By Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
Leaders who could not Think as Normal Human Beings
Leaders who view humanity less than in equal human status are extremely naive about their own nature of being a human – lacking moral, spiritual and intellectual act of balancing the consciousness“ or engaged in competitive numbers games to elevate their own image in global power and influence over others. They use dynamics of absolutism and aggressive behaviour to manipulate the weak and helpless people.
“Man (human being) was created by God in the best possible mould”, explains the Divine narrative but human diversity is a natural phenomenon and its consequences are far beyond the conception of right and wrong or virtue and vice. People and nations strive to compete for triumph and glory implying varied methods of political power, media propaganda, psychological and other weapons of mass destruction. Ironically, human minds with normal consciousness would not pursue tyranny, aggressive behavior, killings and destruction of other nations, cultures and civilizations.It is the abnormal mind, political power, greed, and hatred and sometimes ethnic supremacy that makes them to act irrationally and abnormally worst than wild beasts.
The living Earth maintains 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen to support all forms of life and technology on this planet. We hold moral and spiritual solidarity as a foundation of the sanctity of life and unanimity of mankind. All human beings are composed of material and spiritual factors to flourish life. If they breathe oxygen and heart beats, God is there. Is there an individualistic psychological, moral and spiritual problem of balancing act with PM Netanyahu and President Joe Biden to act normally for an immediate ceasefire and peace in Gaza? Both have unique characteristics to be analyzed and reflected for being indifferent to peace and supportive of war on Gaza and killings of almost 36,000 or more innocent people and some 15,000 children and women and reportedly some 14, 000 children and women still buried in various locations of Gaza. If Netanyahu claims some morality-how treacherous it is used to bomb places of worship, hospitals and make the Gazan civilians starve for several months. Biden in a US Presidential election year and Netanyahu for his own political survival appear to be competing for glory and success by using wrong thinking, wrong methods and for the wrong reasons. Wars and bombing and destruction of mankind do not produce peace and societal harmony, be it in Israel, Palestine or the US.
Masses against War as Wars do not Produce Peace and Harmony
The voices of public consciousness echo across many continents to “ Stop the War in Gaza”, “Let Palestinians Live”, and stop the “Crimes against Humanity by America and Israel.” No wonder who listens to these inner voices of humanity when unabated bombardments are destroying lives and human habitats without any accountability. The ICJ asking for a halt to the war and the ICC threat of the arrest warrants of Israeli leaders went unnoticed.
This weekend, Israeli media reported more than 120,000 citizens in Tel Aviv demanding removal of PM Netanyahu, the end of war on Gaza and safe return of 134 hostages. The center of sadistic gravity and vengeance is PM Netanyahu and his war cabinet and dynamic syntax to command the world is the White House.
Life itself is a trial to people and nations and imbued with a rational choice to be righteous or evil monger on this planet. Are there any lessons to be learned from formative history? Do human cultures and civilizations grow out of the maligned proclamations of rule of law, freedom, justice, cruelty, occupation and conquest of other lands? The Earth is a sacred trust to mankind and is a living organ floating in space by the Will of God and sustains all life and aggressors are warned by the Divine injunction: “Say! Travel through the earth; And see what the end of those was who rejected Truth.” The emerging wars and destruction of Earth and human habitats across Gaza and beyond are blatant violations of that TRUST between Man and God and call for awakening of human conscience and soul: “Truly Man is to his Lord, ungrateful and that (fact) he bears witness (by his deeds.): 6-7: 100: The Qur’an).
Political Wickedness and Human Nature
Is wickedness part of human nature? Man by nature seems to be a ‘contentious’ being. A rational conflict analysis and search for peace involves listening and learning to divergent viewpoints and finding a common place of reasoning without agreeing or disagreeing to stop the warfare. This shows effective communication and enlightened leadership traits. Why do leaders become aggressive and act like egomaniacs? Simply put, they lack their own mind, intellect and sense of rational being and heavily rely on advisors to make decisions or they fear the unknown to be replaced or their inner weaknesses overwhelm their strengths to act irrationally in situations of crisis.
I asked this question to many distinguished international scholars including Robert Burrowes and Robert (Bob) Koehler to know and enlighten the knowledge-based curiosity. Often reason has its limits but knowledge knows no bound and global affairs are a shared enterprise. Professor Robert J. Burrowes and Anita (Australia),need no introduction as scholars and Coordinator of the “Global Non-Violence Peace Movement”:
“Often I wonder, why do people become aggressive and act in inhuman ways that conflict with the Nature of Things.”…. “One view is essentially the concept of “POWER” , late Prof Hans Margenthau was right , ‘absolute power corrupts all the people , all the time.’… Aggressive people THINK of their own EGO (self) being the power (political absolutism),without any accountability, and that leads
them to commit all types of crimes against fellow human beings.
Robert and Anita Responded: You pose what are really ‘eternal’ questions. That is, you raise issues that have troubled humanity from the dawn of ‘civilization’ if not much earlier. ‘How do we communicate to such powerful people to make them THINK as normal human beings?’ Frankly, I do not believe it is possible to meaningfully communicate with such people which is why I spend no time trying to do so. The reason flows from my answer to another question you pose: ‘why do people become aggressive and act in inhuman ways that conflict with the Nature of Things.’ The second question you posed was one that fascinated me from a young age. After some 30 years researching it, Anita and I went into seclusion in 1996 to undertake some deep emotional healing. It took 14 years but taught us a great deal.
Bob Koeheler – a Chicago-based well known journalist shared his stance (“A WORLD UNDER SPIRITUAL CONSTRUCTION”): I think the only answer is transcending war!! War begins with — and is not possible without – dehumanization. “These are human animals,” as Yoav Gallant said.
Israeli and American Collaborative Crimes against Humanity and ‘Genocide’
To glance ahead it seems that the Western world failed to see a dreadful tragic history in the making of the end of time and loss of ingenuity to understand the consequences of naive egoism of Israeli leadership making war as an instrument of territorial expansion in the Middle East. Human glory lives in the conception of good and righteousness, not in wickedness and genocidal plans. Rationally arguable conclusion to the war on Gaza was perceivable if there was a unified political-military challenge to the Israeli plans by the Arab-Muslim world. That landscape appears morally, intellectually and politically bankrupt as a scum floating on a torrent of naive puppets and discredited leaders. The American-Israeli collaborative war on Gaza and its immediate consequences made the Western world and all of its institutions shamefully redundant and void in the 21st century global norms of civility, human rights, freedom, justice and safety of civilians – whereas crimes against humanity are captured in obscure impulses and indecision and deliberate inaction by the UNO and the Security Council. Mocking its Charter obligations, the UN Security Council failed to protect the civilians from terror of daily bombardments of hospitals and places of worship. Peter Koenig (“Gaza: US and the West Support Israel’s Crimes Against Humanity: Understanding the Never-Ending Conflict”, Global Research: 11/06/23), explains: Israel’s PM Netanyahu is a war criminal and should be held accountable for war crimes throughout his PM-ship of Israel, according to the 1945 / 1946 Nuremberg trials criteria. His crimes against humanity, against a defenseless Palestine are comparable to the Holocaust. https://www.globalresearch.ca/gaza-us-west-supports-israel-crimes-against-humanity/5745763
[Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and has spent several academic years across the Russian-Ukrainian and Central Asian regions knowing the people, diverse cultures of thinking and political governance and a keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. 12/2019.]
