This paper examines Jewish Israeli society at the present stage of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The second Intifada started in
September 2000, following the breakdown of the Oslo peace
negotiations. During this period, the Israeli tendency to believe
in, and rely on, power has intensified to a toxic level. Israel's
enormous military arsenal (endlessly renewed by the US) reinforces
this reliance on the use of force. Politically, excessive use of
force does not work: Both national security and personal safety are
deteriorating in Israel. This is destabilizing for the Israeli
psyche, both at the individual and collective level. Psychological
disturbances that are becoming apparent include the avoidance of
historical awareness, splitting, an image of oneself as a victim,
increased aggression within society, cognitive dissonance, a sense
of personal uncertainty, manifestations of psychological trauma,
and the prevalence of dehumanization, demonization and antisocial
behavior.
The Israeli leadership manipulates the public to justify its
excessive use of force, which is psychologically harmful for
Israelis. On the one hand, s/he is eager to agree that the
Palestinians are a permanent and cruel enemy and that overpowering
them is the only option. On the other hand s/he sees with her/his
own eyes that, in spite of the excessive use of force, the
situation is getting steadily worse. This leads to confusion,
disorientation and fear in the Israeli public.
The complexity of these psychological disturbances prevents the
individual Israeli from developing an insight and understanding of
their situation, which is essential for good mental health. Such
insight would contradict what the Israeli militaristic hegemony
wants and dictates. It might enable critical thinking about the
principle of relying on the use of force alone, and the destruction
caused to the Palestinians and within Israel.
The Avoidance of Historical Awareness
Conflict avoidance "arises from the simultaneous presence of two or
more equal threats..." (Colman, p73)*. In the Israeli case, the two
threats are: perceptions of the past, and perceptions of the
future. Seeing the past accurately implies recognizing Israel's
role in precipitating violent Palestinian reactions in the present.
This is threatening, as it would make Israel largely responsible
for the present terror. Having a vision for the future requires the
vision of a just peace. This is threatening, as a just peace would
involve returning the occupied lands to the Palestinians. The
vision of any return of territories falsely presented by all
Israeli governments as "safety zones" is saturated with fear
because it is seen as the beginning of the end of the Jewish state.
By avoiding both past and future, Israelis reduce their historical
vision to zero. The dominant Israeli assumption is that relations
between Israelis and Palestinians began when Prime Minister Ehud
Barak offered his "generous" plan to President Yasser Arafat and
the Palestinians reacted with a violent uprising.
Reducing the historical perspective goes hand in hand with reduced
thinking in general, particularly critical thinking. Avoiding
historical analysis obliterates the potential for insight, and
silences public political discourse: No voices of political
opposition are heard. Refusing to look into the past is refusing to
take responsibility for one's actions in the past. In the same way,
the incapacity to envision the future amounts to refusing to take
responsibility for one's actions in the present. If a state of war
is to be preserved, as the present government desires, it is useful
to avoid recognition of the ways in which Israeli actions played a
part in causing current catastrophes.
Splitting
In Kleinian analysis, splitting is "the most primitive of all
defense mechanisms, in which instinctual objects that evoke
ambivalence and therefore anxiety are dealt with by
compartmentalizing positive and negative emotions, leading to
images of self and others that are not integrated" (Colman,
p700).
The Israeli worldview is sharply divided into "us"- Israelis, right
and just - and "them" - Palestinians, wrong and evil. From a
developmental perspective this is an infantile dichotomy. Leading
Israeli figures, such as the prime minister, chief of staff, etc.,
say the IDF is the purest, most ethical army in the world, while
the Palestinians are murderous liars and terrorists. This distorted
binary of good and evil obstructs a coherent perception of reality.
Anything inconsistent with this distorted reality is not
recognized; no comprehensive causality can exist in that frame of
mind.
Splitting means large parts of reality can remain unseen. The
suffering of the Palestinians can be ignored, since it is
attributed to their evil nature. This makes any public discussion
of the situation superfluous. Those who oppose the war against the
Palestinians become outcasts. Above all, splitting is necessary to
maintain basic Israeli assumptions that we are good, just,
righteous, victims and always united.
Self-Image as a Victim
Self-evaluation (self-image) is "one's attitude toward oneself or
one's opinion or evaluation of oneself, which may be positive
(favorable or high), neutral, or negative (unfavorable or low)"
(Colman, p660). The image of oneself as the victim is, in this
context, both negative and positive. On the negative side, a victim
is helpless, powerless and unfortunate. On the positive side the
victim is, by definition, free of responsibility and blame;
perceiving oneself as victim can serve as a justification for
wrongdoing.
Israelis have held on to their historical victim status long past
its salient historical time. The State of Israel is the strongest
military power in the Middle East and possesses nuclear capacities,
the strongest air force and many other sophisticated weapons.
Israel occupies Palestine and controls the lives and movement of
Palestinians, as well as their natural resources and economy. In
spite of all this, Israelis maintain they are the Palestinians'
victims.
I see this psycho-dynamic in individuals in therapy: When
perceiving oneself as a victim, a person feels entitled to be cruel
and unjust, deriving his/her energy from fear, anger and hate, and
creating similar feelings in his/her partner. A vicious cycle is
set in motion. Death and destruction caused by Palestinian suicide
bombers in Israel fuels these feelings.
Increased Aggression and Violence within Israeli
Society
"Aggression is behavior whose primary or sole purpose or function
is to injure another person or organism, whether physically or
psychologically" (Colman p. 18). Socialization limits and restrains
aggression, directing people toward respecting the lives, dignity
and property of others. Society ascertains these goals by exacting
a high price for behavior which violates it. In Israel today, the
lives of others are held to be cheap. Compassion, tolerance and
respect for others is lacking. There is no universal standard for
the value of human life. The lives of Jewish Israelis are
considered more valuable than those of Palestinian Israeli
citizens, or of migrant workers and sex workers. Palestinians from
the Occupied Territories are at the bottom of the scale, their land
confiscated, their houses demolished, and their lives extinguished
through indiscriminate murders and killings. Palestinians' dignity
is shattered on a daily basis at the Israeli army checkpoints
placed in every village, town and city.
One should also think about a connection between serving in the
Israeli army in the Occupied Territories and the sharp increase in
violence inside Israel. During the past two years, Israel has had
the highest rates of juvenile violence in the world. Moreover,
according to Haaretz journalist Vered Levi-Barzilai (Haaretz,
November 7, 2003), "In the past two or three years, dozens of cases
of murder or serious violence as a result of minor arguments have
accumulated. Attackers and victims vary in age and social
background. They have no typical characteristics except one: They
are all men."
A clear indicator of the mounting aggression is the rise in
domestic violence. The number of women murdered by family members
has more than doubled over the past three years, and the number of
rapes has increased. The scale of organized crime in the form of
murder, "protection" and trafficking in women has risen to a level
previously unknown in Israel. An army can be seen as the bank in
which citizens of a nation deposit a portion of their aggression,
in the belief that it will be managed wisely for the protection of
the group. In Israel's case, the army has unwisely refunded too
much of the use of this aggression to the depositors. Other parts
of the Israeli system, such as the government and the Supreme
Court, do not do their part in supervising and controlling the use
of aggression. No wonder, then, that aggression rules - not only in
the Occupied Territories but also within Israel - within the
family, on the street and everywhere.
Cognitive Dissonance
Two cognitions (items of knowledge or belief) where one
psychologically follows from the converse of the other are
considered dissonant. "The dissonance relation is a motivating
state of tension that tends to generate ... dissonance-reducing
behaviors" (Colman, p141).
Since the outbreak of the second Intifada, a new kind of fear has
emerged in the Jewish Israeli public, in addition to the normal
personal fear of being killed. This new fear stems from a cognitive
dissonance. Two cognitions that Israelis hold are the converse of
each other. One belief is that the use of force will guarantee
Israel's national survival, and assure Israelis' individual safety.
This agrees with the Israeli assumption that "the Palestinians only
understand force." The other cognition, based in reality, is that
the greater the military force applied by Israel, the greater the
danger: Every time the Israeli army assassinates "wanted" persons
and other Palestinian civilians, more Israelis are killed by
Palestinian suicide bombers.
Palestinian "terrorist" actions unmask the fragility of the feeling
of safety based on the image of Palestinian submission and on the
total belief that using force against them is the ultimate answer
to the "Palestinian problem." The demand for more power against
Palestinians took the form of the slogan, "Let the IDF win," which
brought Ariel Sharon to power. But this has not worked, as could be
expected. The Palestinian uprising has not stopped. On the
contrary, it is getting worse. Therefore, even greater use of force
is demanded, but without success. This loop aggravates the
cognitive dissonance.
The mechanism of cognitive dissonance demands dissonance-reducing
behaviors. Israelis cannot give up the belief that force is
essential: This might destroy Israel's military character and
policies. On the other hand, Israelis cannot ignore the
overwhelming reality of children, women and men torn apart by
explosives detonated in buses and restaurants. They choose,
therefore, to turn a blind eye to the causal connection between
excessive Israeli military power and the Palestinians' violent
actions. This dissonance-reducing solution leads to feelings of
loss of control and helplessness. Despite all the power in their
hands, Israelis feel frightened, threatened and unprotected.
Uncertainty
Israel's continued use of excessive force, in spite of its failure
to achieve the expected outcomes, creates not only cognitive
dissonance, but serves as a foundation for another psychological
disturbance: personal uncertainty. Uncertainty is "[t]he situation
that exists when the outcome that will result from an action is not
known with certainty" (Colman, p765). A sense of personal certainty
is based on perceiving connections between one's actions and one's
life. The sense of safety, which is an outcome of one's ability to
predict the future, has been broken and has given way to a painful
sense of uncertainty. Prevented from seeing coherent connections
between action and results, Israelis do not see that humiliating
and killing Palestinians does not result in their surrender, but
rather in increased anger and hate. This is why violent Palestinian
actions always catch Israelis by surprise and leave them shocked,
scared and confused.
Psychological Trauma
When confidence in certainty is broken, psychological trauma
appears, expressed in disorientation, anxiety and fear. Other
symptoms might be an obsessive need for information expressed
through, for example, listening to the news constantly. There might
be excessive worry and fears, dysphoria or depression, rage, loss
of confidence in oneself and of trust in others, intolerance,
blaming others, or turning to mysticism, religion and extreme
political and social ideologies. All of these symptoms describe
psychological patterns currently prevalent in Israeli
society.
The Prevalence of Hate
This state of psychological trauma might be translated into hatred
and aggression, and/or into withdrawal and despair. Hate is the
inverted energy of love. It can serve the ego as a source of
energy, and might turn into an addiction. Hate nourishes angry
feelings and actions. Hate and anger will usually serve the ego
with a sense of righteousness, efficacy and self-preservation. As
in many addictions, comprehension of reality is very poor or even
absent. For the sake of a sense of well-being and
self-preservation, a person and/or a collective ridden with hate
are capable of destroying the environment, the other, and also
themselves.
Israeli self-hatred arose out of the (real and interpreted) Jewish
experience of being victims during World War II. The hatred of
Israel toward the image and the reality of Jews as victims was so
agonizingly deep and extensive that it could not be contained. It
was therefore projected onto the Palestinian "other." The more the
Palestinians' misery and passivity increased over the years, the
more they became, for Israelis, the object of their displaced
feelings of contempt and hatred. Being so close, both within the
borders of Israel and across the Green Line, they served as a
convenient repository for hatred.
On the one hand, the Palestinians were derided and hated for their
weakness. On the other, the Jewish experience of the Nazis as an
horrendous enemy was preserved and the Palestinians were seen as a
mythical extension of the Nazis as an overpowering enemy. Hatred of
the Palestinians thus serves an existential emotional need of
Jewish society. Israeli depersonalizing of Palestinians into
faceless enemies and the labeling of all Palestinians as terrorists
are mechanisms that sustain hate. The projection of hatred onto the
Palestinians enables the preservation of the self-righteous Israeli
Zionist self-image as morally pure, and serves as a cohesive force
in Jewish Israeli society. Perceiving the Palestinians as a hated
and mighty enemy (in spite of their evident weakness) provides
Israelis with the sense that their energies are invested in
self-preservation. Hatred towards the Palestinians functions as the
outlet of Israeli fear of inner fragmentation: The price paid for
inner peace is avoiding peace with the Palestinians.
Hatred becomes an addiction, a dominant guideline of Israeli
behavior. The pattern of violence toward the Palestinian enemy is
reproduced in patterns of violence, both between the different
groups within Israeli society and between individuals. The only
solidarity encouraged is the solidarity of hate.
Antisocial Behavior and the Policy of Separation
"Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive
pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others ...
manifested by repeated unlawful behavior ... irritability and
aggressiveness involving frequent assaults or fights ... and lack
of remorse for the mistreatment of others, as indicated by
indifference and rationalization" (Colman, p45).
In reaction to the second Intifada, Israel has attempted to deal
with its psychological trauma through the supposedly magical tactic
of "separation" from the Palestinians. This tactic is being applied
one-sidedly, with brutal force, without regard for, or consultation
with, the Palestinians. The new forms of "separation with control"
allow hatred to flourish. When viable human contacts are prevented,
the dehumanizing and even demonizing of the Palestinians can
prevail. The benefits of the previous period of contact, which
allowed for some mutual human awareness and dialogue with the other
side through commerce, labor, tourism and human rights activity,
have become a distant memory. The numerous military checkpoints
that control Palestinian movement are presented by Israel as
"temporary security measures." This is a blatant rationalization
for the deliberate attempt to destroy the fabric of Palestinian
civil society. Today's most extreme manifestation of Israeli
government's policy is the multi-million dollar "separation wall"
currently under construction within the Palestinian territories.
This monstrous barrier surrounds cities and groups of villages,
isolating and dividing them, with indifference to Palestinian
suffering the rule.
A lack of remorse for the mistreatment of others is characteristic
of antisocial personality disorder. The more extreme this
mistreatment, the more remarkable the lack of remorse for it. For
example, in the process of assassinating Salah Shehadeh in Gaza
(without due process), the Israeli air-force deployed a massive
bomb, killing 15 innocent victims (Amos Harel, Haaretz. November
11, 2003). The Air Force Commander-in-Chief Dan Chalutz's reply to
criticism for this action was that, in his view, the attack was
justified and it does not prevent him sleeping well at night.
In Conclusion: The Trauma of Peace
In early 1982, I analyzed the psycho-political condition of Israeli
society under the title "The trauma of peace", saying the severe
fragmentation of Israeli society into various sectors that took
place at the time required a war as a remedy for social
disintegration. Therefore the impending peace in the north, in
Lebanon, following the peace treaty signed with Egypt in the south,
brought up an inner threat of fragmentation and disintegration to
the degree that it produced psychological trauma. I predicted a war
that would "save" Israel from the trauma of the peace.
Now, more than ever, on the emotional level, Israeli society is in
need of an enemy that would let it continue avoiding its internal
conflicts. An enemy can solve the problem of Israel's need to
create and maintain its own cohesiveness and internal borders. Only
an external enemy will provide the necessary glue to overcome the
internal hatred between secular and Orthodox, between Jewish
settlers in the Occupied Territories and the Zionist left, between
the haves and the have-nots, and the different ethnic groups. It
might also keep Israeli Palestinians from demanding their share of
the collective cake.
On one part of the separation barrier on the road to Jerusalem, a
concrete divide blocks the view of Palestinian villages from
Israelis traveling along the road. Uncomfortable with the grayness
of the military concrete, some enterprising people have painted a
pastoral view on the wall: painted trees and houses, a painted sky,
a painted landscape empty of people. This act represents more than
ever the process Israeli society has undergone: Rather than
accepting the presence of another people on these lands, they
forcibly block them out - and block them in - and wishfully paint a
fake image of a land empty of people.
This virtual reality serves as a substitute for insight. I am
afraid that only a huge shock can bring about a change in Israeli
public opinion and in its policy-makers. Israelis might then invest
in a just peace with the Palestinians instead of justifying the
occupation and investing in it so much of their resources and their
peace of mind.
*All definitions cited in this paper are from Andrew M. Colman
(2001) "Dictionary of Psychology", Oxford University Press.
I am grateful to Prof. Nira Reiss for her help in composing this
paper.
