for humanity. The sometimes life-saving solidarity Danes extended to Jews during the Nazi occupation is just one example. Sadly, Denmark was also involved in colonialism. I recently read of the slaves of St. John who revolted against their Danish masters and nearly kicked them off the island. Heritage is complicated. I'm glad that some people are acknowledging that.

P.S. For a concise history of resistance to colonial slavery I recommend "From Revolt to Revolution by Eugene Genovese

As someone raised Jewish I understand where Starhawk is coming from by identifying with the Jewishness of the ancestors. I am Jewish through the matrilineal line of my family and only recently was called by the Goddess.

I consider the Jewish lineage responsible for my love of learning, knowledge and enjoyment of debate (though my enjoyment often far exceeds my ability). It was a shell housing a seed that provided spiritual nourishment early on.. but when the plant grew it became something completely different in its display. :)

I've been called a 'self-hating jew' for saying that I don't agree with everything Israel does, and hoping that there can be temperance on all sides to tamp down the violence.

I really admire Starhawk for taking chances all the time and being out there actually DOING something to try to bring about change rather than sitting at home whining about one side or the other.

Good points, RCB. The reason these discussions always cheese me off is cause it always seems to be about people claiming one side or the other are utterly evil, then calling anyone who questions or disapproves of an Israeli policy nothing more than an anti-Semite, even if they're showing bigotry against the target of the accusations' religion, themselves.

People can have legitimate human rights concerns and criticisms without being 'anti-Israel,' anti-Semitic, or a 'terrorist lover.' Too often we can't question what our own government may be paying for because any such questioning is shut down just so.

Certainly, a lot of Americans are paranoid about that meaning there's some horrible Jewish conspiracy and all *that* nonsense, and still others maybe think it's pointless to stick our necks out for folks who'll just make us more enemies, when certain governments get in power and seem to be more interested in inflaming people than taking a long view, anyway, etc etc.

I'm aware that Israel is in a really rough neighborhood, to say the least, and has a lot of enemies: I sure wouldn't want to be making the security decisions, there. One thing that's clear is that everyone's got reasons to be angry at each other over there, and there's a lot of inflammatory rhetoric. The work of making some friends, though, is at least as important as the immediate security interests.

That's not being a 'nutcase,' ...that's thinking about the *future,* if anyone's interested in that.

Certainly, in America, there's been a tendency to try and polarize everything into 'holy causes' and recriminations... But I don't have much faith in any monolithic approach to such a complex problem as peace and security and stability in that region.

RCG: “Respect for your opinion is much better bolstered by experience in the peace-making process, than arm-chair showmanship. Reading what has been written so far seems to just makes many of you seem like childish asshats.”

I really appreciate that that you think so clearly and write so well. Hope you don’t think of me as yet another unweaned anoperineal toque.

RCG: “I am hesitant to support the position of anyone who thinks progress can be made without immediate armistice and attention to a humanitarian tide flowing in and out of crisis.”

This memory goes way back, when I was seven or eight. My parents were involved in C.O.R.E.---the Congress of Racial Equality. C.O.R.E.’s office in L.A. had the same olfactory aura as the old KPFA building, the first station in the Pacifica network, yet another group of activists dedicated to the visions of Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. When I went to the C.O.R.E. office, I would see a middle aged German immigrant, stooped and with the sort of damage to his legs that made him walk with a lopsided gait. My grandfather, who I adored, had a Yiddish accent and would often break into shtick. This stunted man had an even more pronounced Yiddish accent, which made me love seeing him. He was hardly and taller than us kids, and he was a survivor of the death camps. Thank you I.G. Farben, Thank you Prescott Bush. If persons committed to the survival of Israel are in search of a common enemy, they might consider looking into the family fortunes of the Bush Dynasty.

In any case, for this particular survivor of Nazi anti-Semitic atrocities, the issue of who was in the wrong was no longer the point. The point was equal human rights for all. That’s what he was working for.

Again, if one really wants perspective on Starhawk’s commitment to the visions of Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, I urge you to read “Dreaming the Dark.”

Those interest in the larger social forces that led to the modern Stare of Israel might want to Google Disraelia: A Counterfactual History, 1848-2008by Walter Laqueur.

And to borrow a thought from my other favorite author, we all have the option of flying towards Grace.

Like my mom [Bea Stanley, stating the fundamental tenant of the Civil Rights movement] sez, no one can be free unless all are free.

Blessed Be,
Robin

Susan claims that Starhawk "abandoned Judaism" because she is looking at her with a monotheistic lens. She incorrectly assumes that the spiritual beliefs and occasional rituals that come with "being Jewish," however Starhawk interprets that.
The article says:

I am Jewish and Pagan, and both sets of values are in me, inextricably intertwined. They deeply make me who I am.

“Justice, Justice, You shall pursue” is one of the Biblical verses that stays with me, always. To me, that means an obligation to go where truth and justice lead—even into places that are painful and hard to face.

Remember, contemporary Western Paganism is a polytheistic religion. Incorporation of religious Truth and practice from a variety of sources is canon. Like "Pagan", "Christian" is an umbrella term brings with it a pretty wide set of beliefs, rituals and holidays; contemporary Christianity is rife with it. Religious beliefs are a part of our actions of every day life. To her, "Jewishness" was never abandoned. Katie Hodges put it well, too.

The rest of you conjecturing, squabbling knuckleheads are missing something of the article, which is all you can base your points off of.

Starhawk's commentary highlighted two important things:

1- The need for honesty and transparency in charitable organizations and NGOs. If you are handling money for a 'good cause', prove it. Hire a good book keeper, and show your work. Holding organizations accountable for where their money goes and why someone died will be much easier.

2- The slippery slope Administrative Detention in any form has for human rights violations, because of a lack of #1 (in this case, transparency for governments themselves). The United States government engages in human trafficking (1 in 142 incarcerated in increasingly for-profit, privately run prisons) for a variety of reasons.

The distinction between 'freedom fighter', 'government militia' and 'terrorist' is largely based on perspective.

For example:
The Iraqi Army soldier gets disbanded and loses his job because of the occupation, becomes a 'freedom fighter' for his enemy occupied country, but doesn't want to be captured/killed as a 'terrorist' so in the name of stability signs up with the new 'government militia', going back to his post. Assuming he survives.

Is it true that some of these "government and/or terrorist militias" are providing some humanitarian aide and essential services to gain favor and take care of the people? Due to the measure of stability inside Israel, could some of these organizations look beyond the basic, immediate humanitarian need and address environmental, or infrastructural needs?

What is the fundamental distinction between a violent group providing services and stability and a non-violent group addressing the same needs? The need to kill people to get it done.

I believe that is the core of Starhawk's article. It's funny that basic humanitarian needs are considered fluffy. Profitability and sense of superiority are seductive qualities of violence.

Cause, hey. Do you have any idea how *sick* we are of hearing about this stuff?

If it takes a Pagan to go over there and see *human beings,* then you should be *rolling out the red carpet.*

Cause I won't be there. No, sir.

You want it *your* way, you could find yourself in the wind. Cause, personally, you wanna make it about which monotheism that has never shown a whit of consideration for anyone else stomps on which other, if this isn't about *human beings,* well, I could give a crap.

Seriously.

You wanna insult and smear the peacemakers, then *you* clean it up.

This isn't to say, btw, people of Israel, that a lot of Americans aren't predisposed to be rooting for you.

But I'll tell you this.

You don't make it easy.

Keep it up with the insults and telling us to stuff our principles.

That'll help.

Ah, Susan, it's just always comforting when seeing an injustice, to have someone say, 'Hey, we or someone else could do you worse, still.'

It's so overwhelmingly *principled* that it always impresses the Hel out of me, let me tell you.

I'm not in the least surprised to see someone who has abandoned Judaism and yet waives it around when it suits her to be so glib in ignoring the truth about the terrorists she is working with. Rather than whining about being denied entry to Israel, she should thank G-d that Israel isn't half as bad as her enemies falsely paint her, because she would then be dead.

I mean to say, Aaron, I totally respect your considered opinion, there. Next time Israel needs a few billion in military help, I'll be sure to say,

"Nope. Sorry. couldn't possibly. Too crazy. No way of knowing right from wrong. It'd be real irresponsible."

Happy? :)

I mean, yaknow, Aaron, 'nutcase' I may be, to you, but I'm all about the nuance, myself, when it comes to foreign policy, and where we spend money.

But if you're saying there's no possible hope between the people of the region, I'm just not seeing the self-interest in staying involved, yaknow?

Cause, obviously any notions of other principles that might be operative in my ...tsk, deluded little mind are obviously without basis, and all.

Far be it from me to suggest we should interfere with the perspicacity and manifest self-determination of the peoples of the region. To be honest, it's kind of put *us* out a bit, too.

It's not like we're short of 'nutcases' over here in America. I'm doubting our sanity already.

Figure we ought to butt out. That'll work.

Well, hey, Aaron, you wanna call Starhawk a 'nutcase,' then apparently there's a whole lot of 'nutcases' over here in America, Christian, Pagan, and Jewish, who might just be convinced to go ahead and leave you to your own 'sanity.'

Capiche?

How sad the neocon sons of right-wing Republicans like Richard Nixcon, Ezra Taft Benson and Joe McCarthy (who believed peace was a Communist plot) now believe peace is a liberal plot.

As evil hates the light, these sad folks are always looking for a common villain to be their scapegoats and rally cry. While claiming to be Christian, these neochristians hate Jesus' words of peace, love and tolerance.

Thank God there are still people like Starhawk who are a breath of hope in Cheney's hateful Jesuslandia.

If we are to survive as a species on a planet that can sustain us; this is the beacon we must follow. People are thirsty for this variety of thinking and being. Thankyou.

Finally, the Israeli government of the incompetent Ehud Olmert manages to get something right by denying entry to this nutcase.

PAGANPLACE: "Now, Starhawk is more of a nonviolence idealist than I suspect I could ever be, but through deeds and personal risk, she's *earned* that better than most."

I remember the '82 Livermore Action. Edith Cole of the Claremont Friends Meeting was involved in a campaign of fasting for peace at various anti-nuclear events. I found this [and Edith] enormously compelling and I started to get involved in various anti-nuclear actions. Since my parents were deeply involved in the civil rights movement back in the Sixties, I was drawn to the principles of nonviolence and nonviolent political action. The Friends had a mode of conducting meetings of all sorts [probably borrowed from Native Americans] where they were all sitting in a circle and progressing clockwise in such a fashion that each person had not only the oppourtunity to speak their peace without interruption, but to have a bit of silence before and after their comments, a musical rest of sorts. This is a highly ritualized mode of conducting business, but there was room to allow someone not only a chance to get all their concerns expressed and heard but also a ritual that assures that everyone is treated with respect, imparting to the process a spiritual quality. This migrated over to the Livermore Action Group, consensus becoming a core principle. Consensus is also a core principle in Food Not Bombs, though our group over here in Fresno is long on slack---more like the Church of Subgenius than Reclaiming. There is a great deal on the consensus process in "Truth or Dare", a book worth reading in particular for activists and other folks involved with conflict resolution.

Blessed Be,
Robin

I should probably also add, ...this is something that really seems to reduce a lot of things to recrimination and guilt-by-association and 'for-our-righteous-cause-or-an enemy' talk... these models of thought that monotheists and monotheist-atheists seem to be constantly be braying fear and aggression in terms of:

In the interests of interfaith understanding, Pagans need not and very often *do* not *think* that way.

There is no presumption that if there is a job to be done, that it must be 'The One And Only Divinely-Ordained-Way That Everyone Must Do.'

We're a very practical people, that way. Just cause 'Someone's gotta do it,' doesn't mean, 'Everyone's Gotta Do It Or It Doesn't Even Count.'

We just don't live in an all-or-nothing, zero-sum world. These unspoken presumptions we hear from the 'Zionist crowd' that actually actively pursuing peaceful methods *must inherently mean dropping all defenses* are very akin to me to the assumptions that 'If Everyone Isn't Straight There Will Be No More Babies.'

Nonsense, of course.

But part of the process of a worldview where everyone is individually-judged according to personal conformity with a 'Universal law.'

Something you guys can apply inappropriately, if you aren't careful.

Now, Starhawk is more of a nonviolence idealist than I suspect I could ever be, but through deeds and personal risk, she's *earned* that better than most.

But, her being someone out there trying to do something that needs to be done doesn't mean she's 'taking sides,' ...it means she's doing something that she feels needs to be done. With some success, I understand.

And, thanks, Jim. Actually, the way discussions about Israel go, I've heard a whole lot more voices of reason here than I honestly expected to.

It's not just what people are talking about, ...it's *how* it's talked about. There is a language of 'righteous war' and dehumanization, and all that can promise is one side or the other figuring they'll get lucky one day, and a lot of profiteering off the conflict itself and the fears among all the people on both 'sides' in the meantime.

The conflict is a myth of its own, and it needs a mythic effort of resolution, one where both sides are involved. As humans.

I'm not taking positions on specific things Isreal ought or ought not to do, except that being scared into abusing people never works out in the long run.

And frankly, there are a lot of American religious conservatives who are interested in supporting Israel, not out of any care for the Jewish people, but because they believe there must *be* an Israel and a temple so they can have the world end in an Armageddon and bring Jesus back.

Which is the gorilla in the room when it comes to American talk *about* Israel.

It's not always about what's good for the *people* involved. Even if it comes to attacking anything but blind support for right-wing policies which may not actually serve peace or prosperity in the region, or even long-term survival for Israel in some form or other.

One can love America deeply and be heartsick about Guantanamo. Not because one's an 'enemy,' but because we love America as something from which we must expect and demand a higher standard. Even if there's bullies in the neighborhood.

Pagans know a thing or two about being outnumbered by people who talk violent holy-book-rhetoric and sometimes act on it. I do keep a thing or two to defend myself with in the house. I do not *think with it.* These things don't make you safe. Just better-defended. Safety is in knowing your neighbors, Being human to them, sharing the concerns of reality rather than the fears and hyperboles of ideology.

Israel's in a tough position. They can't sit around and wait for their neighbors to get nonviolent, but neither can they win with violence of their own.

Could be that there'll have to be some brinksmanship, but that's a dangerous game doomed to someday get ugly. They, or their would-be-supporters, should not be vilifying people dealing peace in the only way that ever really works: Communicating as humans.

Voices need to be heard all around the table, in peace. Starhawk plays a vital role in the web of our human creation... these kinds of articles show the complexity of the world we live in as well as give hope for our future.

I hear a lot of angry, frustrated voices among the comments posted here. Starhawk obviously touched a cord that moves people. I go back to the "peace table" that like to the round table of Camelot... these voices need to be LISTENED to. It is good to have a forum such as this, but what are the people DOING about it?

Starhawk moves, as do others who would use bombs and bulldozers. Yet, she moves in a different rhythm, a different tone- that of non-violent ACTION. It pulls power in different ways than we are accustomed to. It is challenging, too, and hard to grasp. We need to have all voices at the table, but ultimately we can't stay at the table debating it forever. People are suffering... We have to do something about it.

What? What are you doing about it?

How refreshing to see the other side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - those who are attempting to wage peace. Instead of reporting of terrorist activities, or in balance to reporting them, the media might consider better coverage of those working for peace. Ah, but htat may not be sensational enough to sell many newspapers. Thanks, WP, for your willingness to present some alternative views of conflicts and how they might be solved.

Bob:

"poll after poll after poll have shown that the Palestinians overwhelmingly support violence to attain their goal, which is to regain all of the former Palestine."

Well, if 'poll after poll' said, that, well, Gods, best be *doubly* sure to label anyone teaching nonviolent conflict resolution and permaculture to alleviate poverty as an enemy of Israel.

Wouldn't want anyone muddying up the issue with humanity and hope for change or anything, there's bombing and bulldozing to be done!

Post Global,

You're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

Ms. Starhawk, the media pays little attention to the Palestinian non-violent movement, because it is insignificant. Not only their actions, but poll after poll after poll have shown that the Palestinians overwhelmingly support violence to attain their goal, which is to regain all of the former Palestine.

You may refuse to fact this fact, but you're in a small minority in that sense too.

The three questions you cite could be the sorting layers through which an authentic action can be sifted.

RCG:

Thanks for the best, to the point, analysis of the situation in Israel and Palestine that I have seen here. BOTH sides are at fault, and must somehow figure out a way to stop the cycle of violence and madness. It may be the most difficult problem on the planet, but continuing exchanges of rockets and air attacks solve nothing, only increase the hatred.
It is unlikely that it will be solved soon. It is also unlikely that many here on this blog will stop seeing things in their convenient black-and-white, instead of the gray of truth.

Arminius

While overt religious discrimination in the United States is commonplace, governmental discrimination based on a person's religious preference remains covert. Starhawk's article brings to the forefront the fact that religious discrimination is alive and well in a country that we consider one of our closest allies. Where is the human rights factor in this?

I find it truly deplorable that a country that is supposed to be progressive, one that is condemned by a large portion of their neighboring countries based on their predominant religion, would show such animosity toward an individual for religious belief.

I am happy to see this article published and I commend the editors for allowing it to be shared. I hope that this represents a trend for the future.

Jeffrey (Arimesis) Moore
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Respect for your opinion is much better bolstered by experience in the peace-making process, than arm-chair showmanship. Reading what has been written so far seems to just makes many of you seem like childish asshats.

There are so many issues being confused and argued over, none of which seem to have any relation to the gist of Starhawk's editorial: while stopped at the Israeli border for being once associated with a group that has at least been accused of being sympathetic towards Palestinian terrorists, Starhawk met a few examples of the human collateral damage of a wider, deeper, conflict than her heritage had originally exposed her to.

Remember, history is written by the Victors. 61 years ago, Israel was carved out of Palestine and is now quite supported by the United States. The US is historically familiar with violent colonization, and marginalization and control of resident groups. The notion of building of infrastructure abruptly through "protected, sovereign reservations" is nothing new. We can see how well our hands-on approach to the reservation system turned out for own American Natives. Right or wrong in origins, the stable, self-determined, sovereign Jewish state is something that has had to be dealt with for some time now.

Michael O seemingly tries to use Starhawk's Paganism to belittle her connections to and claims of Jewishness, both culturally and religiously. Doing this demonstrates a lack of understanding of contemporary Western Paganism and that community's methods of interacting with perceived wrongs. Stella Westwell uses the phrase "innocuous home made rockets" like they were so many dozens of rotten eggs - as symbolic of discontent as they were disgusting and ultimately harmess - while glossing over that they were built to KILL WITHOUT TARGETING.

What is wrong with you people?

You seem to agree that Sovereign peoples have the right to self-defense, self-determination and freedom from oppression. The basic human needs of Food, Shelter, Medicine and Dignity are not being met by Israel, OR Palestine. These are failings by the two governments AND their neighbors. These needs cannot be met without peace, security and stability. There needs to be a mutual cease-fire, and the civilians need to be taken care of properly. Regardless of initiators, the cycle of indiscriminate rocket and suicide bomb attacks, followed by disproportionate retaliation MUST stop. Unfortunately, far easier said than done.

What does any of that have to do with Permaculture? What does it have to do with sharing of technology, agricultural practices, and environmental research for sustainable growing solutions that are not exploitative?

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Get over your own egos. You argue ABOUT the human cost of conflict, but not FOR the humans involved in it. Be careful not to confuse secular nationalism and sovereign territory with religious/cultural-identity-based conflicts. Starhawk went with the intention of doing some good in the name of non-violence. She was rightly (though arguably justly) denied entry into sovereign territory, where she then witnessed the byproducts of the friction between conflicting physical territorial disputes and non-corporeal entities of State and Identity. I am hesitant to support the position of anyone who thinks progress can be made without immediate armistice and attention to a humanitarian tide flowing in and out of crisis.

If you're going to pretend to be two different posters, "Stephen," and "Callie," ...maybe try not using the exact same phrasing within a few posts while implying that Starhawk's name is some attempt to deceive.

You're not making 'Zionism' look any better by throwing around implications that she's some kind of 'terrorist' because she points out that detaining and deporting people disrupts a lot of different kinds of lives.

I'm not caring too much about who says which side is implacably-evil or other useless things. It never solves anything.

This is a sickening piece of anti Jewish propaganda. What are Arab jails like I would ask? How many more people have to die for this kind of thing to end? What 'peace' has this monstrous woman brought except to spout lies and hate.

Articles such as the one of "Starhawk" are so contrived that the Washington Post is either naive or complicit in generating anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli sentiment. By a known Palestinian sympathizer with the ISM Movement, which is a self-described anti-Zionist group masquerading as a non-violent organization, the article has no connection to religion. It is political propaganda. Predictably, it provokes the usual outlandish emails orchestrated by anti-Jewish and anti-Israel groups and their sympathizers which are intended to irritate not enlighten. I wonder if "Starhawk" would be well received in Gaza or Mecca if she went around with her face uncovered promoting paganism. No doubt US taxpayers would have to extricate her from a stoning. Coupled with the Arum Ghandi debacle, its time for this anti-intellectual series to end.

Can't you just request to be allowed to go back home?

Starhawk isn't the one going into Muslim countries trying to push her religion, "Stephen."

In contrast with all these folks who can only seem to see 'sides' in everyone for thousands of years on end, well, she seems to be one of the few who believe and act as though peace and reconciliation are *possible.*

Trust me, a Pagan knows a bit about what to do when you're outnumbered by religious fanatics who keep saying they want you dead or something. :)

There are other ways to approach human conflict than inflaming and justifying who killed who last.

Articles such as the one of "Starhawk" are so contrived that the Washington Post is either naive or complicit in generating anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli sentiment. By a known Palestinian sympathizer with the ISM Movement, which is a self-described anti-Zionist group masquerading as a non-violent organization, the article has no connection to religion. It is political propaganda. Predictably, it provokes the usual outlandish emails orchestrated by anti-Jewish and anti-Israel groups and their sympathizers which are intended to irritate not enlighten. I wonder if "Starhawk" would be well received in Gaza or Mecca if she went around with her face uncovered promoting paganism. No doubt US taxpayers would have to extricate her from a stoning. Coupled with the Arum Ghandi debacle, its time for this anti-intellectual series to end.

Please publish more articles like this one about Starhawks being denied entrance into Israel.

"Great, presumably that means that the US is free to stop funding the state of Israel and engaging in proxy wars on its behalf..."

The United States does now, and has generally, act as a result of their perceived "interest." Now, if you don't think it is in America's interest to provide military funding to Israel (look where the majority of Israel's aid is spent btw), then take it up with your Congressperson. If you believe the contrary, do the same. Better believe that I have.

By proxy wars, I would imagine you are thinking of the Iraq War. Do you really think that the Iraq War was in Israel's interest? If you do, well, then you are not too astute. Israel's interest was in detente between Iraq and Iran and NOT an hegemonic Iran. So then, what do you mean?

"Sorry friends, Jews will no longer define themselves in relation to the world's whimsy."

Great, presumably that means that the US is free to stop funding the state of Israel and engaging in proxy wars on its behalf...

I think the point that's repeatedly-obscured about Starhawk's work is that rehashing the blame game and talk about military force really isn't the point, here. It's not about who has the right or even arguable need to do what to whom: that's about war, ..you can't justify injustice, whatever 'side' you take.

People will feel the right and need to harm each other *as long as* they are making each other suffer, however 'righteously.' This won't be solved in a day or by a policy or a wall or a strike and counterstrike and yet another exchange of justifications and recriminations and vilifications.

Yes, people are in a situation, (There are certainly issues in there involving security and justice both,) but for that situation to really change, the real work of peace must be done among the peoples involved.

Fulminating and saber-rattling, especially vicariously, won't fix things. No wall can *really* make one safe, after all. At the very least there has to be *more.*

star,

thank you so much for your brave, eloquent rendering of this experience. truly, it is a testament to the power of nonviolent action--this is why it is such a threat to the Israeli government.

our media--especially in the U.S.--must reflect the reality that peaceful resistance is TREMENDOUSLY effective across the globe.

many blessings to all the people of Israel and Palestine--and the international groups and individuals who support them--who are so courageously forging a path toward peace in spite of the narrow, fear-based policies of governments.

truly what we give our energy and attention and love to will grow...

Your claim of non-violence is a lie, because even though you and ISM do not directly shoot or bomb, you stand in front of those who do, making it more difficult for Israel's citizen army to protect it's citizens.

You brought out the example of Rachel Corrie. Here is more info for those who read her name for the first time in your article - She was a hateful person with lots of anger (find pictures of her on the web at "demonstrations"), who was killed by a bulldozer which did not see her, while she was trying to protect a house that was used for smuggling weapons via tunnels from Egypt that were then going to be used to kill Israelis and tourists.

So please, spare us your "non-violence".

Maria,

Come to reality.

1. Jews who suffered in WWII don't love their oppressors, but neither did they suicide bomb them, kill them where they are found, etc. (See
Yaakov Mandel and Yosef Ishran). Instead, they gave them due process of law and tried them in a court.

2. Home demolition is a response to suicide bombing. No bombing, no house demolition. Also, another overlooked reason for this is that Palestinians do not apply for housing permits nor do they generally practice modern urban planning methods to make efficient use of land -- lack of resources mean urban planning: period.

3. Palestinians do not wish the death of Jews or Israel? Read Hamas's charter. Or Islamic Jihad's charter. Or the previous incarnation of PLO's charter.

4. "Jews are in fact welcomed everywhere in Palestine when they come in peace, just as Starhawk is." Tell that to the 14-year I mentioned above who were bludgeoned to death while playing hookie by those self-same Palestinian pacifists while hiking. There, the killers "dipped their hands in the teenagers' blood" and smeared them across the walls of the cave -- an almost biblical act of cruelty.

5. "Oh, and by the way, the only Middle Eastern people I saw dancing in the streets on 9/11 were Israeli Jews in New Jersey. In Palestine (as I imagine in Israel and many other places) people were lining up to donate blood for victims." In America we have freedom of information. We saw the pictures of Palestinians celebrating post-9/11. Also, show me evidence of the Israeli's post 9/11. Conspiracy theorist is something you should add to your nome de plume.

And if you don't know, well now you know.

It is NOT anti-Semitic to say that Israel should be left to sink or swim on its own. For the good of humanity, not to mention the Middle East and the United States, we should make any and all further assistance to Israel contingent upon their government developing an understanding of, and demonstrated respect for, human rights.

Israel has become what it hates.

Maria,

I think it is integral that you read Yehuda Berg's work about the 'waves' of anti-semitism. It might illuminate your consciousness. That said, I'm not crying, whining, or trying to label anyone. I would suggest that you and the people on this message board, like Ms. Starhawk, recognize that Israel is, and will continue to be, into the future. The words fait accompli come to mind.

Saying that I should, "get over myself" is ridiculous. Would that you could read intelligibly, I have previously stated much of what you had to say. The state of Israel is very much a victim of the type of delegitimization, polarization, and instigation that occurs daily (and is occurring within the context of this website!). That said, I would not blur the lines between supposed Jewish victimhood and Israeli victimhood as you would (See Prof. George Michael's work - UVA). Israel is the regional hegemon because they have put their nose to the grindstone and made a productive, Democratic (yes, people can VOTE in Israel if they so choose...see Arab List-Ta'al, etc.) State out of a neglected Ottoman outpost. Welcome home.

"There are terrorists all over Israel and Palestine, most of them wearing Israeli uniforms or settlers carrying UZIs." Most of them, eh? Now who's ridiculous?

If I promote anti-semitism by being a strong, vocal advocate for Israel, the problem is with you and your reaction to cognitive dissonance. If you have EVER been to the Middle East then you have surely seen the demonization of Jews and the blurring of the term Zionist and Jew.

I'm no victim and you're no victim. Israel exists and you are going to have to deal with it. When Israel acts erroneously or egregiously, it is the responsibility of its citizenry and the world's citizenry (like Ms. Starhawk) to call them on it. However, to say that the world's myopic obsession with Israel is a result of a systemic, fundamental inequality is to miss the forest for the trees.

And yes, Zaytoun, ISM has associated with known terrorists:

"Some links between ISM activists and Palestinian terrorists have emerged. Less than two weeks after Corrie's death, ISM members allegedly tried to prevent Israeli troops from searching their office in Jenin in the West Bank. When the soldiers forced their way in, they discovered Shadi Sukia, a leading member of Islamic Jihad.

The movement claimed that it had known nothing about Sukia but had simply offered him tea, clothes and a blanket when he appeared unannounced off the street.

ISM members also shared tea with Omar Khan Sharif and Assif Muhammad Hanif, Britons who visited the site of Corrie's death with the group last April before carrying out a suicide attack on Mike's Place, a Tel Aviv pub, killing three and injuring dozens." - The Guardian 14/01/2004

Actually, Sheldon, we know we are not welcomed in Israel, except among our Israeli friends. We really don't want to go to Israel anyway. But Israel destroyed Palestine's airports and if we go via Jordan, we are stopped by Israeli soldiers - on illegally occupied land - from reaching our friends in Palestine. The only area of Israel I enjoy visiting is East Jerusalem, but then that's not part of Israel anyway.

PLEASE, am I missing something here? - B Flores

Actually you're missing a lot. You're missing the fact that if Palestinians dislike Israel it's because Israel has made their lives a living hell for the past several decades.

Do you really expect them to love their oppressors? Did Jews who suffered in World War !! love theirs? This is not to equate what the Palestinians are suffering now with what Millions of people, over half of them Jewish, suffered under Hitler. But when your home is demolished, your children, parents and grandparents are murdered, your sons and daughters imprisoned - often without charge - it's not surprising if you dislike those responsible. If somebody came to my house and told me they were taking my home, even if I believed they could do a better job of making my garden bloom than I am doing, I wouldn't leave willingly. And I certainly wouldn't love them.

It really isn't true that the Palestinians wish for the death of "Jews" or the end of "Israel". What they want is to be left to live in peace on the less than 22% of their historic homeland that is left. Indeed I have spoken to hundreds of Palestinians in Palestine, and never have I heard an expression of hatred for Jews. Jews are in fact welcomed everywhere in Palestine when they come in peace, just as Starhawk is. It is soldiers and settlers, armed to the teeth and with hatred in their hearts, who are not welcomed.

Does that surprise you?

Oh, and by the way, the only Middle Eastern people I saw dancing in the streets on 9/11 were Israeli Jews in New Jersey. In Palestine (as I imagine in Israel and many other places) people were lining up to donate blood for victims.

You were part of a group they don't like. it is their country weather your motives are pure is of no consequence to them. If they want to refuse you access that is their right it is their home.
PS Don't preach to me about "They stole the land in the Six day war or what ever If you live in the USA your land in all likely hood was stolen from Native Americans so maybe I should Support them in taking back your house.

What you see as oppression by Israel, to me is an intent to survive. Have you not heard that the Palestinians, among others like Arabs and Muslims, want to destroy Israel? Israel was created to provide a safehaven for Jews, not for their enemies. A 1000 years from now, Palestinians will still be crying for a country, and will still be dancing in the streets when Israel or the U. S. are bombed. They elect a terroist group Hamas and then expect the world to be sympathetic to their cause. PLEASE, am I missing something here?

I'd suggest to Starhawk that her position needs some clarification.
She believes, or once believed, that Jews deserve a refuge against hostility, presumably hostility which is very widespread and very deeply ingrained in non-Jews.
She now believes that exclusive Jewish ownership of - I'd take this to mean Jewish sovereignty over - land that others might claim is undesirable, ie not morally justified. This is because exclusive sovereignty can be established only by violation of the sacred earth, of human dignity and of human life.
Explicit accceptance of the second belief seems to imply explicit abandonment of the first, since 'a refuge for Jews' itself implies (because of the stated degree of hostility among non-Jews) 'a place under Jewish sovereign control'.
Starhawk isn't as explicit as I think she needs to be here.
'Justice, pursue it' doesn't seem to be a Biblical verse, and isn't really in the style of standard translations. Hosea II 18-19 does link dwelling in safety with practising justice and mercy. A lot is heard from the contending parties in the Middle East about what they claim for themselves. For my part I'd like to hear more about what they consider due in justice (maybe mercy is too much to ask?) to each other.
All that said, I too found this article had a notable literary power and a genuinely humane attitude that I must admire and praise.

Bless you, Starhawk, for your commitment to peace and justice. Those who accuse ISM of being anything other than non-violent, or claim you work with terrorists, are either rabid zionists or have fallen victim to zionism's propaganda machine.

One can only laugh at claims that ISM is "known to support terrorism" or has been guilty of working with Palestinian resistance fighters. Like all who work toward justice for Palestine, you cannot be surprised by this kind of silliness, which has of course no basis in fact.

The US State Department knows all about ISM and has no problem with its activities. I guess AIPAC and the zionist mafia can accomplish just so much in their hatemongering.

Israel is racing toward self-destruction as a Jewish State. By its continued land-theft and building of illegal Jewish settlements and roads it has made the two-state solution impossible. Since there is nothing left of Palestine except a series of bantustans surrounded by a network of apartheid walls and roads, the result will surely be a single state for all its people, which will mean an end to the Jewish majority. Of course it will be at first an apartheid state, is Israel is now, but the world will protest as it did with South Africa, and eventually Jews (some of them semites) and Arabs (all of them semites) will live together in peace as they did before Zionism reared its ugly head.

MICHAEL O.:
"Tons of words have been poured on this forum, and no one has yet been able to explain what is it that this woman and her colleagues actually do. . . .”

As far as I can tell, from what I’ve read, Starhawk is devoting herself to Permaculture these days, that was the purpose of her visit to Israel, to help make the desert bloom again.
Permaculture designs systems for creating sustainable human communities by following natural patterns. Again, that old sixties notion of Gaia rears her head, the notion that the Earth is alive, sentient and responsive. Perhaps on a grander scale, crossing many more time lines than human culture can encompass, but alive and aware nonetheless. You can call this sixties foolishness all you like---scientists will not back you up, the old mechanistic Newtonian model [that even Newton didn't believe in] no longer applies, it never really worked anyway.

The wikipedia article on Permaculture is quite useful.

PHIL RITTER: “Soon enough all of us who were alive in 1948 will be gone, replaced by a generation who never knew the fear of nuclear weapons in the Cold War or of living in a very small place surrounded by strong enemies who did not want you there. . . .”

I'm with you on that one, Phil. Soon enough, those of us alive during the Cuban Missile Crisis---duck & cover, kids, I've got memories of big boxes of food and other supplies piled up against the schoolroom windows, repeated drills, getting all of us in the first grade under those desks---will be gone, replaced by a generation who never knew the fear of nuclear weapons in the Cold War. Soon enough, those of us alive during Ronald Reagan’s instillation of nuclear weapons in West Germany will be gone---the reason I was involved in the mass protests at Livermore labs in 1982 & 1983---replaced by a generation who never knew the fear of nuclear weapons in the Cold War. The Cold War narrative is being replaced by yet another Great American Myth, another myth of the white knight on the white horse destroying the foreign epicenter of evil, the myths of Luke Skywalker, The Ringo Kid and “Mission Accomplished”---the myth of the holy crusade. Eventually we’re all going to figure out that these narratives---up to and including “Terrorism”---are all cover stories for outright theft, the right to take simply because one is the "Hero" [that's the Neo-Cons cover story], "because we are in power we are assumed to be the good guys" no matter what massive body count results, how many millions of acres of land are sterilized, how uninhabitable the Earth becomes due to indulging in these fantasies. Our pimping of the Earth will end someday, one way or another---with the earth being systematically destroyed by Homo Sapiens or the earth being systematically enlivened by Homo Sapiens. As the clock has been ticking for some time, this is the moment to make a choice, this is the time to do something.

Blessed Be

Robin

I'd like to commend you for including the work and wisdom of Starhawk in The Washington Post. It's extremely encourging to find inclusion of a "movement" that has not yet found voice in many mainstream publications. Especially when that movement advocates for earth-based spirituality, peace and justice and non-violent activism.
Thank you!

"From what I've learned in my life, it seems that if Jews win, the world hates them. If Jews lose, well, if they are not totally annihilated, then we'll feel bad about them."

Robert - you need to get over yourself and realize how silly such comments are. Look at all the posts here and see how rarely anyone wrote pejoratively about "Jews". The problem is not Jews. Not all Zionists are Jews and not all Jews are Zionists.

As usual whenever someone criticizes Israel's behavior there are ridiculous accusations of anti-semitism.

I too thought the creation of Israel was a wonderful thing. I believed the "land without people" fairytale. Once I learned the truth and realized what Israel had done and continues to do to the indigenous people of Palestine, inside and outside Israel, I lost all respect for a state which claims to be a democracy while denying its non-Jewish citizens equal rights and committing unspeakable crimes against its neighbors.

I am not an anti-semite, though I detest what Israel has become. I wish Israel had never been created in 1948, considering the bloodshed it has caused. But Israel does exist, and I have many wonderful friends there who pray as I do that their leaders will stop the nonsense and the theft and the killing and acknowledge the truth: that the only thing preventing peace is the occupation.

All the violence stems from the Occupation. After people have lived for decades under the heavy boot of occupation -- and Israel's boot is heavy indeed -- there will be those among them who will say "No more - Never again" and some will stand up and fight back. Such is the human spirit and the yearning of all people to be free from oppression.

There are terrorists all over Israel and Palestine, most of them wearing Israeli uniforms or settlers carrying UZIs. Israel has been very successful in portraying itself as the victim, when in fact Israel hasn't been a victim for a very long time.

It is people like you, Robert, who promote anti-semitism when you bring out the violins and speak of "Jews" being hated. If a few people hate "Jews" just for being Jews, then that is racism. Far more people these days hate "Arabs" just for being Arabs. That too is racism.

I read few words in this forum that are anti-semitic. I see criticism of Israel's behavior, and such criticism is not anti-semitism, however much you might wring your hands and cry victim. I have hundreds of Jewish friends who are against the abomination that is Zionism, many of them Israeli. I honor and applaud them, as I honor and applaud Starhawk.

Free Palestine!

The International Solidarity Movement's support for Palestinian terrorist violence has been exhaustively documented, so "Starhawk's" lies that it it some sort of Gandhian peace movement, and her pretense of injured surprise at her exclusion from Israel, are laughable.

"Starhawk" does not even attempt to hide her pathological anti-Semitism, for which her Jewish origins offer her no alibi; there is a long, sad history of Jews who have betrayed the Jewish people from antiquity right up until the 21st century.

One wonders if "Starhawk" has given a moment's thought to what her fate would be if she ever attempted to take her Tarot cards and other so-called pagan nonsense to her jihadi friends. One also wonders what "On Faith" thought it was doing by giving a forum to such a deranged, hate-filled specimen on humanity.