UNRWA – Feeding the Fire of Hate

UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. It was established on December 8, 1949, and began to operate on May 1, 1950. Its mandate has been obscure from the very beginning, though it did mention relief for Palestine refugees.

Israel can reverse the trajectory. If it unites its ranks, its unity alone will turn the antagonism toward it into sympathy. We need not explain anything to anyone; we only need to show that we are one nation, united above all our divisions and disagreements. This is what the world needs to see from Israel, and this is what will legitimize our presence in the land of our fathers.

In discussing its mandate, an official document published by UNRWA offers a rather vague explanation: “Attention is devoted to the evolution of some aspects of the Agency’s mandate, in particular human development and protection.” Subsequently, the article concludes with some remarks on the overall nature of UNRWA’s mandate, without specifying what those really are.

Given that every three years the mandate must be renewed, and that it was never actually defined, the organization grew beyond all proportions and became a behemoth that spends hundreds of millions of dollars, mainly on schools in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority. In fact, “Over half of the 2020 Programme Budget of US$ 806 [sic] million is earmarked for education under the priority that ‘school-aged children complete quality, equitable and inclusive basic education,’” according to the organization’s own statement.

The problem is that what UNRWA defines as “inclusive basic education” is actually a hate campaign against Israel, Israelis, and Jews. These hundreds of millions of dollars go toward feeding the fire of hate in the most volatile area in the world. Recently, the racist content has become so defamatory that even the EU Parliament, not exactly one of Israel’s guardians in the international community, condemned the organization.

The irony is that despite the hate campaign, the squandering of nearly a billion dollars every year, and its complete incompetence when it comes to actually helping refugees, the EU, as does the UN, the US, and the rest of the world, continue to fund UNRWA. Just recently, the EU voted to give UNRWA another boost worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

After decades of warnings about the inappropriate use of funds by UNRWA, we must finally accept that the organization’s use of funds is squarely within the boundaries of the nations’ intent. In other words, they have no problem with its support of antisemitic teachings because it expresses their opinions.

Worse yet, in the coming years, we should expect more and more such “aid” and “human rights” organizations to emerge out of the blue, and all of them will focus on one and only target: condemning, and eventually delegitimizing the existence of the State of Israel.

The only possible solution to the problem is not political, but spiritual. That is, the proliferation or lessening of anti-Israel and antisemitic organizations depends on the spirit of the Israeli people, and specifically our social cohesion. The more united we are, the greater the solidarity between us, the less powerful and successful these organizations will become.

For decades, the State of Israel has been trying to fight the incitement against it. For decades, matters have gone from bad to worse. Were it not for US vetoes, the sanctions against Israel would have made life very difficult for Israelis long ago. In recent years, there has been a growing tendency in the US, too—with the exception of the Trump administration—to lean more toward the Arabs and less toward Israel. In such a state, soon there will be no one protecting Israel in the UN Security Council and sanctions will start landing on the Jewish state.

However, Israel can reverse the trajectory. If it unites its ranks, its unity alone will turn the antagonism toward it into sympathy. We need not explain anything to anyone; we only need to show that we are one nation, united above all our divisions and disagreements. This is what the world needs to see from Israel, and this is what will legitimize our presence in the land of our fathers.

-------------------------------------------

Writing to Right Your Soul

Many studies show that writing is good for the soul. These studies do not speak of writing prose or novels, but of simple, intuitive writing where a person takes a pen and paper and writes whatever comes to mind for several minutes without stopping. No corrections should be made, no deletions, and no changes of any kind. It is simply writing to express one’s feelings and thoughts. This technique is part of what is called “writing therapy,” which in itself is one of the “expressive therapies.” Personally, I think it is a great way to organize one’s inner makeup and improve it.

You cannot compare expressing yourself verbally to expressing yourself in writing. When you speak, your words vanish as soon as you say them. But when you write what you want to say, it stays. As a result, the whole act becomes imbued with intention, if you can put it that way.

Writing organizes our inner systems and rearranges them in a better way because we not only express ourselves, but once our thoughts are on paper, we can look at them, examine ourselves through the text, and perform a kind of self-correction.

This self-organization is very important because this is the therapy in the technique. Writing organizes our inner systems and rearranges them in a better way because we not only express ourselves, but once our thoughts are on paper, we can look at them, examine ourselves through the text, and perform a kind of self-correction.

When we write, we can examine our inner makeup. Our basic makeup is a desire to feel joy and pleasure. In itself, there is nothing wrong with wanting to feel joy and pleasure. The problem is that, if not corrected, the desire to receive works in devious ways that hurt others. We call it “ego,” and our sages refer to it as a “serpent.”

You cannot kill the serpent with one blow. The way to deal with it is to bring it out one piece at a time, and examine it. Once you realize that it is the serpent, the desire to receive that enjoys hurting others, it is possible to restrain it or work with it in non-harmful ways.

When we write down our thoughts and detect the serpent, we cannot sweep it under the rug and pretend that it does not exist, since it is written down on paper. I cannot pretend that I did not say it or forget what I said, since it is not said, it is written down. At the same time, if something is too hard for me to deal with at the moment, I can always come back to it later. Once it is on paper, it will not go away.

For this reason, I do a lot of writing, and I recommend this practice to anyone who wants to examine one’s inner makeup and become a better person.

----------------------------------------

Where Have All the Children Gone?

A story that was published in The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago was brought to my attention. It said, “The number of babies born in America last year was the lowest in more than four decades.” “The total fertility rate,” the story continued, “fell to 1.64 … the lowest rate on record,” adding that “Total births were the lowest since 1979.” If you consider the huge number of migrants pouring into the US each year, with birth rates far higher than that of American women, and that maintaining the size of the population (replacement level) requires a birth rate of 2.1, it is clear that things are changing in the US.

Eventually, a new society will form in America and a cohesive society will emerge in America. What remains to be seen is how soon, and more importantly, at what cost America will arrive at that point.

In many ways, the US has been in decline for several decades. As for its fertility rate, I believe that 1.6 is not the bottom. In a generation where parents do not enjoy their children, it is no surprise that they do not want to have them.

The natural structure of a family is long gone. Families where both parents are at home, and for both of whom it is their first marriage are almost obsolete. As a result, today’s children do not even expect a traditional, organic family structure. People grow up alone, live in their own rooms from an early age, and often keep to themselves even in social settings such as school.

Why would people in such a state want to have children? They do not feel connected to anyone and have no desire to have children of their own, whom they would have to raise only to become alienated from them as they are from their own parents.

Therefore, instead of having children, people prefer to spend their time following their own whims and focusing on their own dreams, and raising a family is rarely one of them. If you add to it the fact that raising children costs a lot of money, then the whole idea seems wholly unappealing. The only thing that seems appealing to today’s young people, and even those who are not so young anymore, is the motto: Take care of yourself; nothing else matters.

Additionally, the current rate of migration is well over 200,000 people crossing the southern border each month. With a fertility rate much higher than that of American women, the influx is creating a fundamental transformation. The ethnic balance is shifting.

This process would not be so significant if it were only a shift in the balance of ethnicities. The point is that immigrants are coming to the US from a completely different background and with a completely different set of values from that of most Americans.

The America of forty or fifty years ago is gone. Already, the psychology of many Americans, their values and approach to life are very different from those that dominated the country just a few decades ago, and the changes are continuing.

Eventually, a new society will form in America and a cohesive society will emerge in America. What remains to be seen is how soon, and more importantly, at what cost America will arrive at that point.