Does Israel Understand the Psycodynamics of the Arab World?

Posted on July 29, 2006
Filed Under General Thoughts |

I really wonder if Israel has any clue to the psychological dynamics of the Arab and Muslim worlds. With each passing day the IDF continues bombing its enemies in Lebanon, it actually creates more in the process. The images being broadcasted to millions of Arabs and Muslims around the world only reinforce what has been said to them by previous generations. They reinforce the belief that Israel is indeed an evil enemy which must be destroyed. Where is the logic in the IDF’s strategy? If Israel is showing off its strength to thwart its enemies, it sure is doing a “wonderful” job. As Big Pharaoh stated, Hezbollah has managed to do what no other Arab army could do previously. It managed to strike towns deep within Israel. That alone should make the Arab and Muslim worlds believe that Israel is weakening which would encourage more attacks and support for Israel’s destruction. Combine that with the anger the broadcasted images produce and you get a deadly recipe that provides enough motivation and justification for continuing the aggression towards Israel for many years to come.

Comments

10 Responses to “Does Israel Understand the Psycodynamics of the Arab World?”

  1. BrooklynJon on July 29th, 2006 10:48 am

    Fair enough. Other than capitulation, what can Israel do?

    Pulling out encourages violence.
    Occupting territory encourages violence.
    Fighting back encourages violence.
    Expressing restraint encourages violence.
    Taking casualties encourages violence.
    Telling your civilians to run and hide encourages violence.
    Taking prisoners encourages violence.
    Releasing prisoners encourages violence.
    Ignoring the UN encourages violence.
    Following the UN encourages violence.
    Discouraging democracy encourages violence.
    Encouraging democracy encourages violence.

    So other than national suicide, what’s a nation to do?

  2. DEC on July 29th, 2006 11:46 am

    I think Israel is too nice, not too harsh.

    Nice blog, Drima.

  3. AntonGarou on July 29th, 2006 12:45 pm

    I think that the Israeli goverment knows what the impact will be, but that’s long term, and can be mitigated.The effects of returning to the status quo ante are much worse, since not only will Israel have more enemies in the Arab street, and those enemies will be able to convince others Hizzbullah “won”(see 2000 retreat), but Hizzbullah will continue to be a viable threat on the northern border.

  4. Anonymous on July 29th, 2006 12:55 pm

    Drima, it doesn’t matter in the end what the arabs think. The 1948 war of independence had arabs deeper into Israel than the current strikes. And Israel is always hamstrung by a hostile UN, a world opinion that it should turn the other cheek, and other left wing sillyness.

    Basically hezbullah is not an existential threat, and it is not being treated as such. If you want to see what happens to existential threats, then by all means, have an army attack.

    Arabs seem to like the concept of trying to kill jews using the thousand paper cuts method. Their armies seem to always fail and collapse under pressure. So they know that full frontal assault will not work. So they try the irregular forces.

    Well, the jews aren’t going anywhere, so either the arabs need to kill them all, as some are trying to do, or they need to make peace and get on with their lives. Unfortunately, the UN is perpetuating this conflict via the UNRWA, the stream of UNGC, UN human rights, and other laughable moral compassed groups. Someday this may change. Then again, someday pigs may learn how to fly.

    Until then the jews will defend their home and homeland. The arabs are welcome to make peace. Most seem to chose war.

  5. Anonymous on July 29th, 2006 2:17 pm

    Unfortunately, I think the Israelis understand the world in which they live very well. I don’t understand either side. That is, I can describe the thinking patterns of either side, and can abstract the principles under which they operate, but I do not comprehend why the hell either side wants to behave as it does.

    I am very sorry to say that, given the pattern of response of the Middle Eastern peoples and governments in general, the present Israeli response to the continuing rocket attacks and capture of its soldiers appears to make sense: they want to change the situation, and have made that demand in the only way that will get the attention of their neighbors. They have managed that.

    Will it work? Maybe. If Israel’s neighbors conclude that it really is not worth harassing the country, maybe they will have a period of peace and stability. It might even last until the government in Israel changes and the neighbors decide to try again.

    I just don’t understand why anybody would insist on living in such a hostile neighborhood. Some people have claimed that there is no safe place for Jews anywhere, so they might as well pick their home. I don’t really agree with that. The Israelis know they have a choice. Indeed, the US has more Jews than Israel.

    Meanwhile, I really do not understand why so many Muslims think they have the right to murder their neighbors, or let other people murder their neighbors. Or why they would want to do that. Or that they would be willing to impoverish themselves to do so. I read what they have to say, and I believe them, but it makes no sense to me.

    To me, it looks like the existence of Israel has turned into a test of Muslim decency, and the Muslim community as a whole has flunked. If the pictures of rubble on TV radicalize any Muslims, it is only because they fail to grant the Israelis the right to live.

    The sole glimmer of hope in this latest mess is that it has exposed significant voices in the Muslim community that recognize that Hezbollah’s actions are evil. They have noticed that Israel hasn’t been oppressing Lebanon: Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have been doing that. This is a new development.

    valerie

  6. Shay on July 29th, 2006 4:00 pm

    I actually think Israel understands too well the Middle-Eastern psychology. After all, the current Chief-of-Staff and Minister of Defence were born in Persia. There are a lot of Iraqi-born and Morrocan-born in the upper echleon of the ministry of defence.

    One can summarize the middle-eastern psychology with this sentence:
    In the Middle East, if you are preceived as weak, you get shat on. For example, this is why Iraq attacked Kuwait. Bully mentallity, that is all.

    So basically, all Israel is saying by levelling Lebanon is a short, crispy-clear message:

    “DON’T FUCK WITH THE JEWS.”

  7. tommy on July 29th, 2006 5:55 pm

    Honestly, who cares what the Arab world thinks or how many enemies Israel makes?

    Israel isn’t going to win any friends by avoiding conflicts with the Arab world. The disapproval of Arabs means nothing in practical terms.

    Arabs are always calling for the Israelis to give the Palestinians more “incentives” to behave themselves yet, strangely, the Arab world itself seems to have almost no understanding of such incentives when they try and induce Israel to change its policies.

  8. Finnpundit on July 29th, 2006 7:36 pm

    I think Israel takes it for granted that it will always have enemies. That experience was borne out of The Holocaust; in fact, you cannot understand Israel’s mentality today if you don’t understand how absolutely abandoned they were as a people during that time. All of the European countries that were occupied or allied with the Germans willingly co-operated with the Germans in the “Final Solution”.

    Today’s Israel survives because of the determination of the Jews to not let that happen again. Everyone who thinks that Israel should not be so paranoid, or should be more trusting of Muslim intentions, really doesn’t have the historical knowledge to make such assessments.

  9. Jack's Shack on July 29th, 2006 11:18 pm

    There are a lot of things that don’t make sense, but what war does.

    In the end Israel must force its adversaries to understand that they cannot win using force.

    Hit us and we’ll knock you into next week.

  10. Roman Kalik on July 30th, 2006 10:40 am

    Cool blog. ;)
    As for Israel, I’d say we understand Arab ‘mentality’, if you will. It comes from having so many Jewish Arabs. The thing is, what’s the alternative. Continuing with the previous state of affairs was unthinkable. It leads nowhere beyond gradual escalation, and that would have also ended with war, eventually. It did, really, just sooner than later.

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