By Immanuel Suttner

The only one I didn't like was from Shamir and I guess the guy is feeling a lot of pain and anger and insecurity, and doesn't quite know what to do with it all. The fact that he sounds like he's quoting from Mein Kampf is not in the least bit remarkable - all hatred seems to be driven by the same basic stuff.

I myself am a Labour supporter, and have a lot of irrational resentments re the right wing and the haredim. But I acknowledge that these prejudices are irrational and arbitrary and almost a form of denial of the ongoing realities being formed anew each day.

I think respect and non-judgementalness and openess to what life brings are better ways of dealing with hurt caused by the gap between our expectations and what the reality actually is than are resentment, blaming, and making others "wrong" and ourselves "right". In the end things are the way we are - we can work with them, or we can go into denial and insist that they "should" be otherwise. Well, if the "should" be otherwise, why aren't they ?

Nothing good comes from resentment. When political discourse gets dominated by resentment, in generates seperateness, fear and misunderstanding, rather than communication, connection and creativity. I think Israelis in general are driven by a lot of fear, and are making decisions not based on what is in the moment, but on baggage from the past and fears about an unknown future. This is handycapping our ability to be creative and respond freshly. The cure is compassion, constant recognition of the humanity of the 'other" (this applies for all bifurcations - Likud/Labour, Dati/Chiloni, Moslem-Jew, Palestinian/Israeli,rich/poor/ashkenazi/sepharadi). The cure is also letting go of the people we have on our "resentment list." All the people "who do it wrong", "mess things up", the people who we know better than them which is "the right way.".

The primary victim of resentment is not the individual or group resented, but the one who does the resenting. Resentment ( which gives the resenter a feeling of illusory power over the resented, and also a sanctimonious 'holier than thou' glow of self justification for their position) stifles effectiveness, true power, the ability to love and grow and genuinely impact on others. Resentment is what drives all conflicts in the Middle East, and indeed everywhere. You don't have to solve the macro-problems either - just start by dumping the resentment you feel towards your wife/husband/boss/employee/child/parent and you'll experience how much easier it becomes again to breathe, to feel gratitude for the way things are, and to get on with making your vision of how things could be (not "should be") real. We all tend to get lost in stuff "out there" and ignore the stuff "in here" Isn't it time we came home for a while, and cleaned up the house.

There is a pasuk which makes this clear: "Lehanchil Ohavei Yesh, otzaroteyhem emalei" Those that love the "yesh", what is, their treasure chests are filled up (with joy, gratitude, lightness of being, willingness to more fully express and share themselves) Politics is a game; we use it as a vehicle in our efforts to express and individuate ourselves; in the end it all fades away and we are left with our "I" the "Ani". That's what Hillel was talking about in Mesecht Sukka when he said "If "I" am not here then nothing is here, but if "I" am here then everything is here."

In the end, as at the beginning, we are not the Labour party or the Likud, not the Israeli's and not The Palestinians, not the Jews and Not the Goyim, not capitalists or communists, poets or plebians, anshei tzedek or anshei ruach, nor do we stand or fall by the ideologies we identify with at one stage or another of our lives. In the end we are our "I",beautiful, pure, strong, loving compassionate and free.

As the Baal Shem Tov said, remembering brings redemption. Remembering what we really are redeems us from the heaviness of blind identification with limited things like ideologies, political parties, faith and ethnic groups. Fine, play the game, but don't forget who you are. Or, to slightly change the words normally written above the aron HaKodesh: Da Mi Omeyd -- Know who is standing. Once you've sorted that out, you can worry about the "other."