Is There a Cure for Cynicism Today?

I fight like crazy these days to refrain from cynicism. I am by nature a pretty pleasant person. I want to see good in everyone. I love to laugh, to feel joy, to delight in life. I try to manage my anger, take a deep breath, and stay calm. It doesn’t always work.

For instance, I’m thinking now how I would rather watch every tedious moment of the entire Royal Wedding than to have had to watch five seconds of the celebration of moving our American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and listening to Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress pray.

I have thoughts on that. But I’m holding back. They are not kind thoughts. They stir in me that image that Nick Lowe sings about, “The beast in me is caged by frail and fragile bars.” I’m trying to hold the locks in place.

I have Jewish friends that I cherish. I honor them and their faith. Judaism is a historic system of beautiful beliefs. But what has gone on in Israel under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu is something I find grossly offensive. And our American complicity in that horror, our endless support of it, while completely ignoring the plight of the Palestinians, deeply disappoints and disturbs me.

How, according to news reports, a majority of evangelical Christians fully identify with Mr. Trump, Mr. Netanyahu, and Rev. Jeffress, leaves me bewildered and exasperated. I don’t get it. Any of it. It boggles the mind. Jeffress uses Netanyahu to advance his personal ambitions as an evangelical. Netanyahu uses Jeffress to sanitize his corruption and heartlessness. And Trump, who has no idea what Zionism, Premillennialism, Judaism, or Islam even mean, simply uses both Jeffress and Netanyahu to solidify his radical base and to claim himself as a leader.

I know the politics of all of this is murky. I understand that Hamas and other militant groups manipulate the news, and their people to try and win support. But the overwhelming domination of Israel over Palestinians is simply unjust and cruel. The endless blockades of food, medicine, and other essentials by the Israeli government punish only Palestinian individuals and families not involved in terrorism or any other kind of violence against Jews. And it only enrages Hamas and other militant leaders. There is not under Netanyahu the slightest effort to recognize any Palestinian as deserving humane treatment.

The cold irony is that the slow disintegration of an entire race of people, the Palestinian Arabs, perpetrated by the Netanyahu government, is the very thing the Jewish Prime Minister supposedly cannot forget or forgive Hitler and the Nazis for doing to his people during WWII.

Apparently, an eye for an eye, hate for hate, death for death is acceptable to the Israeli leadership and government. Why America tolerates, funds, and militarily supports such a primitive and futile policy baffles me.

The ancient rabbis taught that when a Jew saw someone deformed, ugly in some way, perhaps even cruel, they should recite a blessing that reminds them that every person is a creature of God, and that beneath whatever the offensiveness may be, that person was formed in the image of God and possessed within them God’s love.

I am not a Jew. But I am straining to practice this myself. If Mr. Netanyahu, President Trump, Rev. Jeffress, our political and religious leaders, and all of us made an effort to do it, we might find a way to mutual respect. And ultimately, a way toward peace in the Middle East.

A pipe dream, you say? Foolish Pollyanna thinking? The ingredient of weakness?

Well, what else is there, beyond more bloodshed, devastation, and death? And for many of us, more incurable cynicism.

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The Unclad Soul

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