Their untruth is not only born from their wish to confuse us
Let’s look at different scenarios, each rooted in inappropriate feelings.
Believers in Their Fear
Victims turned victimizers
Viciously attacked as babies, they’ll fight to the death anyone who reminds them of who they were: sweet, vulnerable, and innocent. In their old survival panic, they confuse roles and now act out what was done to them.
Alternatively, they decided: I was abused and will never let anyone close enough to be able to hurt me again. Fascinated by vulnerable people, they want them close, but as soon as they are, they have to fight them. They feel endangered. They feel the victim—again.
Disbelieving Their Inferiority
Underdogs turned arrogant
Good for them for refusing to see themselves as less, even when generations before them settled for inferiority.
The adult variation of the above. They were also crushed as grownups. No more. No one will overpower us anymore. We will be in charge. And since our rage is justified, anything we do will be just and prove we’re better.
Believing Others’ Hatred
Fooled bystanders
They fight a fear of being evil by labeling other people as wicked. Wanting them dead would make them holy. (Other) Jews as the ideal scapegoats.
Their goal is not to love or help the people in Gaza. Their goal is not even to hate or destroy the Jews. They only thing the want is to be recognized as benign and good, no matter how many Jews they must kill to claim that.
Power Seekers
Their methods may be evil, but they must see their motives as good
Overpowering people to never feel powerless again. Hurting people to feel powerful again or to ‘correct’ what alleged villains did to ‘them’ (revenge).
In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, this Shabbat.
The Latest in the Abuse by the United Nations
PS: Even Nazi Germany never had the chutzpa to accuse the Jews of genocide, but the UN political ‘court’ is debating if Israel is committing extermination by chasing Chamas terrorists while sparing Gazan civilians. It seems wrong that Israel even made any effort to defend itself. When this ‘court’ convicts the Jewish State, it only shows its outlandish depravity.
The International Court of Justice just ruled, only quoting senior UN officials (not the lawyers who participate in the mock genocide trial). They exaggerated the situation in Gaza, uncritically quoted Chamas, and did not differentiate between the suffering caused by the IDF and Chamas.
A prime example of misrepresentation was the claim that the IDF bombardments caused massive civil displacements which is the opposite of the truth. The IDF urges the population to move out of harm’s way, so enabling it to target the terrorists with minimal collateral human injury.
It also cherry-picked Israeli officials’ words giving a fully distorted picture.
The head of the ‘court’ quoted that to satisfy the definition of genocide a substantial number of group members’ survival might be at stake. She noted that 2500 people died in Gaza of over two million Gazans. It did not stop the court from ruling and telling Israel to refrain from genocide.
The ‘court’ did not in one sentence differ between the Chazan population and Chamas terrorists. Israel must not harm groups of Palestinians!
The Israeli judge was often the only one (or one of two) who found it not just to call upon Israel to prevent genocide and stop incitement to commit genocide. The ‘court’ has accomplished to humiliate itself.
It did call for the immediate and unconditional release of the people kidnapped by Chamas and similar groups. That will not do anything.
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. *
As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. *
This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. *
Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. *
Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. *
He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. *
He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. *
He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. *
His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. *
To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. *
His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1