Terror & Intimidation - Parallels with the “Stockholm Syndrome"

The Stockholm Syndrome: This can explain a lot of odd and counterproductive behavior created by the terror and intimidation of Islam in many parts of the world. From afar we might wonder why people don't respond more forcibly to the aggression of Islamic terrorism. We often wonder about Israel's reaction. Of all countries, we would expect Israel to react with firm and incessant resolve whenever they are threatened or attacked by the Islamic world around them. After all, six million Jews were slaughtered only 60 years ago. Several neighboring nations vow to wipe Israel off the map. Many of Israel's leaders are aware of Islam's hatred of Jews and their vow to eradicate them. Yet Israel is plagued by many of her leaders who are conciliatory, appeasing liberals, rather than the firm and resolute conservatives we would intuitively expect given the facts. Can the Stockholm Syndrome be an explanation for this?

Israel is surrounded in a manner suggestive of "captors". Israel is "Patty Hurst." The surrounding Islamic nations are "The Symbianese Liberation Army," analogically speaking. Being in the position they are in, Israel, viscerally, feels helpless and beholden. They truly are of split mind, on one hand feeling a desperate need to defend themselves, but on the other hand grateful for every reprieve from warfare or perception of annihilation they can get. So grateful that many grasp at irrational straws of conciliation and illusions of peace from illusionary treaties. The captives grow more beholden as the captive become more emboldened. The book, “The Oslo Syndrome” written in 2005 documents this very relationship.

The same principles of human behavior are at work in Western European countries whose populations near Islamic majorities. As the Muslim numbers increase, so does Muslim intolerance and intimidation. With both their dwindling percentages and the Muslim intimidation, the "natives" in those western nations reach a point where rather than face the perceived inevitable end to their culture, they reach out in a desperate, perverted "friendship" with those who are quickly overtaking their centuries old culture, religion, and political system. This, too, is where the Stockholm Syndrome is playing out.

Even in the United States, it would be no surprise to learn that some of our leaders who "buddy up" and defend Islamic leaders are doing so out of fear of what they see as "the inevitable." They see the coming Islamic wave being so over powering and so certain that they feel it is better to befriend than declare hostilities. They feel it is better or easier to compromise their own values and culture to accommodate a diametrically opposed ideology than it is to challenge it. So they accommodate it.

So while some of our accommodation of the hostile supremacist Islamic ideology is due to our ignorance of its nature, some is also due to fear. The Stockholm Syndrome provides an easier way out rather than facing up to the challenge.

The other component of our failure to face the Islamic challenge, one that is not even on the radar for many of us, is this: We don't feel our values, our religion (if any), our culture and form of government are worth defending. The fact is, the decline of a dynamic Christian faith in this nation and much of the west has left a vacuum. Nature abhors it – Islam is filling it.

We have become so critical of ourselves, who we are, where we came from, how we got here, that anything else - anything else - appears that it might be better.

That is why we were willing to embrace "hope and change" without even caring what the "change" would lead us to. We are so desperate for something different that our attitude when facing the challenge of a completely foreign and contrary ideology might as well be - "Whatever." We care that much.

LiveJournal Tags: Stockholm syndrome,terror,terrorism,threats and intimidation,Israel,Islam and intimidation

Middle East Heading South

President B. H. Obama and the Iraqi government have assured Iraq is a lost cause for the western world. This article describes how the unmotivated Iraqi government is dropping the ball on the hand-off of the US counterinsurgency initiatives. With the inevitable withdrawal of US troops in the next 18 months to 2 years, this Iraqi government predisposition to revert to the past will spell perpetual conflict and tribal anarchy until the next dictator or Sharia-endowed leader rises up.

While I'm about predicting things in the middle east, here are four more predictions that will be like watching a slow motion train wreck over the next several years:

Afghanistan: Afghanistan has already been described as Obama's Vietnam. In two years, we will tire of that mire and decide there are other actions we can take to deceive ourselves into believing that we are being productive at achieving whatever objective we have over there. Within four years, we will be out of Afghanistan whether there is lasting reduction of Al-Qaeda influence or not.

Pakistan: A nuclear-armed nation on the brink of revolution. What to do. What to do. We won't do enough. We will not safeguard the nukes. We will not prevent a radical Islamic takeover. There is now "galloping Talibanization" occurring in Pakistan. Within two years, we will resign ourselves to a west-hating controlled Pakistan who will effectively use it's nuclear power to coerce western influence-reducing concessions out of us. Obama will do whatever it takes to minimize their hatred toward us. We can expect an increasing number of Kum-bay-Yah moments from B. Hussein O. in the middle east.

Iran: The US will be effective in preventing Isreal from destroying Iran's nuclear facilities. UPDATE: During todays' (Tuesday, May 18) meeting between Obama and Netanyahu, Obama effectively neutralized any Israelli action against Iran by guaranteeing another 8 months of talk with Iran. See here and here. Here is one example of Obama's arm twisting. If Obama simply wanted notice from Israel to ready or protect American troops in the area, he would have said this privately - as in "Top Secret". This public demand was a political move to further distance himself from Israel and further cozy up to Muslim nations. Netanyahu will become a paper tiger. Again, within two years, we will resign ourselves to being subject to an Islamic, nuclear-armed Iran who will effectively use it's nuclear power to coerce western influence-reducing consessions out of us.

Israel: If two out of three of these predictions materialize, Israel's existence is in doubt in 4 years. Islamic dominance in Europe and the US will accelerate.

I hope I am dead wrong on all of them.

Israels' Livni: “We must be an alternative of hope and go into opposition”

OMG. Livni is parroting the rhetoric of Obama. "We must be an alternative of hope..." she pleads. With Obama, we now have the hope of socialism; the hope of entitlement for those who don't want to be responsible for their own actions; the hope of eliminating the intelligence tools we need to keep our nation safe, and the hope of being overrun by welfare-sucking illegal aliens who threaten both our economy and our security.

What hope does Livni promise?

Hope for negotiating with a terrorist government that proclaims its aversion to treaties and which proclaims in its charter its mission to eliminate Israel and Jews? Hope that the jihadi Islamists on its border will miraculously give up their 1,400 years of Quranic doctrine and become peace loving neighbors of their "beloved" Jewish compatriots? That leads not to "hope" but to the same old same old.

This article declares that "Miss Livni’s decision leaves Mr Netanyahu at the helm of hard line government which would, at best, face paralysis over progress towards a peace settlement." The author of the article stupidly and naively assumes that a "peace settlement" with Hamas and other neighboring Islamists is the way to go. One can only hope that a peace settlement that gives away more of Israel's real estate in exchange for more deceit and takiya will be forever paralyzed.

Winning battles and winning wars and completing military tasks to eliminate the ongoing, cruel and pervasive threats is the way to go. Livni is just another two ton elephant tied to the stake of history who believes Israels precarious and tortured existence cannot be improved. That is the opposite of "an alternative of hope." That is the status quo. "Hope" is more than that.

Israels only future does not have to be under perpetual threat from its Islamo fascist neighbors. Netanyahu and his majority coalition offer a much better hope that believes Israel is worthy and capable of eliminating its threats.

Unilateral Ceasefire???

I'm a logical person. And not one who has arrived on the scene just yesterday. But this makes little sense to me.

Israel is bombarded by thousands of missiles over the past several years from its Hamas-led neighbor in Gaza whose Charter vows to annihalate Israel and exterminate Jews.

Two weeks ago, Israel finally responds, first with a several day attack from the air, and then a ground offensive into the fringes of the densely populated urban centers where Hamas missles are being fired from.

Gazan missiles continue being fired at the rate averaging 20 per day (that would be 6100 per year)

Israel announces a "unilateral ceasefire", claiming its objectives have been achieved.

Meanwhile, Hamas claims they will never cease their attacks on Israel, and continues doing so - concurrently with their vow of revenge on the life of Israels' Foreign Affairs Minister Tzippi Livni.

What am I missing here? What kind of "achieving our objectives" is this? Has Israel again caved to world pressure? What has the United States promised and how likely is it that such promise will be carried out by the Obama administration? How much trust is being placed in their good Muslim friends in Egypt?

Sounds like Israel got a case "what have I gotton myself into", like I get when I climb a 20' ladder to get a cat out of the tree, look down 20' to the ground as I hug the ladder with both hands and feet and mutter under my breath "what the hell have I gotten my self into. To hell with the cat."

Well, Israel's cat is still in the tree. I really doubt the cat will climb down by itself. It's not in its charter - I mean character.

Professor: "What happened to an eye for an eye?"

Saree Makdisi, a UCLA English professor and defender of Hamas Islamofascists in Gaza asks "What happened to “an eye for an eye?” He, like many in the main stream media, believes Israel's response to Hamas firing thousands of rockets into civilian areas in Israel over the past couple of years is excessive. He apparantly believes that for every rocket Hamas fires on civilians in Israel that doesn't kill someone, Israel should limit its reaction to firing one rocket on Hamas civilians that doesn't kill someone.

He apparantly doesn't care that he selectively quoted only a portion of this principle of justice. He doesn't care that the Old Testament justice of "an eye for an eye" was applied to a one-on-one personal transgression - only after those who attempted evil were duly warned and eliminated from their midst. It did not apply to attacks by one nation upon another. It would be suicide for Israel to apply that principle to a neighboring government whose charter calls for the eradication of Israel and elimination of Jews. Sigh. But that is obviously what Saree would prefer.

The "wise" professor ignores "the rest of the story" told in Deuteronomy which reads:
"The judges [Israeli leadership] shall inquire diligently, and if the witness [Hamas] is a false witness and has accused his brother [Israel] falsely [Hamas accusing Israel], then you shall do to him [destroy him] as he had meant to do to his brother [Hamas means to destroy Israel based on Charter via missiles, but misses]. So you shall purge [eliminate] the evil [Hamas] from your midst. And the rest [other Islamists] shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."
(Deuteronomy 19:18-21, English Standard Version)
(For the nitpickers out there I must state the obvious: I added the annotations in the brackets to draw the analogy.)

These additional verses present a much clearer basis for Israel's action against Hamas, don't you think?

Professor Makdisi also prefers that Jews and Islamists share Palestine equally, sans a nation called "Israel." Another UCLA professor doing hash? He ignores that Jews are descended from the land of Palestine, therefore "Palestinians." Jews are entitled to their own states as much as Muslims are entitled to theirs. Why can't Muslims have... oh wait, they have Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, and Somalia - with Islamic political systems gaining in many neighboring countries through violent Jihadi practices.

After locating his makdisi@humnet.ucla.edu e-mail address, I wrote him the following answer to his question:

"In you article titled "What Kind of Security Will This Barbarism Bring Israel" you ask "what happened to an eye for an eye?"

Not being Jewish, but familiar with the concept, I can gander a guess. Here it is.

First, there are many times more Islamist Palestinians who want to annihilate Jews than there are Jews. An eye for an eye would exhaust Jews a lot quicker than it would exhaust Islamist Palestinians. Israel likely sees that as a losing ratio. A thousand eyes for one eye would be closer to parity and justice.

Second, Islamist Palestinians appear to have little regard for human life. The murder of their own people for violating their repressive principles of conduct is no secret out here in the civilized world. Neither is their liberal use of human shields and purposeful terrorism via indiscriminately aimed rockets into civilian areas, and Islamic propensity to recruit and deploy human bombs.

Your message loses its potency in its hypocrisy."

Terms of Cease Fire

Here are the terms I would impose on Hamas/Gaza before I'd agree to a ceasefire (aka what some would refer to as "refraining from beating them to a bloody pulp") ...

* Hamas renounce their goal to eliminate Israel. Acknowledge its right to exist.
* Hamas renounce any violence against Israel.
* Hamas agree to disarm.
* Hamas provide for unlimited inspections inside Gaza by Israel and its allies.
* Gaza set up a permanant Israeli miliatry zone between Egypt and Gaza to assure no arms cross through or under that zone.
* Revise the Hamas Charter to integrate the above principles.
* Israel not permit free passage of Palestinians into Israel. Protect Israels borders.
* Israel maintain a strict cap on the proportion of non-Jewish Palestinians (or simply "Muslims") allowed in the nation either as visitors or citizens.
* The Gazan government agree to promote individual responsibility and productivity to enhance their quality of life instead of focusing their limited resources on the destruction and elimination of Israel.

What is the chance of any of the above happening? 0.0000%

More Self Hatred of Western Civilization - Media Bias on Drudge

The Drudge Report is turning into the same "garbage in/garbage out" as most of the rest of the media.

Two recent back to back headlines read...

"UN SCHOOL HORROR IN GAZA; TANK FIRE KILLS DOZENS..."

"Israeli army says mortar shells fired from school, infantry returned fire..."

The first is taken as fact: "UN School?" How about "UN School used as Hamas stronghold and source of mortar fire?" Maybe that's too complicated for most journalists.

The second is taken as "someone says", as in "its probably not true, but..."

This kind of "take the terrorists word for it" and "question our allies" is all too typical of the media, including Drudge.

Is the stronger country supposed to lose the war?

Israel is criticized by much of the world for using its superior military weapons to defend itself against "poor defenseless" Islamofascist Gaza. This means when there is asymmetrical warfare as in the case of Israel versus Hamas, the stronger military force (Israel) must not use its military force to its ultimate advantage. They need to hold back to make sure there is "proportional response." Israel needs to be sensitive to the fact that Hamas locates their rockets and munitions in private homes, and mosques. Israel needs to respect that Hamas leaders have donned physicians garb and meld into Gazan hospitals. But that sensitivity is tantamount to a call for surrender.

An American general had a word for this stupid military option: Nuts.

There is nothing asymmetrical about this war when all aspects of war are considered. Yes, Israel has its military weapons, its tanks, artillery, and world class air force. Hamas not only has its rockets, and rocket propelled grenades, tons of stored munitions, booby-trapped buildings, roadside bombs and unknown thousands fighters with their own personal weapons. These Islamofacists have perfected their own lurid practice of unconventional warfare including suicide bombers, no regard for human life, however innocent (if a person is not Muslim, he is not "innocent") and best of all, a knack for lying that has been perfected to the point wherein much of the worlds' media has been duped. See here.

When a nation is put in a desparate position, fearing for its existence like Israel understandably is, that nation must use whatever resources they have to achieve their objective despite the rules the enemies of that country have concocted. There are no human rights during war - at least during war that is fought to win. If Israel wants a continuing tenuous existence, it will listen to all the human rights complainers and Islamo fascist hypocrits and curb its military into an ineffective France-like mass of pansies.

But if Israel wants to secure its existence, it will use its weapons to their full effect and let nothing stifle their use. There is no victorious nation on earth who won a war by holding back. During World War II entire cities were bombed indiscriminantly by both sides. Look at any war in history. The ones that were lost were the ones where the loser held back.

Hamas shall bear the full responsibility of human suffering they have brought upon their own people for whom they alone are responsible to defend and protect. But, oh yeah, they do have a different value system, don't they. They do not hesitate to use their own women and children for human shields, suicide bombers, and excuses to stop an effective military from pounding the crap out of them.

Israel should not hold back and suffer because of that difference.

French Committ Atrocities Against Somali Fishermen

The French navy committed crimes of the sea when they kidnapped a number of innocent Black African fisherman trying to eak out their frugal living in their humble fishing careers.

This distortion of the "French warship captures 19 Somali pirates" news story is as disingenuous as the French condemning Israel for going after the "peaceloving" Islamic Gazi's. Get a grip, France.

World Sucked in by Hamas BS

When you hear representatives of Gaza or of Hamas, or of any Islamic nation on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, or even on Fox, you need to listen with some background knowledge so as not to be taken in by their "taqiya" (Islamic doctrine of purposeful deception.)

I've just listened to one so-called "moderate" representative of the Palestinain liberation movement blaming Israel for breaking the 6 month truce. He proclaimed Hamas innocent of any provocation and accused Israel of unilaterally attacking after starving the poor Gazans.

To realize how much bullsh-t this really is, all one must do is skim the Hamas charter. Take a look here.

A major theme running throughout the Charter is that Israel must be eliminated. It states that enemies of Islam "formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests." It states the only way that Christians and Jews can exist peaceably is "under the wing of Islam."

From our perspective, the Charter is absoltutely psychotic. We must assume that the people behind it and who defend Hamas are psychotic as well - out of control deceptive monsters. "Anti-semetic" is too mild a word for the aims of Hamas and Islam. "Pro-ethnic cleansing" is more accurate.

For an excellent background on the current Gaza/Israel situation, please read this attached link from Barry Rubin titled "Barry Rubin on the Ground in Gaza". His bio is given in the preface to the article.

...because that's where the rockets were shot from!

The CNN home page headline reads "Refugee camp missile kills Hamas commander."

Note that the first words of the headline are "Refugee camp." That makes the Israeli's sound like the evil ones, killing people in a defenseless, humanitarian "refugee camp." After all, what do Americans associate with the words "refugee" and "camp" but helpless, dislocated, peace-loving folks temporarily residing around campfires toasting marshmallows. And here comes this dastardly neighbor, killing their spiritual leader. Man, this is like killing the head of the boy scout troop. The shame of it. (Note: The headline that follows the CNN home page link reads: "Air strike on refugee camp kills Hamas commander" "Refugee camp" is still prominent.)

On the other hand, this "refugee camp" was the site of additional rocket launches fired into Israel just moments earlier. This "refugee camp" housed not just the "campers" but additional rockets and munitions. The Islamists have nearly perfected their propaganda war by routinely using homes, mosques, schools (and human shields) as the sites of choice for storing, manufacturing, equipping, and firing the tools of their trade.

The more accurate and truthful headline would read:

"Islamic leader killed moments after firing terror rocket at Israel." And the story would go on..."Moments after firing several of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel towns over the past several months, an Islamic terrorist "spiritual leader" behind this terror against Israel was killed by nearly instantaneous Israeli air response. Most of the rockets and stored munitions are located in homes, mosques and schools throughout Gaza, purposely placed to achieve the greatest possible propaganda advantage. After years of rocket attacks by Hamas and their Islam-inspired hatred of Jews, Israel had no choice but to strike the source of the terror in Gaza.

Shame on you, CNN, for misusing your wonderful command of the English language to mislead and deceive in favor of your apparent agenda to discredit the one civilized entity sharing western values in the middle east.

Dubai: Beloved Ally; World Financial Center...

...and friends Of Islamic terrorists.

Dubai cancels New Years celebrations in solidarity with the Islamic Gaza-Hamas terrorists. Egypt did the same. Wouldn't you say the Bush administrations' ill-fated attempt to have Dubai firms safeguard the security of our ports a few years ago was dumb? Wake up, Washington politicians! I can only pray that Obama surprises us.

Keep up the good work, Israel!

The only thing that can explain our coziness with Dubai is their business connections with "corporate America." Those connections will leave us sucking wind. Am I the only one who believes our federal government is a tool and witting accomplice of big business' extravagance, waste, and ill-conceived alliances, and average Joes are being screwed by this fact?

By the way, for those of you who might think I am being mean spirited, Israel endured 200 missle strikes from Islamic Hamas during the week prior to their counter-attack - AND 3,000 SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. They exercised excessive restraint.

Those who have pity on the Islamic Hamas terrorists in Gaza might very well be of the same cloth as those who had pity on Hitler and Mussolini.