The Psychosis of Violence: A New Phase in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

by Madeleine Kando

Another wave of attacks took place this week in Israel. A terrorist stabbed a sixty-year old woman and this past Tuesday another Palestinian willfully crashed his car into a bus stop, then swung a cleaver to hack Jews to pieces. The hatred jumps out at you, as you watch the footage of this senseless attack, taken by a security camera. What triggered this latest bout of violence?

According to the Times, "The wave of violence is a response to the increase in Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, the Muslim holy Al-Aqsa mosque." Last year, 12,000 Jews visited the Temple Mount. But 200,000 Christians visited the site during the same period, and the number of Muslims amounts to four million. But those damn Jews, those 33 per day, that's just unacceptable.

Others would say that the attacks are a result of the Palestinian despair at the lack of progress of the peace process—never mind that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas just declared the Oslo Accords null and void.

Dr. Col. (res.) Moshe Elad views the wave of terror attacks as a desperate cry for attention from the international community. "The Palestinians felt that in the last couple of months they were a little out of focus because most news was about ISIS, the problem in Syria, Russia, the United States and suddenly the Palestinian problem was a little outdated." In an article 'The Real Reason why Arabs hate the Jews', Dutch writer Leon de Winter has another, more basic explanation: 'With the overwhelming success of their state, the Jews have humiliated the Arabs. This is the core of the madness from which Palestinians and most other Muslims suffer. They refuse to live in a region with a superior Jewish state. Jews are supposed to be second-class citizens, that is what the Koran says.'
Palestinians in the West Bank are not worse off than the ones in Jordan, in Lebanon or in Syria. It is the idea that they live in a country controlled by Jews that is unacceptable to them. The very existence of Israel - richer than France, mightier than Egypt - is experienced as a continuous humiliation.**

The Western media will never admit that the Palestinians have won the battle over public opinion. "There are young people who have never had a good day in their life. They have no economy, no future, no job. So what can you expect?" But is there one Arab country where they do have a future? Even in wealthy Saudi Arabia youth unemployment is enormous, due to a culture that does not allow innovation and modernization. And in Israel? There you can earn on average the same as in France and Australia. And so it is hated. They shoot rockets at Israel, stab people dead, and if Israel hits back, they scream that the Jews use disproportionate force.

These young psychotic killers are regarded as heroes. The 'Jerusalem intifada' hashtag is widely being shared among Palestinian activists and Hamas is circulating an instructional video on how to stab civilians to operatives in Jerusalem, a day after a man attacked a policeman with a knife.

We can try to find reasons and excuses for the violence until we see blue in the face, but what if there is no explanation? A culture that puts honor and shame above everything else creates heroes out of monsters. It can no longer distinguish fantasy from reality. It becomes psychotic.

When a people's religious and political leaders preach violence, is it so surprising that Israel is building a wall? Would we try to see both sides if a white minister would preach violence against African Americans?

Being in Netanyahu's shoes these days is a tough task. What can he do to de-escalate the situation? Is this latest string of terrorist attacks the beginning of the next Intifada? Even if it is, there is no excuse for the barbarity and senselessness of these 'lone-wolf' acts.

As Brett Stephens so aptly puts it in his article Palestine: The Psychotic Stage: 'Today in Israel, Palestinians are in the midst of a campaign to knife Jews to death, one at a time. This is psychotic. It is evil. To call it anything less is to serve as an apologist, and an accomplice'.  leave comment here