Who’s the Real Enemy in the Russian-Georgian War?

We can point fingers in any direction, but we won’t find the enemy anywhere “out there,” because it’s sitting right inside of us. Kabbalah offers a new tactic to counter its offensive

It's Not Just Georgia's Business

The war between Russia and Georgia would seem to be just another regional conflict, considering that most of us have never heard of the territories under debate - South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But just like everything else in the era of globalization, the whole world is taking part in this conflict and everyone is concerned about its consequences.

"It is important that the entire world understands that what is happening in Georgia now will affect the entire world order," said Georgian Cabinet Minister Temur Yakobashvili. "It's not just Georgia's business, but the entire world's business" (TIME Magazine). All the participants of this strategic game have something to lose or something to gain, and accordingly, their own opinions on who’s right and who’s wrong in this war.

The United States relies on the support of Georgian troops in Iraq. Europe depends on Russia heavily for energy supplies. Israel has long standing ties with Georgia, but also needs Russia as an ally to counter the threat of Iran’s nuclear program. Eastern European countries such as Poland are highly dependent on Russia for resources, yet they are also most susceptible to being bullied by their “older brother.”

These are just some of the considerations that nations have when forming their opinions on whom to support in this war - and media coverage reflects this complexity. There is no shortage of opinions on what’s really happening in the Caucasus region, how many casualties there are to date, who’s right and who’s wrong, why this war began in the first place, and what its eventual, long-term outcome will be. But what is really the cause of this war, and who is really to blame?

Know Your Enemy

From Kabbalah’s viewpoint, no matter how you interpret the facts and whom you blame, everyone involved are victims of the biggest aggressor of all—our own human egoism.

While political experts, economic analysts, ethnologists and other specialists are hunched over their desks composing intricate reports, they are simply looking in the wrong place. They are judging the external consequences, but ignoring the inner cause.

Human egoism is the invisible, scheming culprit that causes people to fight, nations to collide, and scores of innocent civilians to become casualties of war. Egoism is a force that’s rooted within us by nature, and as long as we are driven by it, we will continue to engage in wars and irreconcilable conflicts.

The Road to Peace

In fact, our egoism itself will make us realize that we have to detach from it. But if we keep waiting for this process to happen by itself, we make room for greater conflicts and wars, which are becoming more and more global as we speak. Continuing on this path, our egoism will corner us with great suffering, and nevertheless force us to acknowledge that we have to rise above it.

Kabbalah offers another path—transformation by choice. Instead of waiting for suffering to convince us to let go of egoism, we can independently rise above the egoism and start resolving our differences from a higher level of awareness. Taking this path, we will go through a smooth and pleasant development toward a new world of reciprocity and bestowal.

Kabbalah offers the method by which everyone can learn how to transcend egoism and systematically develop a new sense of our reality.

Just as the war’s outcomes are everyone’s business, its cause is everyone’s responsibility. Therefore, the Kabbalists’ pragmatic approach is to openly disseminate the one method that can lift us above our hostile egoism, and lead us into a peaceful reality.