THE PSYCHOLOGIST : Friday Night Terror

Friday Night Terror

I know some of you probably visited a few times since Friday night, wanting to know about my perspective on the latest atrocity here in Israel. I certainly hope none of you were concerned by my lack of posting. I am guessing you all remember that I observe the Jewish Sabbath, which means not only was there no way I would be at a nightclub on Friday night, but I wouldn't even be by my computer.

In fact, I did not hear about the attack until last night, at which time I was not in the correct state of mind to blog about it. I have since had time to reflect more on the events of Friday night, and write something more cogent than anything I may have produced last night.

The Victims

So far, 4 innocent people have been killed, with over 50 wounded. These are just statistics, but behind each murdered or wounded person is a story. Dreams have been shattered, and families destroyed.

The angel on the left was Yael Aurbach, who was only 28. She was set to get married in only two weeks time. Her fiance has not yet heard about the death of his beloved. A precious life extinguished by a callous murderer, with many more lives irrevocably affected.

The other victims so far are:

Aryeh Nagar, 37

Ronen Rubenov, 28

Yitzhak Buzaglo, 40 (his wife Linda remains in a serious condition)

These are the people whose lives have been cut short. Their familes and friends have to live with the pain of their loss. In addition, amongst the 50 or so wounded are lives severely damaged. People who will lose eyes and limbs. People who will carry the horror of Friday night for the rest of their lives.

I think it is important to look beyond the statistics and realize the real brutality of such attacks.

Why

So many innocent lives affected, and for what? Israel has made it clear that she wants peace and has been taking risky actions leading to PLO Arab self-rule (like she has been doing since 1993). Our government has released hundreds of prisoners. Our government has taken steps to withdraw from Gaza. Our government has stated that we will end targeted killings. Our government has decided to adjust the route of the security fence to minimize its affect on the PLO Arabs. And in response, the PLO Arabs have deliberately murdered more of our innocent civilians.

Why?

Pro-PLO Arab apologists will point to a number of possible justifications for the attack. But even the terrorists themselves cannot agree on a reason. The bomber himself gave this justification:

The aim of the bombing was "to attack the self-rule Authority, which acts according to American interests," Badran, 21, said on the tape.

In other words, he went to a place frequented by young Israelis wanting to enjoying themselves, and tried to spill as much of their blood as possible - to prove a point to the PA. The Islamic Jihad, at first denying involvement, later claimed responsibility from its Syria-based bureau.

"The calm period with the [Palestinian] Authority was an agreement for a month and that has ended," said Abu Tareq, a member of Islamic Jihad's "Israel has not abided by the pacification period. This is the main reason that led to this operation," he said without elaborating.

In other words, they decided to stop killing us for a month, but now the month has passed and we are all fair game again.

The fact that the terrorists are providing different reasons for the attack, should indicate that no real reason does exist, other than hatred for Israelis and Jews. Pro-PLO Arab apologists can claim it is all the fault of the "occupation", yet none of the terrorists have even pretended that this is the reason. This reason also rings hollow at the very time that Israel is taking such risky steps towards peace.

Response

Israel has decided to act as follows:

Put diplomatic pressure on Syria and the PA, to halt terror activities coming from areas under their control

Prevent Islamic Jihad officials from traveling to Cairo to participate in the upcoming talks between Abbas and the heads of PLO Arab terror organizations

Freeze the handover of security control of some West Bank cities until the PA takes action on the ground

Notice no military action to speak of, even though it would be justified against the PA terror groups, as well as against Syria. I personally think that Israel made the right decision in not reacting militarily at this time.

By insisting that the PA fight the terror, Israel has put them to the test. Now we will be able to determine whether or not the PA is serious about peace. If the PA fights terror, then we may be more optimistic about the prospect of peace. If not, the US will place more pressure on the PA, and any Israeli military responses may be met with less opposition.

The handover freeze demonstrates to the PA that they will suffer if they do not fight terror. I believe that this "carrot-stick" approach may be effective if the PA is genuine about peace. If not, then we will surely discover this.

(Cross-posted at Israellycool)

No comments:

Background

The essence of conservatism is caution. The essence of Leftism is anger

This blog is written solely by John Ray, who has a Ph.D. degree in psychology and 200+ papers published in the academic journals of the social sciences. It does occasionally comment on issues in psychology but is mainly aimed at giving a conservative psychologist's view on a broad range of topics. There are very few conservative psychologists.

The blog originated in Australia and many (but not most) posts discuss Australian matters. Australians have an unusually good awareness of events outside their own country. Australian newspapers feature news from Britain and the USA not as an afterthought but as a major part of their coverage. So Australians do tend to have a truly Western heart, which is the reason behind the old name for this blog. So events in Australia, Britain and the USA all feature frequently here, plus occasional coverage of other places, particularly Israel.

A primer in American politics for non-Americans:

SCOTUS is the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the land

The "GOP" stands for "Grand Old Party" and refers to the Republican party. The GOP is at present center/Right, while the Democrats have been undergoing a steady drift Leftwards and now have policies similar to mainstream European Leftist parties.

The ideological identity of both parties has however been very fluid -- almost reversing itself over time. In the mid 19th century, the GOP was the party of big government and concern for minorities while the Democrats advertised themselves as "The party of the white man" -- an orientation that lasted into the mid 20th century in the South. The Democrats are still obsessed with race but have now flipped into support for discrimination AGAINST whites.

Was Pope Urban VIII the first Warmist? Below we see him refusing to look through Galileo's telescope. People tend to refuse to consider evidence— if what they might discover contradicts what they believe.

Global warming

Calibrated in whole degrees. Larger graph here

Climate scientist Lennart Bengtsson said. “The warming we have had the last 100 years is so small that if we didn’t have meteorologists and climatologists to measure it we wouldn’t have noticed it at all.”

The term "Fascism" is mostly used by the Left as a brainless term of abuse. But when they do make a serious attempt to define it, they produce very complex and elaborate definitions -- e.g. here and here. In fact, Fascism is simply extreme socialism plus nationalism. But great gyrations are needed to avoid mentioning the first part of that recipe, of course.

Two examples of Leftist racism below (much more here and here):

Beatrice Webb, a founder of the London School of Economics and the Fabian Society, and married to a Labour MP, mused in 1922 on whether when English children were "dying from lack of milk", one should extend "the charitable impulse" to Russian and Chinese children who, if saved this year, might anyway die next. Besides, she continued, there was "the larger question of whether those races are desirable inhabitants" and "obviously" one wouldn't "spend one's available income" on "a Central African negro".

Hugh Dalton, offered the Colonial Office during Attlee's 1945-51 Labour government, turned it down because "I had a horrid vision of pullulating, poverty stricken, diseased nigger communities, for whom one can do nothing in the short run and who, the more one tries to help them, are querulous and ungrateful."

Defensible and indefensible usages of the term "racism"

The book, The authoritarian personality, authored by T.W. Adorno et al. in 1950, has been massively popular among psychologists. It claims that a set of ideas that were popular in the "Progressive"-dominated America of the prewar era were "authoritarian". Leftist regimes always are authoritarian so that claim was not a big problem. What was quite amazing however is that Adorno et al. identified such ideas as "conservative". They were in fact simply popular ideas of the day but ones that had been most heavily promoted by the Left right up until the then-recent WWII. See here for details of prewar "Progressive" thinking.

R.I.P. Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet deposed a law-defying Marxist President at the express and desperate invitation of the Chilean parliament. He pioneered the free-market reforms which Reagan and Thatcher later unleashed to world-changing effect. That he used far-Leftist methods to suppress far-Leftist violence is reasonable if not ideal. The Leftist view that they should have a monopoly of violence and that others should follow the law is a total absurdity which shows only that their hate overcomes their reason

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a war criminal. Both British and American codebreakers had cracked the Japanese naval code so FDR knew what was coming at Pearl Harbor. But for his own political reasons he warned no-one there. So responsibility for the civilian and military deaths at Pearl Harbor lies with FDR as well as with the Japanese. The huge firepower available at Pearl Harbor, both aboard ship and on land, could have largely neutered the attack. Can you imagine 8 battleships and various lesser craft firing all their AA batteries as the Japanese came in? The Japanese naval airforce would have been annihilated and the war would have been over before it began.

FDR prolonged the Depression. He certainly didn't cure it.

WWII did NOT end the Great Depression. It just concealed it. It in fact made living standards worse

Joe McCarthy was eventually proved right after the fall of the Soviet Union. To accuse anyone of McCarthyism is to accuse them of accuracy!

The KKK was intimately associated with the Democratic party. They ATTACKED Republicans!

People who mention differences in black vs. white IQ are these days almost universally howled down and subjected to the most extreme abuse. I am a psychometrician, however, so I feel obliged to defend the scientific truth of the matter:

The average African adult has about the same IQ as an average white 11-year-old and African Americans (who are partly white in ancestry) average out at a mental age of 14. The American Psychological Association is generally Left-leaning but it is the world's most prestigious body of academic psychologists. And even they have had to concede that sort of gap (one SD) in black vs. white average IQ. 11-year olds can do a lot of things but they also have their limits and there are times when such limits need to be allowed for.

America's uncivil war was caused by trade protectionism. The slavery issue was just camouflage, as Abraham Lincoln himself admitted. See also here

Did William Zantzinger kill poor Hattie Carroll?

Did Bismarck predict where WWI would start or was it just a "free" translation by Churchill?

Leftist psychologists have an amusingly simplistic conception of military organizations and military men. They seem to base it on occasions they have seen troops marching together on parade rather than any real knowledge of military men and the military life. They think that military men are "rigid" -- automatons who are unable to adjust to new challenges or think for themselves. What is incomprehensible to them is that being kadaver gehorsam (to use the extreme Prussian term for following orders) actually requires great flexibility -- enough flexibility to put your own ideas and wishes aside and do something very difficult. Ask any soldier if all commands are easy to obey.

A good article on Leftist hate

The real history of social Darwinism

Some personal memoirs

Memoir highlights

THE PSYCHOLOGIST

Friday Night Terror

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive