Do most Israelis and many other Jews NEED to feel persecuted?
What Renot called this “hypervigilant state, so typical of PTSD,” reveals that those who are still stuck in the nightmare trance believe that the threat to them (annihilation) is ever present and always will be; and any sign or omen that the worst was about to occur again “is magnified by the residual paranoia into ‘Uh-oh, here we go again!’, accompanied by a tightening of the emotional armoring and a heightened readiness to go into pre-emptive battle in order to forestall the worst from happening.”
In his analysis, Cherna asked how it can be that pathological feelings of fear, weakness and victimization “are comforting” to very many Israelis (and, I add, very many other Jews)
He answers: “For starters, they automatically put Jews on the side of innocence. Who can blame the weak victim for the violence? All the trouble, it seems, is started by the other side… And if all the trouble is started by the other side, then all the fault must lie with the other side. Weakness and victimization seem to prove that ‘We’re moral.’ Obviously, it’s our enemies who are immoral and thus to blame for all our problems. So Israelis have no reason even to consider changing any of their policies or behaviors.”
Cherna believes, as I do, that as long as this pathology dominates Israeli political life, it’s hard to see what Barack Obama or anyone else can do to move the Israelis toward a just peace, one that would be acceptable to the vast majority of Palestinians (“who need no special mental condition to feel victimized; all they have to do is look out the window at the Israeli military patrols passing by.”)
The answer to my headline question seems to be, “Yes, Jews (most of them) do need to feel persecuted. The question arising is what if anything can be done, and by whom, to cure the sickness of traumatized Israeli and other Jewish minds?In theory
I can think of two possible ingredients for a cure.
One would be a New Covenant, not between the Jews and their God but between the Jews and the Gentiles. For their part of the deal the Gentiles would commit to slaying the monster of anti-Semitism. An undertaking to let the monster die in its sleep would not be good enough. There would have to be evidence that the stake was being driven into its heart. For their part the Jews of the world would commit to making common cause with rational Israelis for the purpose of making a real and lasting peace on the basis of an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians and security for all (Arabs and Jews).
The other would be an explicit declaration by all Palestinian institutions, organizations and groups, endorsed by all Arab and other Muslim governments, to the effect that whether it be in a genuine and viable two-state or a one-state solution, the security and political and human rights of all Jews (in the one or two states) will be absolutely guaranteed.
Beyond that I have no answers to the question of what can be done and by whom to cure the sickness of traumatized and brainwashed Israeli and other Jewish minds. Do others have answers?
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Nicole:
August 26th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Hi Alan,
I appreciate most of your writings I red, and videos I looked at. And…I am really very critic towards this game of victimization. I am quite open mind, and when I find an information which seems important to me, even if it does not fit with Gayssot Law (I am french)I look at it. For example David Cole is in my opinion very important.
I think the Rothschild family is responsible for many of the Jews/Israelis behaviors and need to be stopped. I shall tell you an example : I have a blog which is under a daily control. I receive very many complaints, because I criticize Israël. My host received lawyer’s letters, and suppressed one post. I had to change another.
I wrote one on the “suicide” of Amschel Rotschild in Paris in 1996, and clearly asked “who gained in the murder of Amschel Rothschild ?”…There was no complaint.
Recently, on the “Force de Défense Israélienne sur Internet” a women posted personnal information concerning an event I lived 18 years ago. I posted a text in which I asked her to tell me where she had this info which does exist nowhere on the internet, and therefore is 1/4 true, 3/4 false. The day after, the messages where no more there. I had screen copies.
I’ve been harassed during years, and it took me quite a time to understand that it was in relation with Microsoft in which I worked years ago. Steve Ballmer didn’t react when I posted him an accusation on his mel, and then on my blog. I think he developped an ascendency strategy on the company from the very beginning. This is not because of PTSD, but because of a determination to control.
Jews/Israelis have most of all in my opinion a need to control every place of power. I think their leaders are psychopaths, and the people is under a deliberate propaganda.
In France, we have an Holocaust Survivor, Danielle Bleitrach who is very open mind, BUT…she qualifies all criticize of Israël of anti-semitic. She thinks it is a huge agression Jean Bricmont made when he told European people must stop to feel culprit because of the Holocaust. She lost 17 family members during the holocaust…but she can complaint. One Palestinian women lost 18 family members in Hôtel Semiramis terrorist attack. If you are intellectual, you must question the status of the sufferance. Jews/Israeli refuse this.
Personnaly, I will never accept to have any action in which PTSD is considered as the reason of there behavior. I suffered PTSD during years, for I come from an insane family. This is not a “card” I play with. I just engaged very young in healing myself. A child in an insane family is alone, and his sufferance has no status.
Ghaith:
August 27th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Dear Mr Alan Hart I respect the huge work you are doing to open the eyes of a lot of people in this world. You do insist in your interventions on the unfair role played by the Zionist Lobby in the US. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t realize that such an influence is real and accuse you to support conspiracy theories. Well this is a very good documentation with some declassified US documents that can make them keep quiet.
http://irmep.org/ila/default.asp
Vera Gottlieb:
August 27th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
One big chip that Jews (most of them) carry on their shoulders…because they are better educated gives them the right to look down their noses at other cultures and this rubs the other way. Jews seem to be in a constant state of paranoia, seeing an ‘enemy’ under every rock, behind every tree. What would Jews do if they had nothing to wail about?
john mccarthy:
August 27th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id798.html Related articles are located in the left column.
Christian:
August 28th, 2010 at 11:45 am
The security and the political and human rights of all Jews who decide to live in Palestine (as common folks, I’m sorry, not as a Herrenvolk any more) have to be absolutely guaranteed — certainly not “to cure the sickness of traumatized Israeli and other Jewish minds”, but because this is the right thing to do.
Jews couldn’t care less (why should they, after all?) about what you call “an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians”. Did the Afrikaners care about justice for black South Africans? Now, as then, they will only give up their opression of the indigenous people when the price to pay under the form of economic and cultural isolation makes it a bad deal.
Karen Chadwick:
August 29th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Alan, your work is the most important frontline effort to bring some peace to the horrid situation in Israel and it’s neighbors. As for your accountant “M” and his fear that everything “will crumble” if he has to face that what he believes is wrong – crumble, crumble, crumble. Just as every other movement based on hatred and dirty deeds has either faded away or is diminishing with time and truth, M will have a better nights sleep when he can come to the realization that caring for the quality of life for all his world neighbors is the only way to go. It’s so very very sad that the Zionists have taken hatred beyond Hitler’s old school ways.
Alan, keep up the good work. A true fan from Kalamazoo!
arieh zimmerman:
September 1st, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Actually, the only presumption with which I take note, is the assumption that some so many of we Israelis are illiterate by choice. Beyond books, anyone processing any sense of shame at all, much less a modicum of empathy, and living in this land of curdled milk and sour honey, has more than ample opportunity to witness the stupidity and ill breeding of our treatment of Palestinians, as a nation and as too many heartless individuals. In any case, it is difficult to maintain exaggerated paranoia while maintaining the largest and best weaponed army in the area.
john mccarthy:
September 4th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Hello Alan,
Are there any current public discussions on the subject of The Balfour Declaration; the connections and any unintended consequences for America’s entry into WWI and WWII?
http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id825.html
and
http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id831.html
How much time had elapsed between the signing of the Declaration and the contents being made public?
Did the exposure cause any ‘blow back’ for the British and or the Americans?
Do we know what affect this Declaration had on the 1947 UN Vote creating the mixed States of Palestine and Israel?
Bests,
John
Jaap Bosma:
September 26th, 2010 at 8:48 am
I always wonder to what extend Zionsts really feel persecuted due to antisemitism and the Holocaust, and to what extend the need to feel persecuted springs from the need to handle the psychological tensions associated with the need to inflict huge injustices on the Palestinians in order to realise Zionism.
My feeling is that the second reason is more important.
Jaap Bosma:
September 26th, 2010 at 8:58 am
The cure is simple: to end the conflict.
Once the conflict with the Palestinians has ended there will be far less need for Zionists to justify e.g. the slow ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, massacres like that in Gaza, taking Palestinian lands, refusing to let Palestinian refugees return, etc..
Unfortunately, as you write, it’s very hard to end the conflict will Zionism is still sick. I guess international pressure is the only way, … and promoting awareness of the real facts.
Jaap Bosma:
September 26th, 2010 at 9:04 am
“everything crumbles”
What crumbles most is probably the Zionist self-image. Zionists will not be moral giants any more, the Jewish state will not be a remedy for injustices inflicted on Jews any more, but an injustice inflicted on Palestinians
You can image that various psychological self-defense mechanisms will not allow this crumbling to happen
Tim Upham:
July 12th, 2012 at 5:41 am
I have met so many American Jews, who seem like they get a high off of feeling persecuted. Whenever you mention anything about a possible two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, they will scream out “Anti-Semitism, Holocaust. and we are the most persecuted people on the face of the planet, Never Again, Never Again, Never Again!” It is like crying wolf, for you can back into the past and see it. But what the present and the future?
Leroy Heise:
January 11th, 2014 at 11:32 am
I am a goy, and feel it, when in the company of jews, when they identify themselves as such. I cant tell who is a Jew, any more than I can tell who is a Cuban. Your comments resonate with me. The difficulty is that you are explaining the present. What about their historical position. Is it different than a Persian, or Chinese, or
Egyptian or African. When did the legacy begin? Did it originate in Scrolls that predated the Old Testament? Is the Jewish goal to make all non Jews feel guilty for something. I can feel upset about some of our treatment of others on our Canadian history, but feel revulsion, not guilt. I would believe most other cultures have some of the same feelings about their history.