The Psychospiritual Roots of the Israel-Palestine Tragedy
Special CPL Guest Mentor Session* with Richard Forer
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Richard Forer is an author, human rights activist and public speaker. “I am the author of Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion - A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict, published in 2010, and Wake Up and Reclaim Your Humanity: Essays on the Tragedy of Israel-Palestine [2020]. The latter book was the winner of the New York City Big Book Award.
Both books describe the inner thought processes that lead normally decent people who ordinarily believe in justice to support indecency and injustice. Additionally, they are the only books that elucidate the roots of the Israel-Palestine tragedy in particular and of suffering in general. Those roots are psycho-spiritual in nature. By spiritual I am referring to the problem, or illusion, of "Identity."“
Wake Up and Reclaim Your Humanity: Essays on the Tragedy of Israel-Palestine [2020] tells the true story of a lifelong supporter of Israel who underwent a remarkable spiritual awakening in which he realized he was as much Muslim or Christian as Jew and as much Palestinian as Israeli or American. Existential fear and confusion, the hallmarks of separate identities, were transformed into compassion and clarity and an unequivocal vision of the roots of suffering spontaneously arose. Recognizing that endless conflict only leads to alienation from our true selves, this book encourages readers to look at the documented history of the Israel-Palestine tragedy and get in touch with how they view and interpret that history. It offers readers a path that leads to freedom from false beliefs, enemy images, and the illusion of identity to equal rights for all people and a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Rich will help us understand the difference between anti-semitism and anti-Zionism.
He will share how he shifted from being a strong Zionist to his current stance of holding the bigger picture of reclaiming your humanity (which is foundational to transforming fear to compassion)?
What is Zionism? (courtesy of the Anti-Defamation League)
There are diverse views among Zionists about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, about how to promote peace, whether to support a two-state solution, and about approaches to Israeli settlements. Being critical of Israeli policies is no more anti-Zionist than being critical of American policies is anti-American.
Zionism does not preclude support for Palestinian self-determination and statehood. For some Zionists, support for a two-state solution is the realization of self-determination for Jews and Palestinians alike.
*CPL Guest Mentor Sessions are a key feature of CPL Community Builder membership program. Intention of these sessions: close-in conversations about the role of Purposeful Leadership in these transformative times.
Consider becoming a CPL Community Builder to support the work of CPL (a for-benefit 501c3) and its vibrant community of purposeful leaders.
More about Richard Forer
Rich Forer YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/briana4845
Forer has spoken at many venues in the United States. His objective is to encourage people not to believe what their society has told them about Israel-Palestine but to do their own research. In this way, their confusion will be alleviated and they will have a far better grasp on the reality of the problem. In conjunction with his emphasis on self-education, he helps people discover how, primarily through indoctrination of all kinds, each of us creates our own suffering and then projects that suffering onto the world. This inner thought process is what provokes the attachment to holding onto false beliefs as well as ours and others' suffering. Once we understand this process, it becomes more likely that we can create peace for ourselves and for the world.
Forer has been interviewed on Press TV as well as a variety of radio shows. He is also a contributor to two other books on the Israel-Palestine problem. His book, Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion - A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict, is the first on the subject that explains the conflict in terms of a spiritual problem. Forer has spoken at many venues in the United States. His objective is to encourage people not to believe what their society has told them about Israel-Palestine but to do their own research. In this way, their confusion will be alleviated and they will have a far better grasp on the reality of the problem. In conjunction with his emphasis on self-education, he helps people discover how, primarily through indoctrination of all kinds, each of us creates our own suffering and then projects that suffering onto the world. This inner thought process is what provokes the attachment to holding onto false beliefs as well as ours and others' suffering. Once we understand this process, it becomes more likely that we can create peace for ourselves and for the world. Forer has been interviewed on Press TV as well as a variety of radio shows.