Aloha! Welcome to my mental health blog, a kind place for all who seek to do some good in this world! Sit back and relax. You will find posts about books, movies, series, documentaries, psychotherapy, language learning, parenting, short stories, novels, relationships & little bits about my expat life as a teacher & coach in Bratislava, Slovakia. May you feel at home here. Be in touch. Much love, William
My language has become less inflammatory. I know I won’t win any hearts and minds with words like ‘ZioNazis’, ‘baby killers’, ‘genocide lovers’, etc. I confess I now think I was contributing to the spread of hatred by using those terms. Even if my intention was to stop the loss of life.
Before we started talking I was ready to believe any news that represented the Palestinians favorably and the Israelis unfavorably. I have been more careful about reacting to events when it’s not entirely clear what has just happened. For example I was immediately convinced Israel bombed a hospital and thought the idea that a Palestinian rocket misfired and hit a parking lot was ludicrous. Now am not so sure any more. In general I have also accepted that I simply don’t know many things. This has – in one or two cases – led me to become estranged from some pro-Palestinian voices who are still like the old me.
I have questioned my own beliefs more and wondered they come from
In general I am more careful about what to accept as fact, not just on this topic, though there are not many topics I follow that are as contentious as this one
I stil make jokes about the Israeli army, I made one the other day (How do you stop 5 Israeli soldiers from going to a strip club? Throw them a Palestinian kid to fuck with.), but before I was ready to believe any accusation against the Israeli army at face value and would scoff at any positive news surrounding the Israeli army.
I have been willing to listen to opinions that are diametrically opposed to my own. For example, with a lot of reluctance, I have listened to what ‘The son of Hamas’, a former Israeli secret agent, has had to say
You will never see me with an Israeli lapel pin, but I am convinced more than ever that dialogue solves problems. Today I saw the title of one YouTube channel. The title was ‘dialogue works’ and I felt that.