Lynch mobs do not behave in ways which reward rational responses. When hundreds of angry, fearful people are swept up in the irrational tide of hatred that leads to lynchings, there is no way to reason with them. They "know" that the perpetrators of great crimes are guilty. They don't need any facts and no amount of argumentation will convince them otherwise. In fact, those who have the temerity to oppose the lynch mob are likely to become identified with the victim of the mob and end up injured or murdered in the mob's quest for "justice." The best way to stop the progress of a lynch mob is to specifically single out a leader, point a gun at him, and let him know in no uncertain terms, that if he does not call off the lynching, he will be the first victim of the mob. Of course, any lawman who does such a thing recognizes that he is putting his own life on the line and the outcome is always uncertain; since the mob is caught up in a rage and has left their rationality far behind, the threat can just as easily increase their rage as shock them into rationality again.
This is the dilemma for the Israelis and for their friends in America. Israel is surrounded by the incoherent rage of the lynch mob. Many Israelis, just as many Americans, and even more Europeans, do not want to believe that this is the case. Mitchell Langbert at Democracy Project has posted two Articles by Dr. Alex Grobman, whose recent book, Nations United: How the UN Undermines Israel and the West was published in November 2006. The first article offers this warning:
The lessons learned by early Jewish leaders should not be lost on those in power today. The Arabs have not yet accepted the Jewish right to live in the Land of Israel. Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya made this clear when on December 8, 2006 he declared, 'We will not give up our Jihadist movement until the full liberation of Beit al-Muqqadas [Jerusalem] and Palestinian land.'
Israeli leaders would do well to heed the words of Edmund Burke who said: 'The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.' Appeasement has a place in resolving disputes, he believed, but not in dealing with aggression.
The second article attempts to explain how so many Israeli's can continue to maintain doubt about the intentions of the Arabs who hate and surround them. Dr. Grobman suggests that Israelis suffer from a syndrome akin to an abused child who is dependent on the parent, needs to believe the parent cares for them, and thus accepts that they must have some guilt for the parent's abusive behavior. He underscores how dangerous this fantasy structure can be:
What do the Arabs have to say or do before Jews acknowledge the true extent of Arab hatred and their ultimate goal to obliterate Jewish presence from Israel? Why do Israeli officials lower themselves to meet with a Holocaust denier who also rejects their historical connection to the Land of Israel? In other words, is there any way for us to understand this self-destructive and suicidal conduct?
Kenneth Levin, a clinical psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, offers one of the most credible explanations for this aberrant behavior when he says that Israelis are in 'state of chronic siege,' which causes them to seek ways out of their stressful lives. Their search for a more normal existence has produced 'the Oslo approach,' which is founded on 'wishful thinking' that has no connection to 'reality.' Those maintaining this view in the face of contradictory evidence and who will not tolerate any debate are textbook 'delusional,' Levin says. Jews who question Arab motivation are called 'enemies of peace,' similar to those engaged in anti-Israel terror.
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Levin and others have done a great service by diagnosing the irrational behavior of many Israelis and Jews who persist in acting out their fantasies. If we are to move beyond this delusion, to accept the situation as it is instead of what we wish it to be, we need to understand the nature of this pathology, which has caused tremendous damage to Israel and the Jewish people. We cannot afford to "rationalize the irrational." The future of the Jewish state is at stake.
The Arabs behave like a lynch mob, nurtured on hatred; in fact, Israelis who make a wrong turn on the road can become subject to actual lynching, celebrated as a great victory for justice by the mob of Palestinians.
It is terrifying to face a lynch mob. It is chronically terrifying to recognize that you are surrounded by millions who would like nothing more than to participate and witness your lynching. Worse, there are none among the Arab mob willing to stand up and face his fellow Palestinians and tell them to stop acting out of blind hatred and start to think rationally.
Even worse, it is terrifying to understand that there is nothing the battered child or the lynch mob victim can do to convince the abuser, the murderer, to stop and think rationally, to behave in a civilized manner. The helplessness of such victim-hood is part of the trauma. There are no good options. The Israelis stand on the front lines against the mob of Islamist fueled hatred, tragically forced to understand that they have no other option except to be willing to kill or be killed. The next move is always up to the Arabs. Sadly such knowledge, hard won at the cost of a great deal of innocent blood, almost always fades away under the pressure of an illusory calm that precedes the next atrocity.
Today, Hamas and Fatah meet in Mecca, looking for ways to redirect their hatred back toward the common enemy, the Jew. It is unlikely to work but we keep looking for a ray of light nonetheless. Perhaps this time, the Palestinians and their enablers will come up with a common approach which will clarify their short term intentions (their long term intentions have never been hidden except form those who wish to be blind) and allow for a weary Israel to achieve some semblance of quiet on their borders, for however long the Arabs choose to adhere to the Hudna. That is literally the best we can hope for and it is not much.
At least, this time the victim is armed.
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