Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on Israel retaining control over Gaza when the fighting ends to ensure there is no future threat, eroding any possibility of an independent Palestinian state as is being suggested by western and Arab leaders including Joe Biden. Netanyahu said “It clashes with the principle of sovereignty but what can you do.” While his views sound extreme and chilling as well as counter-productive in the long run, they follow in a long line of Israeli leaders saying much the same. Understanding the Israeli mindset won’t solve the impossible problem but it might make their rigid, uncompromising views explainable if not excusable.
The pervasive western view of Israel for decades was of a plucky country which gave protection to a persecuted people. Unquestioning US support over decades obscured the violent history of Jewish militants before and after Israel was created in 1948.
Irgun a Zionist paramilitary organisation, founded in 1931, believed “every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state”. Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children, on 9 April 1948. They also kidnapped British soldiers and executed them and ultimately were the cause of the British finishing the mandate in Palestine and retreating in disarray.
Menachem Begin was leader of Irgun who later became prime minister and he formed what became the Likud Party of which Netanyahu is leader at present.
The fourth Israel prime minister Golda Meir, who did at one point consider an independent Palestinian state, though discarded it as posing a threat to Israel’s existence, left behind a series of quotes which epitomize previous and prevailing attitudes.
“We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs – We have no place to go.”
“It’s because Egypt and Syria and the other Arab countries refuse to acquiesce to our existence. Therefore there can be no compromise. They say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don’t know of a compromise. And that’s why we have no choice.”
“I guess we have no choice. Either we do everything that is possible, and may seem to others as impossible, and just give up. Or we do everything that is really impossible and we remain alive. There’s one more basic thing that I think that people outside of Israel must realize, and if they understand and accept that, maybe other things will fall into place.
“Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.”
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”
“It was not as if there was a Palestinian people in Palestine and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.” [Which is plain inaccurate but feeds into the Israeli justifications for violence and occupation.]
Looking through early leaders’ charts David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon what is striking is that in each case there is a strong 12th harmonic as well as a notable 18H. The 12th harmonic suggests a strong sense of victimhood and constantly being made a sacrifice which after 2000 years of persecution is hardly surprising. The 18th harmonic points to a pattern of conflicts and enemies, “war & revolution”, fire and explosions; as well as strength and material success. And can appear frequently in the ranks of serial killers.
An intergenerational experience of unfair treatment in this case goes hand in hand with violence. The sacrificial loser becomes a cornered tiger lashing out at any threats.
David Ben-Gurion, one of the founders of Israel and the first PM, 18 October 1886 12.24pm Plonsk, Poland (unverified time) was a Libra Sun Jupiter square Saturn with a do-or-die determined Mars in Sagittarius opposition Pluto (Moon) in Gemini square North Node. His 18th harmonic highlights an opportunistic Mars Jupiter and a stressed Saturn. On occasion Mars Jupiter goes on holy crusades, putting a veneer of morality over violent tendencies. His 12H also highlights Jupiter and Mars.
Menachem Begin, 15 August 1913 11pm Brest, Belarus, had a Leo Sun with a pushily-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto and a militaristic Mars Saturn in Gemini. His 18th harmonic is ruthless; his 12H hints at hardship promoting activism and a reassuring vision.
Ariel Sharon, ex-Army general and 11th PM, 26 February 1928 7.49am Kafr Malal, Palestine, responsible for the 1982 Sabra Shatila Camp massacres, had a brutal 18th harmonic, and a marked 12H as well.
Benjamin Netanyahu, 21 October 1949 10.15 am Tel Aviv, Israel, has a violent, controlling and disruptive 18th harmonic; as well as an amplified 12th harmonic tied to his midheaven – his victimhood promoting his career.
All of which reflects the Israel country chart with its utterly immoveable 8th house Taurus Sun square Mars as well as Saturn Pluto; and Taurus North Node square Saturn Pluto. There is a potential for extreme hardship from Saturn Pluto; violence and turbulence from North Node in Taurus and Mars; and irretrievably stuck in the past with a beyond-obstinate 8th house Sun.
I can’t think of a suitable parallel example in the human kingdom of extreme abuse leading to instinctive aggression. Kill or be killed – it’s a primitive and understandable reaction, if not morally justifiable as a ruling ethos. None of which gets any closer to a peaceful solution.
The wealthy Arab countries won’t reconstruct Gaza without guarantees of stability ahead. The downtrodden Palestinians, some still in rundown refugees camps after the 1948 displacement, and others trying to exist in the wasteland of Gaza, will inevitably throw up disaffected troublemakers in future. And round it will go again. Israel will become an international pariah which will bring its own problems.
Back to James Cameron, post 10 October 2023. “The introduction of the Jewish State into the Arab heartland exalted many hearts and broke many more. More than anything in this century it was a triumph and a desolation. Full of high hopes it produced the most intractable conflict of our times.”
‘The stage is now ready for the culmination of the story, of a sick and sorrowful conflict, not between right and wrong, but between two forms of right and, maybe two forms of wrong.’
‘And no one lived happily ever after.’
The one small consolation from Golda Meir’s time is that the other Arab countries have now moved towards a possible rapprochement with Israel – or they had before this mayhem, which was no doubt the spoiler motive behind Hamas’s carnage. Small progress but not for the poor Palestinians.
Add ON: I realise this is an impossibly difficult subject for those with first hand experience or knowledge of the persecution the Jewish people have suffered. But responders below misunderstand what the post was arguing (maybe my fault) so I will rephrase.
No one comes through 2000 years of persecution culminating in the Holocaust undamaged. That may sound unfair and uncaring but it doesn’t make it untrue. Such damage can promote incredible resilience, courage and an implacable desire to survive at all costs no matter what it takes. But it also creates blind spots in which a ferocious drive for self-protection tramples over the rights of others. One can sympathise deeply with the reasons/psychological mechanisms behind certain behaviours without turning a blind eye to the effects on others.
I remember one analyst who worked with abuse survivors saying one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome was the client’s extreme defensiveness in admitting to any mistakes they made in adult life. As if having been so unfairly treated and damaged early on meant they could not cope with any criticism at all. Yet it is a crucial part of the healing process.
Trashing the messenger has long been one of the escape routes from reality – wiki has it wrong, James Cameron is biased against Israel etc etc. The latter is certainly not true since like everyone else he was supportive of a young Israel. As indeed was I, having read a good deal about the Holocaust and the early vision for Israel. Only slowly did I begin to understand that all was not quite what it appeared after Sabra Shatila and on and I researched further.
Throwing accusations of anti-Semitism at any criticism of Israel government policies is a manipulative and bullying technique aimed at shutting down any discussion. I lived in London with Jewish neighbours, a Jewish analyst, a Jewish dentist, a Jewish divorce lawyer and in no instance did their Jewishness cross my mind as relevant.
The “Israelism” documentary doing the rounds at the moment made by two young American Jews who had been raised to unconditionally love Israel until they started to explore the way Israel treats Palestinians is raising uncomfortable questions for the diaspora. Israelism argues that some American Jews are taught a narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that “almost entirely erases the existence of Palestinians”. Eilertsen, one of the film’s director says: “In the reform and conservative Jewish movement, Israel is sort of always introduced as almost like a Jewish Disneyland, this place where Jews can be fully Jews.” It was filmed before the Hamas attack.
Hamas are vile, psychopaths and fanatics, careless of human life, their own people as well as their perceived enemies. They need erased no doubt and the Arab leaders are no supporters of theirs. But as so often in this murky conflict the way ahead is completely obscured by the past.
The fact there is no obvious or even faintly feasible solution does not mean the dynamics of the conflict should not be examined and analysed. Some of the greatest psychoanalysts and pioneers in plumbing the intricacies of human behaviour were Jewish. Israeli analysts expanded the frontiers of knowledge about PTSD and inter-generational trauma. One might wish some of their wisdom could be brought to bear on this unholy mess.
The Palestinians made up 90% of the population in 1919. Three quarters of a million were displaced to other Arab countries in 1948 when Israel was founded. Their intergenerational trauma marks this dispute in much the same way as the Israelis.
Good luck 🙂
The unresolved issue in the Israeli conflict is the US need for control over Middle Eastern oil production to maintain post WW2 global dominance until it more recently developed a domestic shale oil extraction industry.
US control and use of Israel as an agent of Middle East chaos during its formative stages of development has made the 2 State Solution a political charade enacted by elites of both countries as a way to maximise the power of a European Zionist regime across a region in which it has no political history before 1948.
The Nakba which drove Palestinians from their millennia old cultural centres across the territory took place after Zionist terrorists seized power and then expanded territory beyond that mandated by the UN after driving out all opposition including established British rule.
Thanks for your clarification, Marjorie. As I commented in my private message: perhaps it’d be worthwhile to look at that serial killer tendency for ALL of those involved in wars and massacres now and throughout history. That was the thing that got to me, as a Jew. I hate Netanyahu and I hate the mistreatment of Palestinians–and frankly, the mistreatment of all people. I recently watched a TV program in which a child is punished for pointing out that humans are animals (that plot point took place in the 50s). We are animals though. We are smart, creative animals. And brutality is part of our animal nature.
I shall probably make myself unpopular by saying this but the world ‘Gaia’ is a
complete ecosystem of which we, humanity’ are a part. Until we recognise that and act accordingly the ‘system’ will regulate us, by force if necessary. Until we work together and recognise that the size of our population needs to be in proportion to the resources that Mother Earth can provide then there will be wars. World Wars I & II happened because we could not feed ourselves. While it may not have been the same people who would have died, the same number would likely have perished from starvation. It is terrible that it is happening now again but until we recognise our place in the scheme of things and act accordingly, wars will continue to happen. Natural disasters are also part of that ‘regulating force’. Mostly there are warnings but if we fail to heed them, we get caught up in the result. Thinking of ourselves as victims is not helpful and never can anyone make themselves feel safe by destroying the lives of others.
Your comment is “popular” with me! I love what you wrote. We are part of nature, not above it. Our particular brains have convinced us that we aren’t “merely” part of a grand and glorious system that only lets us peak into its workings. I’m a retired teacher and taught about ecosystems (to 11 year olds, so please forgive me that my next statement is not super sophisticated). There is a thing called carrying capacity–usually the populations in an ecosystem balance themselves out naturally. I suspect that, with our big brains we’ve messed up that system OR…our egoistic thinking that we are top animal have us thinking we can beat that system. Perhaps “simpler” cultures have a better understanding of our place as part of, not rulers of, nature. War is a way to drive down populations. So is pollution and irresponsible production of unsafe products that humans create and use.
Thank you Marjorie for your thoughts always worth the read.
“The past is another county”, so it has been said. History is for the historians.
When was anything solved by war or conflict, Someone wins someone loses and someone gets rich.
Nothing can change what happened on October 7. How many dead people will equal the right retribution.
We must learn to live in the now.
For me Pluto in Aquarius is about the power of the collective not tribalism, tribalism needs to be our past, we have to understand and embrace the interconnectedness of all beings.
Unfortunately during the last Pluto in Aquarius 1777 – 1799, the French Revolution occurred; 17,000 people were executed, 10,000 died in prison, it is estimated 450,000 were killed in the following Vendee revolt – widely considered to be a genocide, and the casualties in the ensuing Napoleonic wars 2.5 million people.
We can only hope history is not about to repeat itself somewhere else in the world.
“The sacrificial loser becomes a cornered tiger lashing out at any threats.”
This is controversial, but it applies to the Germans too. They were the original inhabitants of Eastern Europe but were forced from their lands westwards by Slavs who arrived in the 6th century AD.
They then suffered a bunch of calamities. The German principalities were under constant attack from the Poland-Lithuanian empire. The Swedes went beserk in the 30 years war, and the slaughter was so intense that some German towns lost 25% of their people. And then the final straw, Napoleon attacking from the west.
They had a sense of helplessness and self-pity. And resolved things with a “blood-and-iron” unification under Bismark. They were going to give up their cozy gemutlich world of cakes and music, and militarise so no-one attacked them ever again.
And then enthralled with their new power, they took revenge on everyone who had ever hurt them, starting with the Franco-German war. The rest is history.
I blame that fool Napoleon for disturbing what had been a stable and harmless set of small principalities.
Very difficult for even the best astrologers be entirely neutral and not let some personal opinions show as do many journalists. Find this generally a very good site but have also noticed it does sometimes present a somewhat slanted view in some areas.
Slanted as it differs from your views or slanted since it does not fit the facts? You are welcome to pick holes in the astrological interpretations. But a different viewpoint does not have to be slanted surely?
Both an interesting article and subsequent response. Appreciated as always. Thank-you
I find the discussions relevant, with so much history to learn about. I’m not strong in astrology but better with tarot. Overall, I enjoy the history.
Thank you for mentioning the film, Israelism. Very illuminating.
Back in 2011, President Obama had this to say, part of a longer speech on the Middle East and North Africa:
“That is the choice that must be made -– not simply in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but across the entire region -– a choice between hate and hope; between the shackles of the past and the promise of the future. It’s a choice that must be made by leaders and by the people, and it’s a choice that will define the future of a region that served as the cradle of civilization and a crucible of strife.” (May 19, 2011 obamawhitehouse.archives.gov)
Thinking about one such “crucible of strife” in the history of this region, I notice that the First Crusade (start date,15 August 1096) has a Saturn in Pisces return this year. At the same time this summer, the transiting Nodes will conjunct the Crusades’ Pluto in Aries, and the Uranus/Mars/Algol conjunction in Taurus will be conjunct the 26 Taurus Jupiter of August 1096. The Crusades also began with Neptune and Uranus in Pisces, along with Black Moon Lilith. Countless deaths, massacres, and turmoil followed in a series of conflicts until 1291…..I doubt we will ever choose to learn from history, but I hope we may at some point consider it as an option.
Thank you, Marjorie for your article. Much appreciated.
Hey Marjorie, Have you got a problem with Jews, with the creation of Israel? I was expecting an objective and impartial interpretation of the current situation in Israel, not a post based on preconceived opinions. This is not astrology!
See the addition above. Then pick apart the astrological interpretation if you disagree with it.
1400 dead on Oct 7 last year. Young women dying after sexual atrocity including burning of their bodies. Babies murdered. Israel said no one will kill us again with immunity, they meant it.
Sounds like Bucha, after the Russians left.
How quickly we change the channel…
I strongly disagree about the “primitive victimhood propaganda” line that is being suggested here about Israel.
There is nothing primitive or victim like about Israel. It is a strong, successful and highly effective power house country. If anyone can be described as “primitive victims” is in fact the Palestinians. Israel left Gaza in 2005 in the hope for peace. They left behind factories, greenhouses, farms etc that the Palestinians could easily have taken over, if they wanted to. They were also given huge amounts of money per capita to build themselves up. And guess what? They immediately destroyed all the factories, greenhouses and farms (literally burnt them down). Then in 2006 they elected Hamas for their leadership. I repeat: ELECTED. Hamas, which I am sure you are aware is a terrorist organisation. Its main object is to kill Jews. Sounds familiar? Yes the Nazi Party and the Germans had a similar history.
Hamas and the majority of Palestinians are willing to sacrifice everything, even their own children for that cause. If you watch Palestinian news channels, which I do regularly, you repeatedly see Palestinian mothers boasting that they are giving birth to lots of children in the hope they will become “shahid” (I’ll leave you to research what that means). Children are taught in kindergarten that Jews are rates and need to be destroyed. Please don’t take my word for it. You can find all of this yourself. The Palestinians are not shy about that. They were happy to film as they were killing, raping, burning, kidnapping, maiming and decpitating Israeli babies.
I had the fortunate and misfortune of seeing the unedited version of those films. It is crystal clear who the victims were and who were the militant (and non militant) perpetrators. It is also very clear from those videos by the way that many who killed, raped and embezzled were ordinary Palestinians who entered Israel by foot and even donkies. There were thousand of children, women and even elderly people (with walking sticks) who entered Israel on 7 October to take part in the atrocities and were caught doing so on cameras. I believe everyone should see those to understand what those “poor Palestinians” are capable of.
Marjorie, please don’t use astrology to try and somehow make Israel the culprit here. Israel has repeatedly offered peace deals which were then repeatedly rejected. A lot of land was offered and again rejected. The handover in 2005 is a prime example. But that’s the point. This is not a land dispute but a religious one. If all the Jews in Israel decide to convert to Islam tomorrow, there will be an end to that so called Israel/Palestine dispute.
The Palestinians are the victims of their own twisted belief in radical Islam. They believe in complete Sharia law in the region and that non believers (mostly Jews but Christians too btw) should either be killed in the most barbaric way or enslaved. Under this version of Islam Jews and Christians can only be tolerated if they are in that degraded enslaved state called “dhimmi”. Again, please do not take my word for it. Look it up.
You mentioned the “wealthy Arab countries”? Let’s take Israel out of the picture for a moment. Don’t you think it strange they offered no assistance to the “poor Palestinians” either financially or otherwise. Some of them, like Saudi, are huge countries that could easily take in Palestinian refugees and help them financially. Egypt, which shares a boarder with Gaza and did in fact control the Gaza Strip before the Israelis, tightened their boarder like never before. Where is the Islamic brotherhood here? Not one Muslim country has come forward to offer help. What do they know about the “poor Palestinians” that you don’t?
Marjorie, I have been following your blog for years as I have a strong interest in Astrology. However, I have repeatedly noted your anti-Israeli views rather neatly weaved into your astrological interpretations, which is a real shame. Astrology should be about impartial interpretation of astrological calculations not a confirmation of pre-established believes and political affiliations.
Astrological interpretations can be questioned since they point to potentials and possibilities and there is always a spectrum of meaning. But just because they don’t tell you what you want to hear – and provide a comfort blanket, does not mean they are wrong.
Thank you Marjorie, it’s good that you remain focused on an astrological interpretation – which is why the great majority of us are here.
There is no disputing the criticism of Netanyahu—who, it should really be pointed out, has held onto power through dodgy means and who did not have the support of the vast majority of Israelis even before the Oct. 7 massacre.
Also, nobody disputes that the founders of Irgun were brutal men. But to equate “Israel” solely with its founders is disingenuous and plays into damaging stereotypes.
Anyway, those men didn’t become that way in a vacuum. They became radicalized after witnessing millions of their people—for no cause other than bigotry and the desire of Europeans to find scapegoats for their own political and cultural failures—rounded up and branded like cattle, anathematized, murdered, used in inhuman scientific experiments, etc., while the supposedly “civilized” world essentially whistled and looked away for the better part of a decade. This was the pogrom to end all pogroms, not just a coda on what is passingly referred to as “2,000 years of persecution.”
Also, it’s odd that you reduce Golda Meier, who for all her faults was nevertheless one of the most respected world leaders of her era, to a mere fount of Zionist slogans, while elevating the work of a little-known journalist such as Cameron whose book, while it did provide some useful background on the conflict, was noted even by contemporary reviewers for overstating the violence of Irgun in florid terms while glossing over or minimizing the atrocities of the Arabs, which were even worse. These “poor, downtrodden Palestinians” wasted no time in mounting unprovoked attacks against the new Jewish settlers in 1948, and the Zionists responded in kind. They were not about to submit to another round of attempted extermination, and they had learned from awful experience that pacifism is no deterrent against such murderous hatred.
Also, contrary to current popular mythology, Palestine had never been solely an Arab province; Jews had lived in the area for centuries, throughout the diaspora period and prior to the founding of the state of Israel, so the claim that Arabs “were there first” doesn’t wash.
I wonder what violent harmonics we would see in the founders of the newly discovered “Palestinian people” in the late 1940s and early 1950s?
Thank you for posting this. I appreciate it.
Thank you. This article is distortion of Jewish history in Israel. Taking history notes from Wikipedia can be deceiving . Speaking about Irgun and any other organization as a violent one Like a gang is so far from the true. Even that there were specific events. The violence of arbs in Israel has a long history. I have family members who encountered violence in the eighteen century. Jewish people that knew that nobody else will protect them joined together.
See the addition to the main post.
See addition above.
The tragedy is Israel kind primitive victimhood propoganda to encash violence n hence power by the undeserving is idol of growing tyrannies in world today…it’s becoming a self destructive myth that like Israel , violence leads to richest n power of world. As countries enter poverty due to same vicious cycle of unnecessary wars for greedy capitalist…more the myth of 1 religion 1 community 1 caste as victim towards richest n power takes hold ..tyrants got a made out formulae