The Are No Savage Heroes

Dr Sanity’s A ‘Self Inflicted’ Catastrophe,’ examines an article by Efraim Karsh in Commentary magazine. She writes with a simple and elegant clarity that serves to illuminate and untangle a complicated knot deliberately meant to obscure a clear reality:

This historical article in Commentary– “1948, Israel, and the Palestinians—The True Story– is extremely fascinating in its implications. Much of the early history of the Arab-Israeli is casually glossed over or completely ignored in most discussions of the catastrophe that exists in that part of the world…

The default position of many in the West seems to be that everything that befalls the poor, vicitmized Palestinians is, by definition, Israel’s fault. ( A perfect example of this nonsense can be found here as the UN blames Israel for the fact that Hamas is dumping sewage into the Mediterranean sea and polluting the entire area).

The West for the most part has the attitude that somehow, allowing the Palestinians or their Muslim “brothers” to suffer the consequences of their choices and behavior would somehow be “punishing them” in some horrible fashion. A typical proponent of this attitude is former President Carter, who has consistently and regularly advocates that Israel’s actions should be punished, but that the Palestinians must be given a free pass by civilization.

Carter blithely discusses the “devastating consequences” of Israel or American actions, but I have yet to see him–or any others who put forth the same compassionate view– grapple with the “devastating consequences” of the Hamas charter. Or of suicide bombers. Or of the intent, stated repeatedly by the leaders of the Palestinians and sanctioned by the Palestinian people who voted to elect Hamas, to destroy Israel.

Carter and the other terrorist enablers of the West ignore Palestinian behavior with the cultivated cognitive dissonance of today’s postmodern left. The obsession of the West with the eternal victimhood cult of the Palestinians has been the single biggest psychological impediment toward peace in that region.

Why should the Palestinians’ behavior ever change? What could possibly motivate them to be civilized? Or deal honestly with Israel? They have every reason to believe that the Carters of the world will always let them off the hook–and bail them out–no matter what they do or how badly they behave.

This free pass has been in effect for almost 100 years. That is several generations now raised on lies, distortions, and total dysfunction. Interestingly, the original Palestinian refugees saw things somewhat more clearly than their descendents who still live in the squalid camps they were forced into by their compassionate Arab neighbors…

It is interesting to note how far the self indulgent fervor with with which defenders of the Palestinian cause will go to in the justification for their dysfunctional behavior. The bad behavior cannot be ignored nor can it be wished away. Instead, the supporters of the Palestinians want to apppeal to our higher selves while ignoring the behavior that has devastated generations of Palestinians and resulted in the bloodbaths throughout the region. The civil wars in Lebanon and Jordan and terror in Tunis are but a few examples of the horrors authored by the dysfunctional Palestinian legacy, apologized for or supported by the leftist agenda.

Despite the ever escalating and desperate attempt to rewrite history and to recast the Palestinians and their supporters as heroes, sunshine cannot be denied.

A real hero is someone who acts out of concern not for him or herself, but rather, for the consequences his or her actions have on others. The fireman, policeman or average Joe goes into a burning building because in doing so, the consequences of those heroic efforts will impact the life of another. The real hero does not see him or herself as noble or as especially different. Rather, they see themselves as doing what needed to be done, no more and no less.

There is another kind of hero, with a very different motivation, best exemplified by the hard leftists. They act- or rather, pretend to act or demand that others act, with little or no concern about how the consequences of their efforts will impact others. The ‘heroism’ they focus on is centered around themselves. The see themselves as better or special. ‘We support the self determination of the Palestinian people,’ they say, as if lofty ideals can obscure the dysfucntion of bigotry, racism and hate. Che and Castro are heroes because of their sophomoric drivel. Their brutality and crimes are ignored because the leftists ‘mean well.’

Suppose you were to go into a remote region of the Amazon or deep into Siberia, or an isolated community in northern Canada, thousands of miles form anywhere. Suppose you ran into a tribe of people who worshiped Adolph Hitler and for whom Mein Kampf was a pillar of their beliefs and philosophies. These ideas were taught in schools and preached from the pulpit. Suppose their leadership was corrupt and suppose they lived on handouts, never managing to be self sufficient or to contribute anything of any value to anyone, ever.

Now suppose those people said they wanted to form their own nation. They want to be able to spend money on arms and weapons and they make no effort to conceal their desire to eradicate other tribes because ‘God told us to.’

Of course, we would not even consider giving such a tribe of people sovereignty. We might say, ‘We will help you establish a productive society. We will help you build roads and schools and we will help you build an economy. We expect you to work for yourselves and establish institutions that will benefit your society and those around you. In return for our help, we expect you to sit down at the table of civilized nations and behave appropriately.’

If those people reject our offers to help and continue and intensify their dysfunctional behavior, there is no  chance that they will ever be capable of functioning as a real nation. The righteous pablum of calls for ’self determination’ in no way eradicates the dysfunction. In fact, by ignoring and not addressing the dysfucntion, the cycle of failure only deepens and the ‘root cause’ of that ever escalating failure can be placed at the feet of those people who enabled that failure.

Gagdad Bob, in Cluelesside Of The West:

Among other things, the upside-down education of the left emphasizes rights over duties, self-esteem over self-transcendence, and the antihero over the hero, since the former is the authentic nihilist who sees through the sham of hierarchy, eternal values, and first principles. The left worships these monsters because only they have the courage — i.e., violence — of the leftist’s absence of convictions (see here for example).

A hero, on the other hand, is only heroic to the extent that he risks life and limb for something transcending himself. Since transcendence doesn’t exist for the secularist, the hero must therefore be an idiot or a manipulative liar — as the left regards, say, General “Betray Us.” This is why masturbatory leftism and fruitless cynicism go hand in gland.

Dr Sanity, again:

Today’s Palestinian society is almost wholly constructed on a cesspool of swirling self-destructive rationalizations, encouraged by their Muslim brothers who are perfectly happy to maintain the victimhood of the Palestinian people as long as it can be used to rationalize and cover for their own dysfunctional societies…

They don’t want peace. They don’t want to live in their own state if Israel exists. They don’t care about the suffering of innocent people - either Israelis or Palestinians. They don’t care, because they have no honor. They are incapable of goodwill. They have no leader with any integrity. They have nothing but their hatred…

So this generation of Palestinians are mercilessly indoctrinated into hate and death. They parade and dance around with their UN-funded banners, pretending that they are real men; shooting guns in the air and setting things on fire; preparing their children for future suicide missions…

Real heroes, those concerned with how the consequences of their actions affect others, are a rare breed. We admire them and recognize how their actions and behavior impact our own lives. Some real heroes run into burning buildings, others toil over a lifetime so that their children might have better lives.

The pretend heroes of the left are of little worth and consequence. They are concerned only in the light in which they are cast. They care little for the causes they champion and even less for the people who in the end, will be victimized by their self absorbtion and self indulgence. They are like the parent who sees a child brandishing a knife and threatening others, who respond by saying, ‘Isn’t he creative? Self expression is so important!’ When the child is caught with bloody hands, it’s always the fault of someone else.

The phony heroes of the left have enabled Palestinian dysfunction and failure for decades. They are encouraged by other Arabs (’apes in tuxedos’) to be ‘useful idiots’ on a treadmill, an endeavor they treasure.

The dysfunctions and psychopathy of the left are very, very deep.