Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Everyone agrees that the media is biased towards PalArabs

Around 100 journalists demonstrated to release Alan Johnston. But guess where they held the demonstration?

On the Israeli side of the Gaza border.

One UK newspaper said that the kidnappers faced the wrath of the world's media. Yes, I'm sure they were quaking at the thought of a few dozen reporters too scared to even enter Gaza to begin with.

The BBC reiterated how news coverage of Gaza suffers when no foreign journalists work there:

In terms of news, they also fear that Gaza could be neglected by the wider world.

"It only serves to limit the coverage in the Gaza Strip, if foreign journalists stop going," said Walid Batrawi, a Palestinian correspondent for the Arabic satellite TV station, Al-Jazeera.

"The human stories of the people of Gaza will not be told."

There is a recurring theme that when foreign journalists stay away from Gaza, the Palestinian Arabs suffer - because their story is not getting out. For example, this article in Asharq Alawsat:

By kidnapping the BBC reporter, this "victimized" executioner has lost one of the world's leading and most reliable media outlets. Without further engaging in unacceptable arguments on Western bias, let us recall our numerous rightful issues that were revealed by the Western rather than the Arab press – Abu Ghraib is just one example. Can we imagine what it would mean to hide the stories of Palestinian suffering from the global press?

Or look at what rabid anti-Zionist London mayor Ken Livingstone said:

"All the Palestinians needed was the truth to be reported, which is what Mr Johnston did. His abduction was a catastrophe. If you wanted to find a person whose abduction could damage the Palestinian cause, you couldn't find anyone better to do the job."

The mayor then appealed directly to Johnston's kidnappers. He said: "Look what you have done. Instead of the foreign media continuing to report on the situation in Palestine, the media focus has been shifted to the story of the kidnapping.

"Unless the journalist is liberated it's likely that coverage of the situation will continue to be about Mr Johnston."

Is a journalist's job to act as a PR representative of the area he or she is covering, or to report the news - whether it is good or bad?

No Zionist is saying "Israel needs more foreign journalists, in order to show the human face of Israel." Because we all know that the vast majority of journalists in Israel have little interest in making Israel look good. In most areas of the world, having more journalists would not be considered a great PR move - their job, after all, is to uncover news, and news is usually negative. But the unspoken backstory here is that journalists in Gaza do have an agenda, that they will gloss over bad news from Gaza and that their absence hurts the Palestinian Arab people.

Let's look at how life in Gaza is today. In the past six months there have been dozens of kidnappings, hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries. The very reason that journalists refuse to go there is because it is too dangerous for them. Now, why exactly would foreign reporters in Gaza be expected to help make PalArabs look good? If they are truly meant to be fair and unbiased, wouldn't they be reporting and publicizing the chaos far more than they are now? Aren't daily murders considered newsworthy anymore? Wouldn't their presence be a bad thing for most Palestinian Arabs?

And it is not like there are no journalists in Gaza now. As the BBC says:

[I]nternational organisations have been relying almost entirely on their local staff to gather information for reports.

So there are reporters there - all of them Palestinian Arabs. They still gather the news and sometimes write for the major media outlets. Why would foreign journalists in Gaza be expected to be more favorable towards PalArabs in their stories than PalArabs themselves are?

The only possible reason that foreign coverage is widely assumed to help Gazans is because foreign reporters are heavily biased towards Arabs against Israel.

And everyone knows it.

First quarter injury report: 1065 PalArab self-injuries

I haven't been keeping statistics on injuries from PalArab internal violence, but the Al-Mezan center does.

In the first three months of this year, according to Al-Mezan, 1065 PalArabs were injured in internal violence (their count of deaths was not too far off from mine - 147 vs. 160 during those three months - so this looks like an accurate number.)

In contrast, the UN OCHA counts 513 PalArabs injured from Israeli actions during that same time period.

I guess that the PalArabs must be practicing "genocide" against themselves!

Hamas, Qassams and Freud

I found a wonderful Arabic article on Alqassam.net (the Hamas "military wing" website) which just screams out "PENIS ENVY". Qassam missiles are just phallic symbols, meant to restore the masculinity that PalArabs have lost over the years by losing wars to lowly effeminate Jews.

Although much of the translation is almost incomprehensible, it shows how in Arabic the themes of humiliation and disgrace are so central. This is a critical part of the Arab psyche that must be understood. Anyone who thinks about the Middle East starting from the premise that the Arabs have the same values and thought processes as Westerners is fatally wrong.

It must also be understood that since humiliation and disgrace is so feared, and masculinity to treasured, that the goal of these missiles are not so much to physically damage Israelis as to disgrace them. This is why a rocket barrage that caused essentially no damage is being celebrated - damage isn't the point, but the fact that Israel could not destroy the rockets or launchers immediately.

This ode to Qassams shows the Arab psyche far more accurately than anything one will find in English.

In the shadow of missiles (1)

By : Rashid firm

Now a Qassam rocket to measure the nobility and dignity; and the balance of masculinity and attitudes of men in Palestine or absence!

Shell and the most destructive in the percentage of anger missile Al-Qassam Brigades and not one cent of that missile battalions riddling the venerable nests brothers of monkeys in two hours; and the rate of one missile every seventy-two seconds!

...

Today renewed Hamas killed last hope of leading Zionist dementia; or American official Smug; European politician or sinful gay; to subject movement and spoken word atheism and the National Forensic; and let resistance in the name of Allah and Jihad for the Mundane fleeting soaring dignity; and refrain from cutting the tree which paved without God versus Drahmin Najasin of Satan; Like who had reneged Ghazlam and falling and Artxoa; replaced their pride and humiliation; and national treason; and sold Immortality alienate young martyrs and the waiver; and pronouncing words and missed on contempt martyrdom operations!

They have killed scruples chests Oh Qassam; How are you prepared a clear demarcation between the two schools : schools do not recommend increasing the people and win in the elections and push for the rule only closest to the people; and attached to the charge of the people; the sake of spiritual covenants and the Grand National; School of the homeland and the blood of martyrs, and soil and sanctities Hemostat for lovers; and peaceful for personal ambitions and heart disease and corruption conscience; even at the expense of religion and homeland and its people!

...And in the hands of Qassam honors one or insulted ...

Also today Akram Aqsa holy God; and loved the land Ascension; and lovers of the first Qiblah and CO mosques and the Rock Wall sons of the Islamic nation; renewed hope that they had never disappointed in this Althlh Almstavoyer Maairiyha Ansariyeh Army Mohammed peace be upon him; even though the unbelievers; even with the football team error Muslims and Hassadtham and Guchechtham!

If modern viewers who danced their hearts eve percentage rocket joy!

The worst whose right Qassam them shame and humiliation that singles out those in need of special article; to prevent the viewers and at worst one; and also because some of the humiliation and inseparable Qassam Hakram greater coverage urgency; Valley Forum in the near future, God; again in the shadow of missiles!

PalArabs still just don't get it

In order to be able to negotiate with someone, you need to be able to understand that other person's perspective. You may disagree, but at the very least you need to be able to articulate the positions of the other side and see how they are consistent from the other viewpoint.

PalArabs, whether from blindness or stupidity, have no ability to understand Israel's point of view. Everything is colored through their own "Israel is evil" perspective and their resulting conclusions have no relationship with he real world.

The complete and total cluelessness of most Palestinian Arabs can be seen in the following "analysis" by an PalArab academic. While it is altogether possible that there will be some sort of active conflict between Israel and PalArabs in Gaza in the coming months, his methods of reaching that conclusion are nothing less than idiotic:

Hazim Abu Shanab, a Palestinian political analyst, said that the Israeli threats to invade the Gaza Strip and carry a military offensive are real since Israel is trying to evaluate the capability of its army after its defeat in Lebanon and the latest offensive in the southern part of the Gaza Strip which failed to achieve its objectives.

Abu Shanab added that this military offensive was prepared and planned to encourage the Israeli soldiers after their defeat by the Lebanese resistance.

He also said that another motive for this offensive is to show the United States that Israel is carrying a parallel war “against terrorism” in the Middle East, in order to garner further American support to its offensives in the occupied territories.

Abu Shanab warned that Israel is trying to create links between its offensive in Palestine, with what it calls “the Iranian threat”, this means that Israel will authorize the army to act more violently without any international objections to its acts since they are categorized as “war on terror”.

“I fear that an attack against Iran will be preceded with an attack against the Gaza Strip and several areas in the West Bank”, Abu Shanab stated, “These attacks will most likely target resistance fighters, and Palestinian security posts, along with attacks against other constructions and groups”.

In short, this "analyst" gives us four possible reasons for Israel to invade Gaza, all of which would be fodder for conspiracy theorists rather than true analysts.

As a sort of test for its army - like a real-life war game.
As a morale-booster for the IDF.
To consolidate American support for Israel.
Some vague reason about linking Gaza to Iran that I don't really get.

Not only are these reasons absurd, but they show how Arabs think - because they would in fact go to war for similar, stupid reasons, and they assume that: 1) They are smart, and 2) That Israelis would think the same way.

Let's contrast this with real reasons that Israel might go into Gaza:

Because Qassam rockets are still being fired at alarming rates, despite promises five months ago to curtail them. Israel's restraint has been rewarded with more rockets, not less.
Because its human intelligence from Gaza has deteriorated since the withdrawal from Gaza and it needs to be improved.
To increase Israel's bargaining position to get Gilad Shalit back.

Anyone with a passing familiarity with Israel would see that one set of reasons are simply stupid and the other set is consistent with how Israel thinks, since before 1948.

Meaningful negotiations are impossible with a people whose "best and brightest" are so incredibly clueless. They cannot offer anything that Israel would want because they cannot fathom that Israel can legitimately want anything.

Latest conspiracy theory - evil Zionist pigs. Literally.

The latest conspiracy theory blaming evil Zionist pigs for all the world's problems now comes to include, literally, evil Zionist pigs:

A herd of wild boars on Tuesday attacked the cleaning workers of Salfit municipality while they were emptying a garbage truck.

The driver of the garbage truck, 'Umran Abu 'Umar, said "while I was emptying the garbage in the early morning, a group of boars attacked the workers who had to use the truck as a shield and kill one of the boars."

The wild boars are being released by Israeli settlers in order to destroy the plants and crops of Palestinians.

Keep in mind that Ma'an is by far the most objective and reliable of Palestinian Arab media site, yet they blame this wild animal attack on Israel with no shred of evidence. (They also bizarrely illustrate the story with a picture of a pig's head with a kaffiyeh.)

A similar claim was made in February:

Palestinian sources in Salfit, in the northern part of the West Bank, reported on Thursday that Israeli settlers released boars in Palestinian farmlands near Salfit, in the northern part of the West Bank.

Resident Abdul-Fattah Al Ghazzawi, 43, stated that the settlers released at least twenty boars that attacked his farmland and several surrounding farmlands and ate the plants.

The settlers kept the boars in the farmlands overnight and only moved them away on Thursday morning.

Al Ghazzawi added that the settlers have carried out several similar attacks against the farmlands recently, and that the number of attacks has significantly increased.

Those nefarious Jews training wild boars to attack poor PalArabs, damage their crops, and then return to the Jewish fields and leave them untouched?

Well, anything possible - after all, the Jews are training boars to sniff out land mines and terrorist bombs.

Hamas' terror cheerleaders

The Al Qassam Brigades website does not often include purposeful irony or humor, but the English version celebrated their launching of many Qassam rockets this morning with this "Good Morning, Israel" graphic:

(I have no doubt that EUdiots and other similar morons will look at this and see it as a sign of Hamas moderation - after all, they said "Israel" which is practically recognition!)

The accompanying article, celebrating the fact that Hamas is back in the direct rocket game, includes a couple of lovely comments from Hamas' English-speaking fans:

Qassam | Norway

Qassam Attack Against The Zionist jew Animals

Inshalla with Gods Help we will kill Every zionist and every Jew settler On palestinian Land..may God protect our soldiers in Izz el deen Brigades ..

Qassam Mujahida | United States

Lots of Qassam rockets and mortar shells

Good. Lots of Qassam and mortar. Al-Qassam Brigades has right to fire their rockets and mortar shells as the Zionists' attack on the Palestinians are continuing daily. And the Zionists refuse to stick to the ceasefire. Inshaa Allah they will cause severe damage and deaths to the illegal Zionist occupation.

The website actually has an entire forum section in English that is something to behold. The person quoted above, "Qassam Mujahida," is apparently an American woman who moderates some of the forums (although her command of English is pretty shaky - she might very well be a man in an Arab country trying to make Hamas look a bit more inclusive.)

In the unintentional irony department, there are lots of pictures of dead shaheeds (including one smiling in death,) body parts, blown up Humvees in Iraq, and posters celebrating Hamas' wonderful terror achievements:

Page after page of bloody and violent images with accompanying text exhorting all to kill the Zionists - and then there comes this curious cartoon asking

"Does the Zionists want peace with Hamas?"[sic]

But this cartoon showing Hamas extending its hand for peace with Israel was too much for the regulars in the forum:

thats not a good picture sister because it signifies hamas making compromise with the zionists and wanting to be a friend of them.

Norway's recognition of Hamastan, one month later

Reuters reports:

Norway said the month-long policy of international engagement with the Palestinian unity government, led by the Islamic group Hamas, was starting to bring results and helped avoid "civil war tendencies".

Norway was the first Western state to recognise the new Palestinian government last month and said it would soon be ready to resume aid to the Palestinians, raising criticism from Israel and the United States.

In an interview ahead of this week's NATO meeting in Oslo, Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called on the European Union and the United States to normalise economic relations with the Palestinian government to shore up its fragile institutions. "This type of engagement is slowly demonstrating results," Stoere told Reuters on Tuesday as Hamas's armed wing declared an end to a five-month-old ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel, despite the unity government's calls to keep the shaky truce.

Asked if Norway would consider suspending relations or aid if Hamas did not make good on its promises, Stoere said the time was not right to speculate on such scenarios.

"We should not underestimate the tremendous efforts it took for the Palestinian parties to come together and (we should) solidify what is still quite fragile," said Stoere.

The progress that Stoere notices are:

"We have a Palestinian government which has ended the most flagrant civil war tendencies, there has been an improvement in the security situation, the Arab countries have taken new initiative ... and you have stronger U.S. engagement, all these signs are positive," Stoere said.

So, according to Norway, the Fatah/Hamas civil war has been forestalled because Norway recognized them. I can just imagine the masked leaders of these terror organizations canceling their rumbles in appreciation to Norwegian peace moves.

Today, of course, we saw the biggest dividend of the Norwegian initiative - Hamas' rocket barrage in an attempt to kidnap Israeli soldiers. For some reason I don't think that Norway will take credit for that, though. And Hamas' announcement that the ceasefire against Israel is over will not make Norway budge either - because, of course, for them not to support Hamas' terrorism they might upset that delicate balance.

It is perhaps not coincidental that Norway, which is essentially a non-player on the world stage, identifies with Muslim terrorists whose incentive is also to prove Islamic relevance to the world. Norway's bucking the West shows the same infantile tendencies that Arabs and Muslims tend to show. And the egocentrism in the Norwegian statement, taking credit for every event in the region that can be construed as positive, is also very similar to Islamic egomania.

Abbas: "Cease fire" still on

Even though Hamas showered Israel with rockets and mortars today, and even though Hamas has said that its non-existent "cease fire" with Israel is over, Mahmoud Abbas knows better:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that a violation of a five-month ceasefire by Hamas was an exception and would not be repeated, while Israel should show restraint to avoid a security deterioration.

"The violation of the truce is an exceptional event that will not last," said Abbas at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome. "I take this opportunity to appeal to Israel to show the necessary self-control so that this will not happen again."

PalArab family shoots up Pal Legislative Council

Israel isn't the only place celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut with fireworks:

Dozens of Palestinian citizens broke into the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) building in Gaza City on Tuesday, carrying the corpse of a Palestinian youth.

The boy was killed on Sunday by unidentified gunmen after being abducted in the northern Gaza Strip.

Ma'an's reporter stated that family members of the murdered boy, Hasan Abu Sharikh, broke into the PLC building during its session and fired gunshots into the air.

The Abu Sharikh family shouted slogans condemning the state of chaos that prevails in the Palestinian territories and calling on the government, the minister of the interior and the PLC to reveal the killers of their son and punish them.

The family issued a statement in which they depicted the killers as "a merciless group which has gone astray, taking advantage of the lack of security to spread murder and chaos amongst the Palestinian people." The family affirmed that the murderers "will be revealed and pay for their crime."

A group called 'Army of Islam' claimed responsibility for the killing of Hasan Abu Sharikh in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, and claimed that it was an accident.

The group said in a statement, "The man was not meant to be killed. It was an error and we pledge before God and the family of Abu Sharikh that we will bear complete responsibility and repercussions." The statement also commended the Abu Sharikh family and said they had always played a significant role in the Palestinian struggle.

The group also pledged to punish the perpetrator according to Islamic law once the details of the incident are revealed.

Of course, the best way to fight against security chaos is to bring corpses into a parliamentary session and shoot "into the air" - indoors.

And here is an account of how Abu Sharikh was killed - sounds very "accidental:"

At approximately 17:00 on Sunday, 3 masked gunmen stormed a shop of electrical appliances belonging to Hasan Mahmoud Abu Sharekh, 51, from Jabalya refugee camp. The gunmen kidnapped Abu Sharekh. During the attack, the gunmen exchanged fire with members of the Executive Force of the Ministry of Interior who were in the area. Four people, including a member of the Executive Force, were wounded, and the kidnappers were able to leave the area taking Abu Sharekh with them. At approximately 19:00 on the same day, Abu Sharekh’s body was found near Barcelona Park in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. He was killed by a gunshot to the head.

Chag Sameach!

April, 1948: How the Arabs left Tiberias

In March, 1948, on the eve of Israeli independence, the Jews and Arabs of Tiberias forged a cease-fire:

Unfortunately, the truce was short-lived. Within weeks, Arabs started firing at the Jews, and the Haganah fought back:

Soon, the Jewish forces were proven superior again. And after the Jews defeated the Arabs, details emerged about what had happened earlier.

It seems that the Tiberias Arabs didn't want to fight the Jews, but Arabs from the outside infiltrated and attacked the Jews from the local Arab homes. Local Arabs even fought against the invading Arabs, but in the end they were forced to leave - by the invaders. Not for the first time, the larger Arab community cynically used the local Arabs who had no real quarrel with the Jews in order to achieve a political gain - that ended up hurting the Arabs themselves.

Evidence of this can be seen by the immediate aftermath of the Jewish victory, where the Jews themselves safeguarded the abandoned Arab homes from Arab looters. See also how the Jews, protecting the homes of their Arab neighbors, clearly want to see those neighbors return to their homes:

An opinion piece in the Palestine Post elaborated on how Tiberias' Arabs had turned into pawns as well as how the Jews, as a whole, had no interest in kicking out the Arabs from their nascent state.

In 1949, a very articulate Haifa Arab wrote a remarkable letter to the Palestine Post (2/6/49) in which he laid the greatest share of the blame for the Arab refugee crisis on the British, and he claimed that the British were the ones who forcibly moved the Tiberias Arabs to Transjordan:

The Editor, The Palestine Post
Sir, — Mr. Bevin appears to
hold the Jews responsible for
the flight of the Palestine Arabs.
Although the Israel military
forces destroyed certain Arab
villages and carried out wholesale
transportation of their occupants,
yet the primary responsibility
for the panicky
flight of the Arabs is the British
Government's. Whether intended
or not, there can be no
doubt that the mischief originat -
ed from the conduct of the
British, and not from the attitude
of the Israeli Government.

There is ample evidence
for this statement.

The sequence of occurrences
showed that the British Government
had no intention or
desire to enforce law and order,
and that Palestine Administration
was labouring to create an
atmosphere permeated with fear
and alarm. No effective measure
was adopted by the authorities,
civil and military, to ensure
safety. On the contrary, they
encouraged disorder and disobedience
of the law, and countenanced
insubordination. They
allowed a large force of armed
Arabs to infiltrate into the country,
and to roam about with
impunity. Palestine was virtually
converted into two antagonistic
armed camps under the
eyes and nose of the Mandatory
Power. Huge quantities of arms
and ammunition were openly
smuggled in, and recruiting and
drilling of combatants became
conimonplace events. ...

Secondly, the idea that the
Arabs should quit their homes
was advanced, sponsored and
propagated by the British. The
Government of Palestine granted
its officers three months' pay
in advance, and facilitated the
departure on leave of Arab of -
ficers to adjacent territories.
British companies, such as the
Iraq Petroleum Company, and
Steel Bros. & Company, unnecessarily
transferred a part
of their offices and the majority
of their Arab employees to the Lebanon.
And generally, the at -
titude of the responsible British
authorities was such as to infuse
into the minds and hearts of the
Arab population a feeling of
consternation and the belief that
their departure was a logical
necessity , or, at least, a prudent
precaution.

Thirdly, it was the British, and
not the Jews, who first put into
effect the dislodgement and deportation
of the Arab popula -
tion. When conditions in Tiberias,
where the friendly relations
between Arabs and Jews formed
a bright illustration of the
possibility of the two communities
co-operating, became acute,
the British authorities forcibly
transported the Arab inhabitants
en masse to Trans-Jordan. They
did not take any action
toward pacification and restoration
of peace and order. It was
their evident duty to do so;- but
instead of discharging their obligation
with honesty and dignity
they discarded it with
ignominy, and compelled the
Arabs to abandon their homes
and belongings and seek refuge
in the contiguous Arab territory.

Yours, etc.
E .N. KOUSSA

I don't know how accurate Mr. Koussa's claims are, but they make a certain amount of sense. Even so, the British didn't act in a vacuum, and they were almost certainly acting in ways that their Arab allies wanted them to.

What is clear, though, is that (as in Haifa,) the Jews did not drive out the Arabs of Tiberias and the people who claim a pre-meditated ethnic cleansing are simply liars.

South Koreans vs. Muslims, part 3

I wrote two postings contrasting the visceral shame and embarrassment that South Koreans experienced after the VA Tech massacre compared to the infantile abdication of responsibility that Muslims exhibited after 9/11.

A wonderful example of exactly this kind of puerile Muslim reaction can be seen in this article in the PakTribune by Ahmer Muzammil, where the author attempts to contrast US reaction to a South Korean nutcase with his fantasy of how Americans would have reacted if the shooter had been a Muslim:

Would it have changed the fact that this was a deeply disturbed not to mention chronically ill man? Would the media, neo-cons and Zionists react in the same manner? Would there be plans to attack another Muslim country even though it had nothing what so ever to do with the heinous crime? Is South Korea where CHO hailed from a clear and present danger now and hence should be the beneficiary of Daisy Cutters and other “Marvels of Science” that we have invented for the well-being of human race? If you are able to answer these questions honestly than it should become obvious, that we live in a very sad, hypocritical, prejudice and bigoted world.

In addition to the international dynamic, domestically speaking all things being as they are now, only If CHO had been Muslim, even a non practicing one at that, you can rest assure that there would have been mass arrests, migrations and intimidation of Muslims thru out the country. There would have been threatening phone calls to the masajids, our sisters who wear Hijab would have been harassed. The MSA’s(Muslim Students Association) would have received threats; Muslim women on campus would have been scared because most of them are identifiable thru their head-covering.

Strawman arguments are but one aspect of an immature person; but the fact that even after 9/11 very little of his imagined harassment happened shows how utterly deranged many Muslims are. Here we have a textbook case of showing how Muslims as a whole cannot distinguish fact from fiction.

After some irrelevant blather, he comes to a punch line:

I realize that there are militants out there that are driven by there interpretation of Islam, however my question is that is Islam the driving force behind it or is it some form of injustice somewhere that is the catalyst? For way too long we have avoided these uncomfortable questions maybe because the Zionist lobby in Washington realizes that if this conversation starts then there jig would be up.

Can one even find a better example of infantilism than this "argument"? Instead of taking responsibility for his fellow Muslims, as the South Koreans did with the shooter, he circles around to blaming the victims instead - for their perceived "injustice" that is as imaginary as his litany of how the US would expel thousands of Muslims had the shooter been Muslim.

Thanks, Mr. Muzammil, for illustrating my point about the immaturity of most Muslims so perfectly.

JIB awards are upon us

The 2007 JIB Awards are here. If you are interested in getting me to the finals in the category of Best Pro-Israel Advocacy Blog, go here and vote. If, on the other hand, you can't stand this blog, go there and vote for someone else.

Unlike other years, you can only vote once per each subcategory. So choose carefully!

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Three PalArabs were killed, including two brothers, in Gaza (Haitham and Mohammed Abu Amr and Hassan Abuscherkh, in autotransliteration.)

We've also recently seen gun attacks, drive-by shootings, accidental explosions and machine gun fire, bombings at an American university in Gaza, bomb threats, a PalArab journalist injured - the usual mayhem.

Israel is uncharacteristically aggressively attacking terrorists this weekend, with about 8 terrorists killed and 1 civilian (a sister of a wanted terrorist who stayed in the house after Israel asked everyone to leave.) So this week the PalArabs have to work hard to keep their streak going of killing each other faster than Israel is.

UPDATE: Paltoday.org (Arabic only) adds a fourth PalArab victim of PalArab violence Sunday, named Imad Abu Hussein. This brings the self-death count this year to 182.

UPDATE 2: Paltoday adds a 12-year old boy named Muhammad Al-Saadi was shot and killed Monday. 183. Ma'an adds a 5-year old girl was shot in the head by one of those "mysterious gunmen," critically injuring her.

UPDATE 3: A Hamas commander died of wounds he got two months ago in Hamas/Fatah fighting. 184.

UPDATE 4: From PCHR, another child who killed himself from finding a weapon at home:

At approximately 03:00 on Tuesday morning, 24 April 2007, medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City declared that Haitham Mohammed Bulbul, 12, from al-Sha’af neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, died from a wound he had sustained on Monday. The child was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the chest at approximately 22:00 on Monday, when he mishandled a gun at home.

185.

UPDATE 5: A woman died, and others were injured including a 70-year old man, in a clan clash in the Bureij camp in Gaza on Wednesday. 186.

Shame, responsibility and maturity

As a follow-up to my earlier posting on the differences between how South Koreans are acting to the AV Tech massacre versus Arab reaction to 9/11, there is still a nagging issue that needs to be addressed.

It has been long recognized that the West has a guilt culture and the Arab and Eastern worlds are a shame culture. He have discussed many times how Arab conceptions of "honor" (which is just a manifestation of shame) are so foreign to Western ears, and are critical in understanding the differences between us.

But here we have a stark contrast between two cultures that are both recognized as shame cultures: the Arab world and the Asian (in this case, South Korean) world. If they are nominally the same, why are their reaction so diametrically different?

I believe that the answer lies in another dimension of their respective psyches, namely, maturity. The Korean reaction to VA Tech represents a mature instantiation of a shame culture, while the Arab responses to the multitude of terror attacks is clearly immature.

I would argue that the single biggest difference between immature and mature people are their respective abilities to take responsibility.

A child will go through a number of steps instead of admitting guilt - he may lie, or try to put the blame on someone else, or claim extenuating circumstances - not only in an attempt to avoid punishment, but also often so as not to admit to himself that he is guilty.

Growth comes from learning to act responsibly and learning to take responsibility.

Compare the Arab world to Japan. Both suffered humiliating wartime losses in the 1940s. It can be argued that Japan lost much more, as it had a formidable war machine and it was not just defeated but forced to surrender unconditionally. And both of them have strong shame cultures.

Yet only decades later, with very few natural resources, Japan turned itself around into an economic and technological powerhouse that became the envy of the West. The Arab world, in contrast, had the misfortune of sitting on billions of barrels of oil.

Japan was forced to grow up in a hurry. The Arab world, with the cushion of petrodollars, had the luxury of becoming the spoiled brats of the planet, building playgrounds for the super-rich in the Gulf. Is there any real psychological difference between the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s and a boy who takes his football back when the game doesn't go the way he wants?

In short, the shame/honor dynamic may explain many of the Arab world's psychoses, but it doesn't explain them all. We need to add the dynamic of an infantile culture as well. And the VA Tech outrage shines a brilliant light on the contrast between a mature shame culture and a puerile one.