From: L. Michael Hall
2023 Neurons #47
October 30, 2023
* What I write is my opinion, and mine only. *
The Israel- Hamas War #3
A Psychological Solution
**
The Israel–Hamas War
ARAB COUNTRIES—
SAVE THE PALESTINIANS
When Palestinians were urged to get out of Gaza, go south, get away from the places where Hamas sends rockets, I assumed that Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations would come together and create a pathway for the Palestinians to find safe harbor until the war is over. But no. Instead I was shocked to hear that Egypt had closed the border and would not let them in. I didn’t understand why.
One explanation I heard was that Egypt already had too many refugees. Whether that’s true or not, the flood of refugees from Syria didn’t stop the countries north of Syria when thousands poured out across that border into other countries. I then wondered why the other countries were not calling for the refugees to come to them. Then I heard the former Ambassador to the United Nations say that the Arab countries do not want the Palestinians because they cannot vet them. They cannot tell who is part of the Hamas terrorist organization (by the way, Hamas has been declared a terrorist organization by the US govrnment and many other governments since 1997; I didn’t invent that one!). She said that the Arab countries don’t want to take the chance of bringing in a lot of terrorists to their country.
As I considered that, it struck me that creating a safe haven for the Palestinians is just “a problem to solve,” that’s all. Perhaps the other countries could simply detain all of them so that they are safe and away from the war. After that they could interview them for extremism (because that is the problem). Any well-trained NLP person could figure that out. Interview them for black-and-white thinking, for over-generalizations, for either/or thinking. That would be a place to begin. Someone thinking with those thinking patterns would not be engaged in humanitarian thinking, compassionate thinking, or solution-focused thinking.
Any well-trained NLP practitioner knows how to interview someone regarding beliefs and values. They could interview about emotional states, degrees of hate, prejudice, care, compassionate, forgiveness, etc. Vetting people could occur after they are in a safe place.
Then yesterday I read an email which attempted to explain why other Arab nations will not open their borders to the suffering and fleeing Palestinians.
“Here’s the actual reason. Arab countries will not permit Israel’s plan to evacuate Palestinians from their land. We know the zionist plan by heart. It’s the same ongoing plan since 1948 when homes were forcefully taken from Palestinians and settlements have been expanded and more land stolen continuously since then. Palestinians will not leave their land because they know the agenda.”
Even on the surface, that statement makes no sense. It sounds like a Logical Fallacy to me. To ask for the borders to be open and Arab countries provide a temporary place for refugees is equated to “letting Israel evacuate Palestine!” If this is true it essentially says, “As an Arab country, we are putting our ideology above people. Let the people suffer and die rather than provide them a safe haven.” Really?
Let’s see. For all of the outcries about the killings, deaths, and brutality of Israel’s bombing of Hamas, they would prefer the Palestinians to become martyrs to an ideology than provide safety??! That’s not care! That’s not compassion! That’s not a humanitarian response to the suffering. That is valuing an idea/ ideology in someone’s head over human life.
While I still do not know why, the psychological solution is still this: “Open your borders. Create a safe haven for the Palestinians until the war is over.” Once you have a place where they have food, water, shelter, where they can be safe, then vet them. Then distinguish those who are terrorists in their hearts from those who just want to live their lives in peace.
Then after the war, let’s introduce good healthy NLP training for Palestinians and all who have suffered. Traiing them first in trauma recovery— to get the hurt out of the mind, emotions, and body. We can do that! We have the models and technology to achieve that. Next, we can train people in resilience. I developed a Resilience Model using Meta-States in 1994 and it has proven effective for the past 30 years.
Next, we could train people to be personally and socially resourceful—capable of being an “agent” in one’s own life and empowering others, and not as victims. Next, with that inner power— we could train acceptance, tolerance, and forgiveness as personal resources for getting over the past.
All of this is possible if we have the vision, the courage, and the willingness. There are Arab NLP and Neuro-Semantic trainers who can do this, who are skilled in being able to make this happen. When the war is over, and Hamas is out of the way, let’s do this! I am certainly willing to go and offer trainings in trauma recovery, resilience, and meta-therapy.
Afterword: Some reading my posts have accused me of hating the Palestinians and siding with Israel against them. Anyone who draws that conclusion does so in spite of what I wrote. So more bluntly: I am for the Palestinians! And for the Israelis! What I’m against Terrorist Organizations such as Hamas, ISIS, etc. I’m against hatred, intolerance, prejudice, revenge, killing, brutality, justifying revenge, etc.—everything that violates human dignity and value.