Unity is “good,” but we have to learn how to build it and keep it!
An article in The Jerusalem Post:
My comment:
It is all true.
Still, when the existential threat and collective grief are gone, we will all revert to the recurring “unfounded hatred” that has been causing all our disasters throughout Jewish history.
We all know that it will also happen this time when the conditions that forced us to unite will change.
Why can’t we keep our unity when it is “good” and it gives us the strength to defend ourselves?
Why do we forget about our unity as soon as it is not immediately crucial for our survival?
Unity and “living another as ourselves” and living through “mutual guarantee” are totally against our inherently self-serving, self-justifying, exploitative, and hateful nature or the human ego.
Instinctively, we can make calculations only for ourselves, and we actually cherish existing and prospering at the expense of others.
Thus, we unite only when our ego and self-service benefit from it.
This is not a “Jewish specialty”; all individuals and nations live like that. This is why humanity stands at the brink of self-destruction, the same way Israel was heading for civil war before the Hamas attack.
Without consciously and purposefully learning and practicing how to exist and behave above and against our inherent nature before we learn and practice how to neutralize the instinctive mutual “unfounded hatred” with true and lasting “unfounded brotherly love” — that is not necessitated by selfish reasons — nothing will change and Israel’s and humanity’s survival remains in danger!