This is the conclusion of the series on Israel and the Palestinians. When asked in June to write a memo on the consequences of apartheid in Israel, I identified and described 16 consequences. Here we can look at consequence #16 and then turn to foreign policy and social programming recommendations based on the Paradigm for Peace model.
My policy recommendations will seem like common sense to many people. Nonetheless, as obvious as they may seem, I’ll write them out, because common sense easily vacates the chambers of US foreign policymakers when their minds are distorted by prejudice, ignorance, peer pressure, groupthink, intimidation, dysfunctional traditions, bribes, and greed.
June 28, 2023
Part 4. Antisemitism and Paradigm for Peace Recommendations
Consequence 16 and Recommendations
16. Growth in Antisemitism. For many critics of Israel, their anger and disgust arise not from antisemitism but from the creation of the state of Israel and the nature of its relationship with the United States as either a US colony or possibly the reverse—a US master. Such critics do not feel hatred for Jewish people, Jewish values, or Jewish religion but rather disgust and rage towards the state of Israel, how it behaves unjustly and brutally, and how it was created with utter disdain, contempt, and injustice towards the Arabs living within its borders, as well as disdain towards the many Jews who didn’t agree with the Zionist goal of creating a Jewish state, and disdain towards those Jewish Zionists who didn’t agree with militant or selfish Zionism.
As mentioned in Part 2, when the idea of creating Israel in the land where the Palestinians lived was first considered, many Jews, especially the Jews already living in Palestine, were alarmed and were convinced that such a move would harm their relations with Palestinians and increase antisemitism worldwide.
If the US government continues to tacitly support the Israeli government’s system of apartheid and violations of international law, if the US government continues to buckle under to the money offered by AIPAC, such behavior will only increase antisemitism.
Because the truth is, a tremendous amount of horrible antisemitism still exists, and Jews are scapegoated as being responsible for many of the world’s problems. I see antisemitic comments, for example, on websites online and I am appalled. If any such comments appear on my own YouTube channel about Russia and Ukraine, I respond to them immediately—with kindness—but in disagreement and with additional information to try to help people distinguish between the broad Jewish population and the extremist Revisionists. I don’t banish or condemn these commenters, because that would never help them feel listened to and never help them see things differently. But I do respond so that others, too, can see my comments.
In particular, many antisemites believe that powerful Jews are behind the scenes, rigging the political and economic systems into what they are today. AIPAC’s ability to have such power over the US Congress—as described in Part 3—only confirms the beliefs of people who hate Jews and fear their power. For antisemites, they won’t be able to distinguish between people in AIPAC and the vast majority of Jews who are not power-hungry and who likely want peace and cooperation with Palestinians. Those with prejudice, including antisemites, tend to think categorically, and they’ll instead view all Jews as evil, worthy of scorn, abuse, and death. AIPAC’s alarming degree of power over the US political system and foreign policy could make even non-prejudiced persons become antisemitic.
The US government, if it truly cares about the Jewish population, should care for the safety of the Jewish people, but it should not cave into the predilections of that thin sliver of the Jewish population whose goals not only thwart those of the general Jewish population but also unfairly give all Jews a bad name and an unfriendly world in which to live. [Update to memo: As Russia Today reports, “Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have surged by close to 400% in the weeks following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, according to the Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).”[1]]
I would also add that the US government is behaving inconsistently towards Jews when it acts as if it is pro-Jew by being pro-Israeli government but then simultaneously supports a Ukrainian government that is in league with ultranationalist Ukrainians, including neo-Nazis, who are antisemitic, who say abusive, hateful comments towards Jews, who wish Hitler had killed all Jews, who want Jews out of Ukraine, who praise past Ukrainian leaders who murdered Jews during WWII, who paint swastiskas on public buildings, and who vandalize Jewish memorials. This behavior is documented by the UN, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Even Israel has spoken out against the post-coup Ukraine government’s antisemitism.[2]
On the other hand, if you think more deeply about it, the US government is ironically being consistent in that its pro-Israeli government stance is not, in effect, pro-Jewish or pro-democratic, it does not help the Jewish or the Israeli population as a whole. It helps and supports only certain Jews, even at the cost of the safety and peace of mind of the Jewish people. The US stance is more accurately described as pro-“those leaders in power who will be allies with and help certain Americans in the US government and do their bidding.”
US government behavior towards Jews during WWII was also not pro-Jewish. After all, for reasons of prejudice, the US government held up major obstacles to Jewish immigration to the US in the 1930s, even when that immigration could have saved Jewish lives. And the US government was not quick to save the Jews, Slavs, Romani, Communists, and others who were dying in concentration camps. On the heels of WWII, the US government promptly hired thousands of Nazis to spy on the USSR.[3] The US government worked with pro-Nazi groups in Chile to help ensure a horrid aftermath for tens of thousands of Chilean people after the CIA toppled Salvador Allende in 1973.[4] The US government was not even a strong fan of the state of Israel until it realized in 1967 that Israel could be a useful player in the Cold War against the USSR.[5]
With regard to Ukraine, the US government is in denial over antisemitism, swastikas, and the crimes of neo-Nazis—a stance that is antisemitic in itself. And, once again, as is consistent throughout its foreign policy choices round the world, the US government is also pro-“those leaders in power who will be allies with and help certain Americans in the US government and do their bidding.”
Certainly, not all US policymakers are motivated by selfishness and greed in their attitudes towards the conflicts involving Ukraine and Israel and their endorsement of taking sides and shipping weapons. Anti-Russian prejudice, anti-Muslim prejudice, anti-Islamist prejudice, massive ignorance, and groupthink play prominent, ugly roles, as perhaps does the psychological desire to feel good or even holy about oneself by labeling some group or nation as bad and then attacking it.
Americans would take pride in their government if it would actually stand consistently for principles of humanity, 360 degrees of empathy and truth, impartial adherence to international law, caring for the planet, and cooperative dialogue with all people—shutting no one out. Alliances could then be based—not upon mutual selfish interests for wealth and power—but upon a shared commitment to these principles, including the principle of working to educate and powerfully lead others away from greed and prejudiced thinking and behavior.
One of the best ways to help and protect Jews is to help them understand and care for Palestinians. One of the best ways to help and protect Palestinians is to help them understand and care for Jews. By actively seeking to acquire the truth from all sides—the goals, dreams, loves, and fears of both moderates and extremists, Muslims and Jews, we can then have the understanding needed for 360 degrees of empathy for all sides.
17. Recommendations
To start with, the authors of “Israel’s One-State Reality” in Foreign Affairs offer several admirable suggestions for responding to Netanyahu’s extremist government and Israel’s system of apartheid which I will include here.
The authors call for the US government to make an “honest reckoning” of its responsibility in helping to create the current apartheid system. Obviously, the point is not to wallow in guilt but to see the mistakes and then fix them with enthusiasm.
The authors emphasize the importance of making military aid and funding to Israel conditional upon the behavior of the Israeli government and adherence to human rights and other aspects of international law. I would add that the entire issue of military aid should be reconsidered. There’s no need for so many weapons! Let’s move away from the narrow-minded notion that military security is the primary foundation for peace. The authors suggest that sanctions could also be imposed upon Israel’s government until it ceases this system of apartheid, hatred, and inhumanity.
The authors call upon the US government to stop shielding Israel from UN condemnation for violations of international law. I would add that the US government must cease its double-standard morality of condemning enemies for alleged violations of international law while excusing and funding allies who violate international law and excusing its own frequent and severe violations of international law.
The authors also suggest supporting both Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations and ceasing to punish anyone who boycotts Israel while its inhumane, unjust behavior continues.
Lastly, the authors suggest that accords with other nations should also be conditional upon the Israeli government’s ability to uphold international law, particularly with regard to Palestinians. I would add that Israel’s covert nuclear weapon program is illegal, and this must be addressed as a condition of accords and certainly aid as well, especially military aid. President Trump’s Abraham Accords are harmful, the authors state, in that they allow for Israel to have relations with Mid-Eastern and African nations despite Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians. Such an agreement essentially sells out the Palestinian cause and enables Israel to get away with its ill treatment while receiving support from other nations.
To put this in perspective, I think that if nations had placed similar conditions, sanctions, and condemnations against the United States during its couple of centuries of ill treatment, executions, massacres, and round-ups of Native Americans, as well as its treatment of African Americans and also Asian Americans, this might have helped to prevent the social, psychological, economic, and environmental catastrophes that occurred in our nation. Such international pressure—along with positive international support for reform—would have helped give greater power to those Americans who also were appalled at the mistreatment and killing of these people. Therefore, I think in the long run, this international pressure and positive moral guidance will be appreciated by many Israelis both now and in the future who will look back with relief that their nation was pressured to change.
My focus in this memo has been on the consequences of apartheid. However, if we could also look at solutions, I would say that solutions must encourage 360 degrees of empathy for all sides and factions. Comprehensive empathy is important not only for understanding, but also to avoid the dynamics of sibling rivalry which researchers find is often central to ethnic conflict: each side wants to be seen as superior to the other and feels especially angry if the other side is seen as superior.[6] The US government should treat all groups in ways that prevent this sibling rivalry—while not necessarily putting everyone’s ideas into action, giving all groups equal time to express themselves and giving all groups equal and genuine caring.
Solutions must include 360 degrees of truth, and an enthusiastic striving by journalists, policymakers, and volunteers to find out and communicate all perspectives. It is with such striving and curiosity to learn more that we can better have compassion for one another, as well as caution and avoidance of some ideas and goals, and thereby find all the puzzle pieces to make them fit.
Solutions must include cooperative dialogue—not merely debate, which is really verbal war, but dialogue in which each side presents its views strongly and clearly, but then with equal enthusiasm and sincerity sinks into the shoes of the other sides to really try to understand their fears, their reason, and their sense of humanity and justice. Even extremists on all sides who espouse hatred must be listened to in cooperative dialogue in order to better understand their fears and past wounds. This is not a cure-all, but it will help a lot and it will lead to better outcomes in negotiation and out in the street.
People should not be shut out of dialogue or negotiation as a punishment. This is fruitless and does not advance peace or justice. Listening to people in dialogue and negotiation should not be considered a “reward” granted only if a nation first behaves itself in a certain way. Listening and conversing should be considered a tool to further understanding and to gather information and ideas. It is the terms of the dialogue and negotiation itself that determine whether a nation’s or group’s behavior and grievances are legitimate or illegitimate, and whether a nation or group’s requests should be fulfilled.
In terms of the Paradigm for Peace model, a model I created shortly after 9/11, the US government should encourage an impartial examination of the Roots of Violence, including the Defensive and the Aggressive Roots of Violence on all sides—not merely the Defensive Roots of Violence of the alleged “good guy” and the Aggressive Roots of Violence of the alleged “bad guy.” Unfulfilled needs for Life and Safety, Power and Freedom, Wealth, Land, and Possessions, Values and Identity, and Love, Friendship, and Worth should be examined in particular, as well as needs for Self-Potential. Such an analysis need not be a long, drawn-out process that takes months but rather a fairly rapid process that takes only a few weeks. Most people familiar with the issues could jot down an analysis in a few hours and gain additional information from interviewing a wide variety of people and perspectives.
Mental, Legal, and Physical Escalators of Violence should be examined. These are the factors that make it more likely that violence will be chosen as a “solution” to an unmet need. Mental Escalators of Violence, for example, include propaganda, prejudice, a distorted or unhealthy sense of self-worth, and preoccupations with superiority and inferiority. Legal Escalators of Violence include failures to impartially uphold international law and failures to uphold egalitarianism, democracy, political and economic justice, and due process within Israel and Palestinian lands. Physical Escalators of Violence include the heavy dependency upon weapons and brute force to try to “solve problems,” the lack of physical security of Palestinians, even in their homes, and Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
Off the top of my head, here are a few ideas of solutions that the US government could encourage or initiate itself and that are categorized into the Three Facets of the Paradigm for Peace model. And there’s no need to get harried about which solution falls into which facet. Sometimes the facets even overlap. The categories of the Three Facets are there to simply help us not forget the different approaches! Otherwise, we might fall into the stale array of US government solutions of sanctions, freezing assets, bombs, drones, and boots on the ground.
The Paradigm for Peace approach opens up a much wider array of solutions, particularly non-violent solutions, than is traditionally examined by the US government and brings the 1st Facet mental tools onto center stage, where they belong. Paradigm for Peace also promotes a very different attitude from what we’re used to seeing in US foreign policy. The spirit of the Paradigm for Peace approach is not to force some sort of peace or obedience by threatening adversaries with the denial of the fulfillment of their needs. Rather, the spirit is to create peace by cooperating together to fulfill the legitimate needs of all sides of conflict.
Caring, cooperation, love, friendship, and understanding are essential components of peace. They are not indicators of weakness, they are not emasculating, and they are not to be mocked. Those courageous enough to break from tradition, peer pressure, and groupthink to strike out on a new path towards peace will find that caring, cooperation, love, friendship, and understanding are much more reliable tools than weapons, which, in terms of peace, are only shooting blanks.
Three Facets of Solutions
1st Facet mental tools of Human Development:
- Rather than perceiving conflict in a biased way, as good guy vs. bad guy, sincerely step into each side’s shoes to understand why each side sees itself as good.
- Help groups to understand one another; help groups to see each other and their fears in a more positive light, while not denying or trivializing terrible behaviors.
- In particular, step beyond simplistic labels and false shortcuts to knowledge in order to truly grasp understanding of the positive motivations and ideals that exist within Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Islamist movement. Such understanding and respect are essential to peace.
- Help all groups to learn about the suffering endured on all sides of the conflict and to develop 360 degrees of empathy and a 360-degree search for truth.
- Encourage programs to help victims of violence on all sides of conflict recover a sense of love, peace of mind, and trust in others.
- Encourage the development of rehabilitation programs to help Israelis and Palestinians who have behaved brutally, to show compassion by getting in their shoes, and to help them regain peace of mind, a peaceful outlook, and opportunities to participate in constructive, non-violent solutions.
- Encourage those on all sides of conflict to engage in positive, cooperative ways of non-violent conflict resolution at every front of conflict with which they find themselves and to build a capacity for these positive types of human dynamics to transfer to all levels of human relations.
- Support the initiation of prejudice reduction programs between Israelis and Palestinians and the many factions within. This should not be pushed quickly or as a demand but suggested as a positive idea for those who are interested in participating. Give these people and programs attention, funding, media attention, enthusiasm, and protection. Studies have shown that indirect programs, in which people from opposing groups are working on a constructive project or recreational activity together, are often more effective than direct instruction against prejudice.
- Without forgetting past horrors experienced by Jews, and without encouraging antisemitism, dislodge the biased perception that Israel is a lamb surrounded by wolves. Get into the shoes of Israelis who feel they’re surrounded by wolves. Get into the shoes of Palestinians who feel they’re surrounded by wolves. But have compassion for them all as lambs.
- Educate Americans on the variety of opinions and fronts of conflict within Israel and the need for these perspectives to be represented in Israel’s government in order to truly support the Israeli people. Educate Americans on the fronts of conflict amongst Palestinians and the need for these perspectives to be represented in government.
- Educate Americans on how one humanitarian disaster replaced another when the suffering of Jews, Romani, Slavs, Communists, and others in the Holocaust was replaced by the suffering of Palestinians—a people who had nothing to do with the Holocaust.
- Educate Americans on the difference between supporting the Israeli people and supporting their government, when that government is unrepresentative of the people but representative instead of one slice of the population, including those ideologically descended from the Hitler-admiring Revisionists and those who believe Israel must be larger in order for people to be “spiritually complete.”
- Educate Americans to not be gullible to the drama that the US government is a noble hero rescuing freedom, democracy, and innocent victims from evil persecutors against whom it must use weapons.
- Encourage 360 degrees of impartial, comprehensive reporting in the US, Israel, Palestine, and worldwide.
- Encourage solution-oriented, vibrant journalism, where journalists interview people from all walks of life—not only leaders and official sources—in order to gather solution ideas and pieces to the puzzle of peace.
- Encourage and give the spotlight to Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups that hope to improve culture and justice at a grassroots level and to Israeli and Palestinian peace groups who are already making wonderful, noteworthy accomplishments.
- Address dynamics of sibling rivalry and superiority and inferiority within cultures and sub-cultures on all levels of society; don’t have a favorite son or a favored nation; don’t view conflict as good guy vs. bad guy; help all groups feel appreciated, valuable, and loved.
- Encourage feelings of self-worth and national worth that do not depend upon superiority. That goes for the United States, as well, as do many of these recommendations.
- Support cooperative dialogue with a variety of groups from all perspectives, including Hamas and Hezbollah, Jewish extremists, Palestinian and Jewish moderates, and Palestinian and Jewish peace groups.
- Don’t exclude anyone from dialogue and negotiation.
2nd Facet legal tools of Justice:
- Impartially uphold international law and the UN Charter; ensure that Israel, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, and Hamas are held accountable to international law.
- Give all people a non-violent means to voice their grievances before an attentive, effective audience so that they don’t feel the need to resort to violence. Protect those who voice grievances.
- Make aid to Israel conditional upon Israel’s adherence to international law, dismantling of the system of apartheid, lifting of the blockade on Gaza, the cessation of illegal settlements, the discontinuation of the occupation of Palestinian territory, the creation of positive, caring relations towards Palestinians, and the protection of all journalists. Such pressure can also help Netanyahu stand up to the extremists of his coalition.
- Make Israel’s cooperative agreements with surrounding nations conditional upon Israel’s adherence to international law, as stated above.
- Restore all rights to Palestinians, including due process and other legal, economic, political, cultural, and social rights, and including rights in Gaza to move in and out of their land, to have water, electricity, medical care, etc., and including ease of transportation to visit other Palestinians.
- Communicate with Palestinian leaders to inform them of the restoration of their rights and their new responsibilities to adhere to international law, cease violence, and encourage cultures of peace.
- Encourage representation of all groups within a two-state or one-state (or six-or-seven-state if needed) solution; stress the importance of not allowing one narrow slice of the population to impose their views upon the entire population; ensure representation of under-represented groups but be careful not to cause those groups who’ve been over-represented in the past feel out in the cold; don’t exclude them; keep a path open for them to show their humanity and impartial sense of justice.
- Encourage and teach cooperative dialogue within executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government using talented facilitators and trainers, as well as within other settings, such as colleges, schools, and neighborhoods.
- Strongly discourage human dynamics of domination. Discourage the creation of governments in which those Israelis and Palestinians come to power who like to dominate those of another religion/ethnicity/political group and those of their own religion/ethnicity/political group.
- With regard to the US government, publicly stand up to AIPAC. Communicate to the American public AIPAC’s degree of control over elections and foreign policy and AIPAC’s ideology. Don’t allow AIPAC to over-represent its narrow group of supporters, and don’t allow AIPAC or anyone else to purchase policymakers and policies. This is not democratic. It’s plutocratic—wealth is ruling!
- Determine whether any US aid to Israel is used directly or indirectly to support AIPAC.
- Give other Jewish groups and Palestinian groups more time to communicate with legislators. Really put a microphone to the voices of American and Israeli Jews whose perspectives are not like Netanyahu, his extremist government, and the Likud party.
- Suggest using political borders, if needed, to separate groups that wish to have greater or complete autonomy—not only the major groups of Israelis and Palestinians, but also religious, ethnic, or political sects within those groups.
- Do not make the traditional US government mistake of allowing desires for “strategic” alliances against rivals to cause the US government to abandon ship on principles! For example, the US government should not overlook the Israeli government’s violations of international law and its system of apartheid in order to have a loyal ally against Iran, Russia, or China. Instead, the US government should condemn these violations and also seek cooperative dialogue and cooperative, integrative negotiation with these so-called enemies. Abandoning ship on principles, such as suppressing nationalism in Northern Africa in order to support WWI or WWII imperialist allies, or violating Iran’s and Iraq’s sovereignty and neutrality during WWII by invading them to access their oil—all for the allegedly “greater goal” of winning a war—always leads to humanitarian disasters and behaviors of extreme injustice—as does the war itself.
3rd Facet physical tools of Physical Control:
- Dismantle nuclear weapons and/or require inspections of Israeli nukes.
- Do not have double standards of merrily allowing Israel to have 80 or so covert nukes, considering it sensibly appropriate for the US to have 4,000 overt nukes, and then insisting that North Korea is an evil menace for having 12 and Iran should never be allowed to have one! Focus on dismantling the US nuclear arsenal. 4,000 is overkill. Focus on dismantling Israel’s arsenal: it makes Muslims and Arabs nervous—and many others around the world, including Americans!
- Reduce military aid to Israel, not as a punishment, but in order to help make Israel learn to create peace and security without the heavy 3rd Facet dependence on weapons. Even at the time of Israel’s creation, had the emphasis been upon 1st Facet relations between Jews and Muslims/Arabs rather than upon 2nd Facet pieces of signed papers and laws and 3rd Facet secret armies and militaries, there would have been a much greater chance of peace.
- Do not have so-called “special relationships” with nations such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, where US weapons seem to be traded in exchange for these nations doing the US president’s bidding in other parts of the world behind the backs of the US Congress and American people.
- Encourage and insist upon significant and continued human rights training and monitoring of Israeli and Palestinian troops, prison guards, and interrogators; monitor behavior and hold individuals accountable to law. Be sure that such training also creates positive relations towards those being trained, in order to help role model caring, respectful relations that recognize the dignity of each person’s spirit. Help instill caring for the dignity of all people within Israeli and Palestinian culture.
I hope these ideas are of some help to those interested in reforming US foreign policy towards Israel, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian and Jewish people. These ideas are from my unpublished works on US foreign policy, but, given the critical state the world is in,[7] I felt that it was more important to provide these ideas now online, in case they are useful, rather than wait for publication. Thank you for reading and caring.
Kristin Christman has been independently researching US foreign policy and peace since 9/11. Her channel focuses on US-Russian relations at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuNEw9-10lk-CwU-5vAElcg. Kristin graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a BA in Russian, and she holds Master’s degrees in Slavic languages from Brown University and public administration from SUNY Albany. She has been a guest with former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter and UNAC coordinator Joe Lombardo on Cynthia Pooler’s program, Issues that Matter, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDlaLNJih7U. Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice recently published her article on suicide, culture, and peace in their special edition on suicide, Vol. 33 No. 4. [email protected]
[1] Russia Today, “US records surge in anti-Semitism,” Oct. 25, 2023, https://www.rt.com.
[2] Lev Golinkin, “Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are on the March in Ukraine,” Nation, Feb. 22, 2019, https://www.thenation.com;
Josh Cohen, “Commentary: Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Problem,” Reuters, Mar. 19, 2018, https://www.reuters.com.
[3] Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1989), 27-28;
Eric Lichtblau, “In Cold War, US Spy Agencies Used 1000 Nazis,” New York Times, Oct. 26, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com;
NPR, Terry Gross, Host, Interview of Eric Lichtblau, “How Thousands of Nazis Were ‘Rewarded’ with Life in the US,” Nov. 5, 2014, https://www.npr.org.
[4] James D. Cockcroft, Latin America: History, Politics, and US Policy (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1998), 552.
[5] Michael Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007), 423, 426, 485-89, 491-93, 512-13, 527.
[6] Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California, 1985).
[7] Dennis Kucinich, “Thou Shalt NOT Kill,” Oct. 27, 2023, https://denniskucinich.substack.com.
