I took a short break from the blog and, after coming back, discovered that people want to talk about the developments in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Everywhere on the Internet, bunches of mentally disturbed people use the conflict to exhibit their own, completely unrelated pathologies. Compared to most online spaces I’m aware of, we are a haven of psychological health here. So if readers want to talk about Israel / Palestine here, I’m open to that.
Since most people in the world (and I’m being generous with “most”, I think it’s more than that) dislike either the Jews or the Arabs (or, even more frequently, both), the Israeli-Palestinian hostilities give everybody a way to act out these feelings in a socially and psychologically safe context. Observe how the Russia-Ukraine conflict never elicits the same intensely emotional response in anybody who is not Russian or Ukrainian. There are nuclear weapons present in both conflicts, but just ask yourself who is scarier to you personally, the enormous Russia with its anti-West hysteria of ridiculous proportions or the tiny Israel / helpless Hamas. If the answer is the latter (and you don’t live in the conflict zone in question), see above on the subject of pathologies.
The current eruption of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is not being analyzed intelligently or insightfully anywhere. And I’ve read a lot of stuff on it, in a lot of very different places*. There is something going on that we don’t know, and all the mass hysteria is simply obscuring that fact. Both sides are trying harder than ever to ensure the hostilities don’t abate. By both sides I, of course, don’t mean the regular folks both in Israel and Palestine who just want to live their lives. But Hamas breaks the cease-fire almost as soon as it’s declared while Israelis shell a beach where kids are playing, as if bent on ensuring that Hamas retaliates even harder than it has been. And I believe I could have easily dropped the “as if” from the previous sentence.
We should all be collectively and massively grateful to Israelis and Palestinians for providing us with regular opportunities to expel the bile of racism, contempt and hatred while feeling self-righteous and moral. Every article and book I have ever read on the subject of the conflict screams, “I’m so better than these hopelessly vile creatures!” Of course, the only way in which anybody is “better” than Palestinians and Israelis is that one’s ancestors did the dirty work of nation-building a while ago, thereby allowing one to feel hugely superior to those whose progenitors were not as considerate.
In every class, there is an official trouble-maker whose unspoken duty is to come up with a prank at the time when everybody needs it. In every collective, there is an evil-doer, loser, bad-ass or trouble-maker whose “job” it is to embody the badness others can’t afford to practice. Any permanent role, any chronic situation exists because everybody involved – everybody, I repeat – needs it.
So let’s stop congratulating ourselves on being so much better than the direct participants in the conflict and ask ourselves, “Why do we need this conflict right now? What purpose is it serving for us at this particular moment?” I have a tentative answer that I will offer later but what really matters is that the discussion of the conflict starts to be reoriented away from “those bad, evil them” towards ourselves.
* For now, the most idiotic piece on the conflict I have seen is this one. Feel free to share the links that impressed you.
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