Savage ironies are writ large in the intractable, never-ending Dante’s Inferno of the Israel/Palestine saga. The Jewish people never forgot the homeland they had been ejected from two millenia ago and yet the Israelis set their faces obdurately against any suggestion that the 700,000 indigenous Palestinians who were forcibly severed from their homes after the creation of Israel should be allowed to return. The 1948 order to expel an entire population “without attention to age” was signed by Yitzhak Rabin, a future prime minister. The lone voice of an opposition politician Meir Ya’ari spoke out against it. He noted “how easily” Israel’s leaders spoke of how it was “possible and permissible to take women, children and old men and to fill the road with them because such is the imperative of strategy. And this we say . . . who remember who used this means against our people during the [Second World] War . . . I am appalled.”
The other mystery is how a people traumatised and brutalised by the Holocaust can justify acting in such a callous way towards victimised Palestinians. Well it’s not exactly mystifying – bad experiences do not necessarily make good people – but the hypocrisy rankles.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, recently boosted by Trump’s support, is getting the blame for leading the country towards this latest bloody impasse. He has been courting the far-right and stoking up settlers in his efforts to stay in power and signing treaties with other Middle Eastern countries with the hope that the Palestinians would lose the will to resist. He has been proved spectacularly wrong as this clash has brought the conflict inside the borders of Israel itself. It involves not only Hamas in Gaza but also Israeli-Arabs, who make up 20 per cent of the population, who have been clashing with Jewish demonstrators, with talks of an impending civil war.
Looking at the Israel chart, it’s difficult to see how it will ever shift. An 8th house Taurus Sun conjunct Algol is square not only the unyielding Saturn Pluto in Leo but also Mars in Leo – it is stubborn to the nth degree. Endurance up to a point can be an advantage but there are times when flexibility is called for and an ability to change with the times, which Israel lacks. There’s also a Yod of Uranus sextile Mars inconjunct Jupiter, which can be influential but does require tolerance to work well. Arrogance and grandiosity can bring about a downfall.
At the moment the Solar Arc Saturn Pluto is moving across the Ascendant – which brings tough conditions, deprivation and has associations with war. The tr Uranus square tr Saturn is colliding with the 10th house Israel Pluto shifting the balance of power in the country and threatening to unleash turmoil. That runs into early 2022 when tr Saturn in Aquarius is in downbeat hard aspects to all the Fixed Israel planets including the Sun throughout the year and tr Uranus increases tension in square to the Saturn, before moving on in 2023 to conjunct the Sun until early 2025 and thence on to an explosive, insecure square to the Israel Mars in 2025/26.
As if that wasn’t enough battering there will be further disappointments in 2022/23/24 as tr Neptune moves to square the Yod apex Jupiter and its super-sensitive opposition Uranus, which will bring into question Israel’s pretensions to superiority. Plus the Eclipses are shifting from this late November’s Lunar Eclipse to an emphasis on Taurus/Scorpio which will bring rolling crises into 2023 and a good deal of soul searching.
Almost all of the charts of those involved are incredibly Fixed. Theodor Herzl, the initial proponent of a homeland for a persecuted Jewish people, was a Sun Pluto in Taurus square Saturn in Leo. The British mandate of Palestine in 1920 is a Sun Taurus square Jupiter Neptune in Leo. Gaza 9 November 1917 is a Sun Mercury in Scorpio square Uranus in Aquarius and square Saturn Neptune in Leo. The Palestine Declaration of Independence 1988 is a Sun Mercury Pluto in Scorpio. Hamas has Mars Pluto in Scorpio. Netanyahu has Mars Pluto in Leo. Not much give anywhere. Oddly enough the start of the Jewish-Roman wars in 66 CE which led to the initial expulsion started with Pluto in early Aquarius. The Arab Revolt of 1936 which led to the three years war of Palestinian Arabs against the British authorities for allowing open-ended Jewish immigration in preparation for a Jewish national home started with Uranus in early Taurus.
Netanyahu’s relationship chart with Israel is under serious stress from now on, despite this conflict having saved him from an ignominious departure to face corruption charges, at least initially. The composite Sun Mercury are being battered this year by tr Uranus square tr Saturn; and more so the composite Pluto in 2022, which should loosen the ties that bind.
Joe Biden having just signed an arms deal with Israel is under increasing pressure from within the Democratic Party to be more pro-active in his condemnations of the violence but is clearly reluctant to be dragged in. He won’t avoid it from next week with tr Uranus turning the Biden/Netanyahu composite Sun square Pluto on its head.
See previous post: 11 May 2021.
Details on lifestyle restrictions in Israel for Palestinians.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/19/peaceful-coexistence-israel-myth-palestinian-denied-rights
It’s a damn shame. I shared earlier that I worked with Israelis…who continued to claim they need to protect themselves. But from what? And from whom?
Larry, the Hamas Charter might give you some clues. If you can’t be bothered to read it all, start with article 13.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
Please listen to this young man called Yoseph Haddad. He was being interviewed on both BBC and SKY. Also a report of a Jewish restaurant owner Uri Buri in Akko. It wouldn’t be the first time the media are overplaying their hand. These are people on the ground in Israel. An Israeli Arab and a Israeli Jew.
BBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58dvUwbNOLc
SKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHdqrwGOG0Y
SKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXeAdNPcDE
Yes Sarah, I saw the piece about Uri ‘Buri’ Jeremias (see below). I was trying to focus on the many overlooked rays of light which continue to shine amidst this conflict and I came across his story.
VF did you watch the BBC and SKY reports with Yoseph Haddad? I think that is really important. Israelis are often accused of apartheid, but rarely is it mentioned that there are nearly 2,000,000 Israeli Arabs who live in Israel. They have representation in the Knesset, and some are in positions of authority in Israel. They work together in hospitals, and did work together through the pandemic. Doubt any of that would have been the case in South Africa in the old days. For years in many places in Israel Arabs and Jews have lived together, had strong friendships. This young man is an Israeli Arab and I think he’s worth a listen. These are people who live there. These are the ones we should be listening to. These are the ones who deserve support. These are the ones whose voices should be heard.
Yes, people like this man give me a glimmer of hope for the future of the region. I don’t pretend I know its complex history in depth, but when someone speaks the language of peace, I will always respect and listen. The media need to show that peaceful coexistence can occur as well as conflict, I agree.
Arabs are Semitic as well, so the term “anti- Semitic” applies to them and to Jews as well
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Semite
Jennifer E
I agree with you totally, governments even at their best are a necessary evil, at their worse intolerable. Self important men in power seeing themselves as born to reign and others to obey whatever the human cost, they are frequently the most unfit to hold responsibility for others. Would it be so difficult to find a solution ( if only temporary) that would prevent bloodshed! It shows how frail and incompetent these people at the top are, is it power, contol, greed or all three. The insanity of attacking ( murdering) innocent children. All done with a press of a button not having to look into a childs eyes, see them shake at the sound of bombs dropping, mothers posing no threat. Taking sides has no place here, to love thy neighbour is to set them free whichever side you’re on.
An Israeli friend who lives in Tel Aviv told me he and most/many others think there is no solution to this problem. It’s one of these unsolvable tragedies. The Jewish people with their troubled history of persecution understandably want a country where they can be guaranteed protection which effectively meant setting up an apartheid-state which does not sit comfortably in modern times.
The brusqueness of Israeli manners is a standing joke in Israel – Haaretz had a cartoon series about it years ago which was very funny and I wish I had kept it.
I’ve never understood anti-Semitism of the variety that obsesses some, but silencing any criticism of Israeli government policies by playing the victim card is despicable and manipulative.
Hugh is right about the Middle East being a melting pot. I visited Syria years ago which was a lovely country though poor and the tour guide very proudly ran over the endless series of invasions that had coloured their history over the past eight thousand years. History constantly churning.
Marjorie,
I agree. Personally, I’m appalled by the policies and the agenda that’s being promulgated by the Israeli Government. Whenever I criticize the tragic situations taking place in Israel, I always make sure I emphasize that it’s the government and the politicians involved who I have disdain for rather than the people.
However, I have noticed, in light of recent events, that some critics fail to make the same distinction though. I’ve been astonished by the vile anti-Jewish and stereotypical antisemitic rhetoric I’ve been hearing lately from casual observers. I’ve heard a number of outrageously offensive comments like “selfish Jews,” “Jew money,” and “Jews control the banks” being thrown around on various social media platforms as well as in some public places lately and it’s very disturbing.
This goes back to my comment about selective empathy. The individuals who are engaging antisemitic rhetoric appear to be under the delusion that contempt for the “Jews” is justified because they see the Palestinians as the real victims in this mess.
I feel like selective empathy (which I oppose) has become commonplace in many activist circles. For example, activists often express outrage over the situation regarding Palestine, yet Palestine isn’t the only “occupied” territory dealing with oppression.
Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Tamil Elam, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, Basque Country, Brittany, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Catalonia, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Kurdistan Region, Mindano, Northern Ireland, the Western Sahara Territory, Balochistan, etc. are also technically occupied regions…yet, I’ve noticed their plights are seldomly mentioned and are often completely ignored.
I’ve been to Israel, the Golan Heights, and Palestine (Ramallah and West Bank) at least 4 times over the past 20 plus years. It’s truly a fascinating region enriched with history, cultural heritage sites, and various ethnoreligious groups.
One of my favorite places in Israel is the small northern town of Tsfat – it hosts a large ethnic Sephardi Jewish (my ethnic ancestors) population and it’s one of the centers of Jewish mysticism (such as the Kabbalah). There’s also a small, very friendly ethnic Druze community residing there.
It’s important to note that ethnic and religious rivalries are often exaggerated by the media and by politicians who wish to promulgate their own agendas.
Most of the ethnic Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Armenians, Druze, Circassians, Israeli-Arabs, Palestinians, Arameans / Assyrians, Maronites, Melkites, etc. I met when I traveled to Israel / Golan Heights / Palestine actually do not live with the animosity and hostility towards one another that many foreigners seems to think. Many of them are aware that the politics of their region (which do not serve the people) are the real culprit for the ongoing divisiveness we’ve seen.
And this is not directed towards anyone on this forum (I’m simply sharing an observation), but I have noticed that some progressives (particularly the far-left white progressives) who claim to be empathic to Palestinians, have been very vocal lately in their denouncement of the Israel….yet these same white progressives are often living in countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the U.S., etc. – And…being a former anthropology major (and human genetics minor), I’m pretty sure that white people are not indigenous to any of the countries I just listed. So, until these same white diaspora progressives start packing their belongings and repatriate back to Europe, it’s a bit hypocritical for them to excoriate Israel’s right to exist as a nation.
I try not to vilify any nation based on the actions of their governments and their politicians. I also try to avoid selective empathy as well. For example, Benjamin Netanyahu (who I detest with a passion) and the Israeli govt. are obviously the perpetrators in this conflict, however, this chaos has disrupted the lives of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. It’s all very tragic.
– Chris Romero
Chris, I so agree with you about the appalling anti-Semitism on the Far Left which has raised its ugly head again in recent years, though I feel it’s a dark legacy of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ – that faked document which I think of as the QAnon of its day and that seems to continue to appeal to zealous, scapegoating fanatics on both the far left and far right.
The Israeli Palestine situation is an endless tragedy with no solution in sight.
Today I was reading in the Press about Uri Jeremias, a 72 year old restaurant owner whose business was destroyed in the uprisings. His business employs both Arabs, Jews. He says he is not angry, because hatred is futile and destructive. “I don’t think of people as Jewish or Arab or Chinese or religious or non-religious. People who are good are good regardless of their colour, religion or sexual orientation. I define people by their character, their heart and the glow in their eyes. Respect is the necessary ingredient for co-existence.”
Coincidentally a photoshopped image of Jeremy Corbyn reading the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ to a group of schoolchildren was posted today on Twitter supposedly from the account of an individual who is apparently a founder of an organisation committed to ‘Making the Labour party a safe place for Jewish people by eradicating antisemitic abuse from within the party’. Northumbria University have released a tweet stating they are investigating complaints made against the individual who is a member of staff. Not only does antisemitism thrive amongst the far right and far left, there is the manipulations of those who claim to be fighting antisemitism in society to delegitimize and disempower political debate and criticism that they deem unacceptable.
The complaint about antisemitic content being posted on Twitter by a self-appointed antisemitism crusader was raised by Michael Rosen, the author of the book that was being read by Corbyn in the original, undoctored photo. Rosen has tweeted about this issue and the BBC website has picked up this story today. The aforementioned campaigner against antisemitism has now deleted their Twitter account.
One thing to remember about this part of the Levant is that historically most of the time it has either been part of some much larger political entity or a conflict zone between regional powers. Over that time it has either been ruled or fought over by ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Empires, Ummayad Arabs, Fatamids, Seljuks, Mamelukes, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans and finally the British. The actual amount of time it was controlled by Jews or Palestinians as an independent kingdom or state only makes up a relatively small portion of a very long history. The current conflict between the latter two groups also needs to be put in the context of wider regional politics as various powers such as Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia tussle for influence. That wider power struggle not only impacts on Palestine but also the other states along this part of the Mediterranean such as Syria and Lebanon which also have long standing divisions which often erupt violently. This tends to be forgotten when the media focuses on the dispute between Israel and Palestine. I think people who assume the situation can be resolved either by a negotiated settlement or by one side completely obliterating the other militarily are being naive because it is simply not going to be the end of the matter. In a way the tragedy of both Israelis and Palestinians is that they are actually pawns in a much bigger game.
I would just add that the other problem with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is that it helps to legitimise the latent anti-Semitism that still lurks beneath the surface in the western world even among people who consider themselves liberal and progressive.
To be fair, not all Israelis, as usual around the globe and irrespective of race or religion , its just the hard right variety being inhumane and insane.
But yes, the irony is enormous and ghastly.
I mostly enjoyed to read your interpretation but this opinionated without enough knowledge is disturbing. Then defining a nation as bad .
It’s unfortunate that you mix your opinions(seems very hateful towered Israel) with astrology .
Your response is rather unclear.
However most of us recognise that it is the uber conservative Israelis and Netanyahu that is the problem, rather than all Israelis.
Are you an Israeli citizen?
In the workplace, nearly all Israelis I’ve met and worked with are inflexible, rigid, and pre-conditioned with “you’re out to exterminate us.” There is no middle ground. All or nothing.
Is this opinionated enough for you, Ayelet?
What a pointlessly inflammatory and anecdotal comment.
Equally unsuitable was her slam against Marjorie.
I think this problem goes back away further – if one looks at the exchange of populations – between Greece and Turkey and genocide of the Armenians before 1923.- I have been studying that time – The exchanges of populations in 1923 between Greece and Turkey, and Partition in 1947 forming India/ Pakistan, have left lasting memories in all of these countries. It has been often said that the exchange in 1923 served as the template for Partition. As noted by author Aslı Iğsız in Humanism in Ruins:
” When Lord Curzon used “unmixing” to refer to the population exchange, the term revealed an understanding of population management deeply informed by biology. Un-mixing aimed at improving/altering the “wrongful” reality of religious coexistence. ” We can idea evolved – it would be interesting to look at the 1923 chart and how it influenced the 1948-49 charts also of india and china
Such an interesting post, Marjorie. Thank you. Most Americans previously supported Israel 100 percent, with the ghost of WWII and the Holocaust still historically fresh in our collective memory. Netanyahu’s personal corruption and Israel’s “overkill” response to even the throwing of a rock by a Palestinian, has certainly muddied the waters. Trump played this by shamelessly giving Netanyahu carte blanche to dictate U.S. Israeli/Palestinian policy. I’m sure a number of us would be very interested, at some point, in when Netanyahu’s day of reckoning will finally come. You’d think the difficulty is establishing a new government would signal the end, but it doesn’t seem to be working.f
The hostility goes way back. Originally the Jewish settlers in Palestine were peaceable but the Arab Palestinians started to get edgy with widescale immigration due to the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and 30s. So Jewish settlers armed themselves and became more militant. What was notable about the Arab-Jewish war of 1936/39 was that it was fairly brutally suppressed by the Brit colonial authorities and the Arabs were de-weaponised which made a significant difference post WW11 when Israel was created.
Israel, of course, was born on the back of the 1946 bomb attack by the Jewish Zionist organization Irgun on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which housed the British Protectorate which killed 91 with many injured. The Brits who had been making a general screw-up of the Palestine administration left in disarray.
The Jewish people have had a terrible history of persecution so it’s understandable they would want to find a protectorate where they would not be at risk of being attached or ejected. South America was looked at as a possibility.
After WW11 there was pressure to give the go-ahead to Israel from the Jewish lobby in the USA on President Harry Truman who from all accounts was not that keen. But he had a good deal on his hands and eventually said yes.
There should have been international policing put in at that point but all of Europe was in disarray and there was collective guilt about the Holocaust so a blind eye was turned to Jewish massacres and forced evacuations of Palestinians.
There is something really fated about the whole set up – what is most feared is exactly what is attracted.
Wow again! It shows where the seeds were sown and yet they throw fuel on the fire and pretend/disassociate as if it has nothing to do with those seeds. Context is key. Mind blowing!! I wonder if certain astrological aspects coming back around, whether by conjunction, opposition or square, will make this thing play out to some kind of resolution so a new chapter can begin.
With all the aspects you have mentioned I wonder whether as if God/the universe is saying ‘Well, if you can’t sort this out, I’m going to force you to address this now, one way or an other’. So they will be dragged fighting and screaming to the kitchen table, so to speak.
Also there was a concerted effort by surrounding nations including Egypt to wipe out Israel.
Still, that doesnot justify Netanyahus behaviour to Palestine today.
Nor Hamas for that matter.
Thanks Marjorie for looking further into this seemingly endless conflict. I suppose what seems different is the widespread civil unrest and horrendous attacks between Arab and Jewish citizens on the streets. There is a group called “Standing Together”, founded in 2015, that has been demonstrating for peace and unity. I can’t find an exact date, but it began in October 2015. At that point there were the echoes of the mutable Jupiter/Neptune opposition, and the cardinal Uranus/Pluto square of the time.
It all seems hideously familiar, yet things have shifted in the Middle East too and I wonder what effect that might have on wider support for Palestine. Hard, if not impossible, to tease out all the complexities, power plays, and hidden discussions that must be going on right now.
Wow Marjorie,
My first thought was to say this feels like a perfect example of the ‘abused becoming the abuser’. Very sensitive subject matter to broach, because i.e. in context what is sensitive to ‘black people is sensitive to ‘Jewish people’.
So, thank you for the breakdown back history which explains why things are where they are now. What struck me was that in about 15 years time it will be 100 years (The Arab Revolt of 1936) since the fighting began around an agreement signed without insight, not to mention the years before that led to the build up and what is going on now. (How many generations?) From a personal perspective I thought this all began after an agreement was signed soon after the Second World War, so clearly I’m not clear.
What is so so sad about all this is that there seems to be an element of disassociation and the stats seem to show it’s mainly ordinary people just trying to live their lives being killed. I will not even try to go into the politics of it all but from a human perspective how can you as a government and/or governments continue to sell any kind of arms to another government who seems to have lost perspective. How can it be possible regardless of who is stubborn that these countries who sat, agreed and signed previous treaties/agreements or whatever they want to call it, cannot now in the same vein sit down and agree and sign a treaty to stop this madness????
I refuse to look at it in political terms but in human terms, people terms, now terms, live and love terms. I am not naive, I’m not looking for a perfect world – but I see it as ‘if you and someone cannot agree just seek the middle ground/comprise and then take it from there …’
Everyone loves to talk about how human beings have evolved, etc etc. Have we really? Is it always about ‘good guys and bad guys’ scenarios? How about evolution in thought and action? Because what was that saying, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’, or something like that.
The only reason that I have said all above is because I am reading what comes across to me as, ‘well, if you don’t agree then you are against ….. etc’ Not the case at all.
Thank again Marjorie. I learn something new everyday. Peace out!!