One of David Ghiyam’s messages is that if you judge someone you set yourself up for having to go through what the person you’ve judged is going through.

Most of what he says in interviews makes perfect sense to me, so of course this has me worried, because I judge 1. Arrogant people 2. People who value things over people 3. Israel fans (usually I call them fluffers, a fluffer is someone whose job it is to help maintain the erection of porn stars while the cameras aren’t rolling, but they don’t often don’t get to play a role in the movie itself) 4. Fans of the Democrats who I see as even more duped with less of an excuse than the Republicans, both parties I see as representatives of the exploitative rat racing US system 5. Sometimes people who don’t prioritize their health enough or people who obsess over their health 6. Sticklers for bureaucratic details 7. Dear God, am gonna stop listing right here. I judge all the time. You know why? If we go all the way down the rabbit hole I judge these people so I can emphasize to myself that my parents are amazing people. Sounds weird, but that’s really what’s going on there.

If David is right, and he does tend to be right, am setting myself up for ending up in a joyless violence preaching bubble of my own making, exactly what I judge Israel supporters for.

David urges us to bring light into the world instead of pointing out other people’s sins, no matter how awful those are.

As someone who was schooled in Catholic fashion am well aware that this is what Jesus also said, according to tradition.

See:

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

— Matthew 7:1–5KJV

My first reflex is to assume the message is: if you see evil, look the other way and focus on your own evil, but that I can’t accept.

If want to see Israel stop murdering kids on the regular while claiming it’s actually Hamas that kills kids (just like you am extremely triggered by cynical and hypocritical gaslighting), I should be doing things to bring more well-being into the world. According to spiritual lore attacking and bashing Israeli oppressors and their fan base will only deepen their commitment to be delusional child murderers.

What that could mean for my social media use is that I could solely be promoting the vibrant spirit of the Palestinian, their incredibly disarming sense of humor, their love for their children and family, their boundless hospitality and warmth, etc. If you are at all familiar with Palestinians I don’t need to list it for you.

If a non-judgemental approach to helping the Palestinians is the better approach I sure as hell want to train this.

I’ve been working to refrain from reacting to simplistic insults and to even to genuinely thank the people who send them, because they do help me see even more that the Palestinians are a beacon of hope in this world and that Israel is indeed a generator of darkness and hatred. Even from a Kabbalah perspective their behaviour undermines the Israeli project. People new to this are not going to jump on the Israeli band wagon when they are confronted by so much vicious pro Israel behaviour. If they do darkness, we can do light.

It’s my hope that if Palestinians receive all our energy and pro Israel people can no longer channel their hatred into insult matches online they will either get the space to reflect (I know, unlikely) or they will use their dark energy against each other for lack of targets willing to entertain their egos and Israel will implode.

I’ve shared this story before: David was once confronted by a guy who wanted to know why David never talks about the hostages in Gaza. David responded that the man’s wife was clearly suffering and felt a hostage of him, her own husband. So if he wanted to alleviate the suffering of hostages anywhere in the world he had to first make sure he wasn’t holding his own wife hostage.

So where in my personal life am I being like a typical zionist?

The answer is in my arrogance. So if I want less pro Israeli arrogance in the world I have to work on that.