A young male patient was referred to me because he was failing in college. He was terribly frustrated and angry. In fact, his primary affective state was anger which he tried to deal with by drinking too much and smoking marijuana. When he drank, he became disinhibited, as people tend to do when suffused with ethanol, and his anger would lead him to find provocations and irritations everywhere around him. Typically, the greatest irritation would be found emanating form the largest male at the bar. Often fighting ensued. Unfortunately for this unhappy young man, he was deficient in physical stature and strength and consistently emerged from the bar at a high rate of speed, liberally spouting blood from his many and varied lacerations.
More unfortunately, this young man not only did not see his anger as a problem but he also did not connect his drinking and smoking to his travails in school. He had only come in for an evaluation because his parents had forced him and announced that since he had nothing wrong with him, he had no real need of my services. I told him I didn't know enough about him to speculate on the source of his anger but did think it odd that he was untroubled by the fact that his anger so consistently boomeranged. While he directed his anger at the world, and it always felt justified, in the end his anger always seemed to end up hurting him more than the person he was ostensibly angry at. It was a puzzle to me and I wondered if he was puzzled by such a seeming contradiction as well. He paused and mused that he had never thought about it before but it certainly seemed that I was correct. At that point, I had a patient.
My patient was enraged with the unfairness of his life and could not contain his anger. As a result he was also quite self-destructive (both because the anger was projected and re-introjected and because of deeply ambivalent feelings toward his self- and internal-objects.) As a result, his anger injured him much more than it injured those he felt had hurt him. He scared friends and potential friends away, could never keep a girlfriend for very long, and as noted, tended to get himself beaten up when disinhibited. This young man was perfectly capable of destroying himself because he could not let go of his anger.
I often think of this young man when considering the behavior of the easily offended and chronically enraged, especially our Arab and Muslim enemies. For example, we have already seen that al Qaeda in Iraq has long since run out the patience of the Iraqis who should have been their allies but whom they have thoroughly alienated. Two new items suggest that angry boomerangs may be the weapons of choice in two other areas of interest. The first item is from Israel and offers an interesting suggestion:
IDF General in Reserves:'Do-Nothing Approach Will Destroy Hamas'
While Israel's top defense and political echelons debate whether to attack Hamas or agree to a ceasefire, at least one top general feels a third option is available: Doing nothing.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the other ministers of the security cabinet are to meet later Wednesday to decide how to respond to the nearly-daily Hamas rocket-and-shelling attacks on southern Israel. A possible ceasefire has been on the table for months, as has an all-out military option. The drawback of the former is that it will enable Hamas to gear up and strengthen itself for the next round of fighting, while the second option is liable to cause many IDF casualties - and re-energize Hamas.
General Yoram Yair, who has headed several military inquiries in past years, such as the death of the soldier Madhat Yusuf at Joseph's Tomb during the early days of the Oslo War and the performance of the army's Division 91 during the Second Lebanon War, says there is a third option. "Gritting our teeth and leaving the current situation as is can lead to the collapse of Hamas," he told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine.
Hamas continues to attack Israel, firing at least 18 mortar shells at the western Negev on Tuesday, causing no injuries.
"Our problem is that we don't have a long-term policy,"Gen. Yair said, "but rather respond to momentary pressures without seeing the whole picture. The true picture in Gaza today is that the population there is in terrible straits. People are fueling their cars with cooking oil instead of gas, there are shortages of food and the like, and the suffering is great. Hamas is dependent on public support, and it is in big trouble. For the first time in a while, a Palestinian Authority poll has found that support for Fatah's Abu Mazen is greater than that of Haniyeh of Hamas."
"It won't be us that will topple Hamas," Yair said, "but rather the [people of Gaza] themselves."
He explained that the two options currently being considered would only help Hamas: "A ceasefire would enable the opening of the crossings into Gaza and the delivery of food and the like, taking all pressure off Hamas, while an Israeli attack would cause the population to rally around Hamas and thus strengthen it - which is something that no one in Israel wants to see."
"In my opinion," Yair said, "a few months more of the status quo - with targeted killings, military pressure on Hamas, etc. - and Hamas will collapse."
Palestinians are an enraged people, wronged by the hated and demeaned Jews, nurturing their hatred and rage for generations. Without being able to kill Jews, their rage has been turned inward and the bloodletting in Gaza, rarely reported int he MSM, has proceeded apace. Elder of Ziyon keeps a running tally of Palestinians killed by other Palestinians; today's report:
Work accident, plus other Gaza news
A "mysterious explosion" occurred this morning in the house of the Hamouda family in Beit Hanoun, killing at least 4 (Ma'an breaking news) and injuring dozens.
Hamouda is a member of Hamas.
Most Palestinian Arab news sites reported it as an ambiguous explosion initially; Palestine Today has started blaming an Israeli airstrike, but Israel denies any actions in the area of the explosion today. Hamas is now blaming Israel as well.
Our 2008 PalArab self-death count climbs to 89.
Meanwhile, Hamas raided a wedding last night, beating celebrants, because they were playing Fatah tunes.
Hamas also arrested many Fatah members commemorating the first anniversary of Hamas' execution of the late, lamented Jamal Abu Billygoats and his brother Majid.
While such deaths do not count in the international or Arab press, they reflect the reality of hatred run amok in a confined area. When one is enraged and the "proper" victim is unavailable, the rage needs expression, and the phrase "any port in a storm" comes to mind.
A short distance north of Gaza, the failing state of Lebanon and its state within a state of Hezbollah may offer an alternative expression of the same thing. GrandMasta Splash has some details:
Abu Muqawama’s Londastani has a good post(Where From Now) on the post-Iraq future of Jihadist militants. One of his comments is particulurily interesting noteworthy:
Note: Purely coincidentally, Londonstani met earlier today with a former colleague and mutual friend of his and Ex’s based in Beirut, who is convinced the country (1) is about to become the focus of serious jihadi activity in the near future. Of course, returning jihadis have already made their presence felt last in Nahr el Bared camp. However, Londonstani’s friend mentioned today that (2)Lebanese intelligence has said it has strong suspicions jihadis are coming to Lebanon with plans to take on Hizbullah.
There are many indicators that Lebanon has the potential to turn into a major Jihadist transit point. For more on this point, consult this recent series on “Al-Qaeda in Lebanon”. One should take the report with a grain of skepticism as it was written by Al-Akhbar, a secular, anti-March 14 and pro-Syrian paper, but it provides so many details about Jihadist logistics that at least some of it has to be true. Londonstani’s second point is also worth noting. A common sentiment expressed by Lebanese Sunnis (not the ones that frequent Beiruti night clubs, more the fundamentalist type), is that Hezbullah is unfairly preventing Sunnis from participating in the campaign against Israel. Geographically and logistically they are in a position to deny Sunnis who want to fight the ability to do so. But since many of the Sunni radicals in Lebanon are Palestinian refugees who are ultimately most interested in fighting Israel, this is a major grievance. Thus, there is a strong incentive for Al-Qaeda types to go after Hezbullah as Londonstani’s friend suggests will happen.
GrandMasta Splash offers some geo-political rationale for a possible Sunni-Shia clash: Sunni and Shia fundamentalists hate each other and see each other as apostates, but they both hate the Jews even more and their fight would be over Hezbollah blocking the Sunnis from leading the battle against Israel. Yet, I think a more basic impulse is that both are filled with hatred and rage and hatred and rage can never be safely internalized. If not expressed such rage leads to despair; if blocked from expression by external forces, it will find an expression in more available venues. If allowed expression, the hatred and rage can only seek further gratification. At the same time such hatred and rage always carries a return address with it because the source is internal, within the person himself. Like a boomerang, such rage always eventually must "return to sender."
As Israel has made itself more and more secure from attack, the almost frenzied dedication to violence among the Arabs in the neighborhood is having an effect. Gaza is a hell hole, not because Israel is cruel, but because Hamas can not allow the population to have any peace or succor. Their rage eats at themselves. Yet, if they succeed at provoking Israel, by a successful expression of hatred (ie, dead Israeli innocents, especially women and children) they will cause untold pain to themselves. If they cannot successfully give up their rage, they will die with their rage.
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