Israel — The Legacy of a Perpetrator Society
(If you have received this by email, please click on the title to access the most up-to-date version. I often continue to edit and correct typos after publishing the first version)
This is not a scholarly essay. This is my personal testimony as someone who was born into, and grew up in a perpetrator society that does not recognise itself as such. It is self-evident that perpetrator societies do not see themselves for what they are, nor do they recognise their crimes for what they are. If they did, they would either stop themselves before they started, or somewhere along the way. If there is ever any reckoning, or soul-searching in perpetrator societies it usually comes far too late for their victims. I am not holding my breath about Israel.
When I was in primary school I was deeply bothered by the persistent message that ‘everyone hated us’, and ‘no one wanted Israel/us to live in peace’. I could not understand why. Why me? I was only a child, and I did not do anything to anyone. I had to accept that the world hated me because I was an Israeli.
There is no distinction between ‘me’, and ‘us’ in Israel. The collective and the individual are one and the same. Your identity is given to you by society from the moment you are born. In the Israeli cult, as in all cults, the group comes before the individual. Belonging to the group not only depends on conformity to the group’s philosophy of life and perception of reality, but is also the highest value in a person’s life. Without complete loyalty to Israel, individuals are worthless. Or as a Zionist Rabbi once told me, ‘You are a useless human being devoid of any values’.
Israel tells its people that only when Jews are finally safe, can they ‘indulge’ in universal values, sing Kymbaya, and ‘love their neighbour’, if they so wish. Like all perpetrator societies, Israeli Jews believe that they will only have peace when their designated ‘enemy’, the Palestinian people, are all gone. Only then will they feel safe, so they believe.
Israel’s settler-colonial project began in the late 1800s with the birth of the Zionist movement. Israel has now ethnically cleansed the Palestinians from almost all of Palestine, but has not yet managed to eliminate all of them. Israelis see the Palestinians as nothing more than a dangerous irritation, a nuisance. Like a home with an infestation of a dangerous life-form that bother the inhabitants. Only after they eradicate the entire infestation, could the inhabitants relax and feel safe in their home. I am using this chilling analogy, because it is an accurate description of Israel’s attitude to the Palestinian people. Like all colonialist, and settler-colonialist perpetrator societies Israel does not view the indigenous people as human beings. This began with the early Zionists, and Israel has indoctrinated its entire citizenship to think the same way. You cannot commit a genocide if your population feels empathy to those targeted for elimination. Words like ‘dehumanisation’ and ‘demonisation’ do not even begin to do justice to what the Palestinians have been suffering at the hands of Israel.
The Israeli cult thinks that it will have peace when it gets rid of all the Palestinians, but in cults there can never be a sense of safety, or peace. A perpetual foreboding, a feeling of imminent danger, threat, urgency and emergency are the lifeblood of cults. They do not know how else to live. It is unsustainable, which is why some cults have ended up committing group suicide. Israeli society is in the process of imploding, because humans cannot live like this forever. But there is no telling how long this could take, and how much harm Israel will continue to cause along the way.
The Israeli media constantly hype up and stir the public’s fear, and sense of doom. I lived through the same in my twenty-seven years there. When I realised it would never change, I left. Nothing in Israel has changed since its beginnings, and certainly since I was born. The only thing that is different is that with the ongoing support Israel enjoys, it is now more brazen, and openly genocidal, and more outrageous than it has ever been.
When, as a child and a teenager, I tried to find out why ‘everyone’ hated ‘us’, the only answer was ‘because we are Jews’. I still have a pile of old letters from a boyfriend I had when I was in my last year in high school. He was already in the military, and subjected to massive indoctrination in his officers’ training. He sent me many letters filled with ruminations, and inner torment, always asking the same questions, “Why do they all hate us so much? What did we do? Why do they make our lives so miserable, and so difficult? Why don’t they leave us alone?”
As for why everyone (allegedly) hated us, the answer we were given is that they, the non-Jewish rest of the world could not help it. Hatred of Jews, antisemitism as we were taught to call it, was an ancient, almost supernatural, demon-like, thing that plagued everyone who was not Jewish. It was passed into newborn babies with their ‘mothers’ milk’, we were told already in primary school, and at home too. ‘Passed on with mothers’ milk’ is a lay-person’s way of saying that it is genetic. Inevitable. Innate. Immutable. Everyone is powerless over it, Jews and non-Jews alike. The demon of antisemitism is bigger than all of us. We were taught that antisemitism, this frightening supernatural force, may occasionally lie dormant for a time, or in some places. In such times, or places Jews may enjoy some peace and security, but this is only temporary. This hatred that never really goes away would inevitably rise again, and when it does, I, and everyone else I know, would once again face the threat of annihilation. The obvious and inevitable conclusion was that we could never trust anyone, and that we have to huddle together with our people in a fortified, and fully armed ghetto for our protection and survival. That ghetto is Israel. Nowhere else is safe. (I truly believed this, and when I first moved to Australia I was genuinely afraid).
Israel is obsessed with genetics. Its entire concept of Jewishness, nationhood, and belonging is based on the profoundly false idea that Jews are a ‘race’, and that Jewish ‘blood’ is somehow different from that of the rest of humanity. Because Jewishness is supposedly ‘in the blood’ you can never escape it. Once a Jew, always a Jew. You do not even have to believe in God, or practice Jewish religion. As far as Israel is concerned, you can even be a Buddhist, and still be a Jew.
Even more importantly, Israeli society is driven by the unscientific, and eye-wateringly false belief that ‘race’, blood, determines a person’s character. For a society that prides itself on its technological and scientific progress and ingenuity, this is unfathomably primitive. Where are all the Israeli academics, and scholars who could so easily challenge this nonsense? They are nowhere to be found, because their loyalty to the cult is stronger than their scientific integrity. They just stay away from the topic. Underneath Israel’s veneer of progress, lies a deeply primitive psychology.
To prevent doubts, our eduction, more accurately, indoctrination was saturated with examples that proved that our philosophy of life was correct. The stories of the Bible presented as history, told about perpetual Jewish victimhood, as an inseparable part of our identity. Most Jewish festivals are almost always focused on some threat of annihilation, and a miraculous deliverance by God. There is a long history of Jewish persecution to feed this belief system, and we were heavily immersed in studying every detail of the holocaust, taught from a Zionist perspective. It is a fact that Jews were persecuted horribly, but so have many other people across the world, and throughout human history. Israel, however, teaches its people that Jews are the only victims, and the greatest victims in human history, and that Jewish victimhood is not in the past. It is right now.
Israeli society wallows in its own perceived victimhood, vulgar emotionality, self-pity, and smug self-satisfaction at their belief that they are smarter than everyone else, and more progressive. If you could only listen in to conversations among Israeli tourists, when they visit other countries. It does not matter what Israel does to others, only Israel’s own suffering matters to its people, because it is the only suffering that exists. Readers who know Hebrew are welcome to explore the social media pages of Israeli Jews, or the websites of their media. You will need a strong stomach.
Yesterday, I decided to visit the Facebook pages of my former sisters-in-law from my first marriage. (I was twenty-three when I married my first husband in Israel in 1987). We are not Facebook ‘friends’, of course. But there is enough that is available publicly on their pages. I do not often look, but from time to time I search for little signs of self-awareness, maybe a hint of awakening from the stupor of the cult. But it is not there. I thought that perhaps since Israel has gone completely psychotic, maybe those staunch, brainwashed patriots might start asking questions. But no such luck. The more Israel escalates, the more heinous its behaviour, the more crimes against humanity it commits, the more fanatical its people become in their support of their cult state.
The Facebook cover photo of the older sister (far right in the photo) is a banner fashioned in the colours of the Israeli flag. It reads “I don’t have another land/country” (Ein li eretz acheret / אין לי ארץ אחרת). This phrase is taken from a famous 1986 Israeli song. The lyrics are by the ultra Zionist, and much loved and revered poet, the late, Ehud Manor. The tune, by a talented female composer, Corin Al-al. The song is still played on Israeli radios today. Here is my translation of the refrain (it all rhymes well in Hebrew):
I don’t have another country
Even if my land is burning
Only a word in Hebrew penetrates
My veins, my soul
With an aching body, with a hungry heart,
Here, is my home.
אין לי ארץ אחרת
גם אם אדמתי בוערת
רק מילה בעברית חודרת
אל עורקיי, אל נשמתי
בגוף כואב, בלב רעב
כאן הוא ביתי
I cannot imagine what any Palestinian would feel just reading this. It is obscene. This song is only one in an endless list of sickeningly nationalistic, saccharine, stomach-churning, melodramatic popular Israeli songs, used in Israel’s extensive informal propaganda and indoctrination.
(I thought of sharing my ex sister-in-law’s Facebook cover photo here, but I cannot bring myself to post such a photo on my page, even if it is just for illustration. It feels too dirty).
Israeli Hebrew literature and poetry, supposedly a higher form of art than popular music, are filled with examples of the same self-absorbed, self-righteous mindset. Even the 2000 short story collection, Apples from the Desert by the Israeli female writer Savyon Liebrecht is filled with the quintessential Israeli self-absorption. I say ‘even’, because compared with many other writers, Liebrecht’s stories at least flirt, albeit cautiously, with some sense of compassion for the Palestinians.
When I came across Liebrecht’s book, not long after it was published, it offered me some comfort, and validation. I was just taking my first baby steps at questioning my indoctrination, and I was looking for allies within Israel. I guess I needed someone there to tell me I was ‘not a bad person’. I still needed ‘permission’ from the cult to think my new thoughts. I did not yet grasp properly at the time how much my personal psychology was colonised and dominated by Israel’s cult groupthink. I was still trying to comprehend why I felt so tormented, and so guilty when I started to feel real empathy for the Palestinian people.
I no longer require either comfort, or validation from Israel, or Israelis. It has been many years since I psychologically disengaged from the cult. I feel at peace with my values and principles. I also know it is nothing special. I am just a human being who should feel empathy for any human being who is subjected to injustice, abuse, and murder. It does not matter who the perpetrators, or the victims are. It is everyone’s duty to speak out for those who are abused at the hands of other human beings, and call out the perpetrators.
The book that I once admired, I now see as another example of Israeli smugness, and faux self-reflection. Liebrecht is just another Israeli Jewish writer who omits the most important fact about Israel’s existence, the rot at the very core of Israel’s being. Israeli academics, scholars, writers, thinkers, and commentators always attempt to analyse Israel’s societal problems without ever acknowledging, let alone addressing, Israel’s genocidal, settler-colonial identity, history, and purpose. Acknowledging settler-colonialism is a strictly forbidden taboo in the Israeli cult, on par with feeling empathy for the Palestinians. At the heart of all the social and psychological problems that plague perpetrator societies is the fact that they are perpetrators.
Psychologically well people do not harm others. To perpetrate you already have to be unwell. Once you perpetrate, you spiral ever deeper into a slippery moral abyss, from which there is no escape. You cannot murder, or commit genocide and expect to be well, and feel good about life. To stop the downward spiral, you first have to stop perpetrating. You then have to start looking in a real mirror, own up, seek redemption through making amends, and become the kind of human, or society that can do no harm.
The vast majority of Israeli society supports its government, and especially its military. If some people there do not like Netanyahu, it is not because he is bad to the Palestinians, but because he is not bad enough. The chance that Israeli society would ever reflect, or change from within is slim at best.
Below is an English translation of my ex sister in-law’s (far right in the photo) description of a project she has initiated. She names herself and her sister (the school principal in the far left of the photo) as the people to contact to get those candles, or labels. My ex sisters-in-law are both educated professionals, and they are an example of mainstream Jewish-Israel. (I have no interest in exposing their names or phone numbers, although they are in the post, which is in the public domain).
For 9 years every day Zichron, the "Candle for the Soul" program has been operating to commemorate the IDF victims and the murderers of the terror actions.
This year the program will also work on the anniversary of the massacre of 7/10/2023.
As part of the program labels and/or soul candles will be distributed including labels with the names of the murdered and a barcode scribbled that leads to their life story.
Schools, organizations, companies and others that want to participate in the memorial program please contact … or …
I would appreciate it if you would share.
This and things like this are what Israeli people do while their country murders tens of thousands of human beings in Gaza. Countless tortured, bodies mutilated, tens of thousands of children dead. Millions traumatised. Those who are still alive in Gaza have been bombed into homelessness, destitution, hunger, disease, and psychological, and emotional suffering beyond my comprehension. Israel has destroyed their lives, and has taken everything from them. Israel is toying with the survivors, bombing their tents, and make-shift shelters, preventing them from accessing clean water, medical care, or sanitation, and shoves them from one corner of Gaza to another, where they keep bombing them. The Colonised West Bank is well on the way to becoming another Gaza. Israel is bombing Lebanon indiscriminately, destroying the lives of Lebanese citizens, damaging properties, and traumatising everyone. My sister-in-law and the majority of Israeli society do not care about anyone but themselves. They wallow in their own losses, while committing unspeakable crimes against humanity. The people Israel is losing did not have to die, and they died for nothing. If Israel did not perpetrate settler-colonialism and genocide, these people would still all be alive. But Israel is a country that likes to pretend that it does not have a choice, that everything is imposed on it by others, and Israel is just ‘defending’ itself.
Israel is by no means finished. Israel is behaving belligerently, criminally and particularly outrageously, because it is trying to provoke a big war. Israel is desperate for a war, and it is growing impatient. Israel wants a big war because making millions of people disappear is not so easy when the whole world is watching. A big war will provide the necessary smokescreen, behind which Israel can complete the elimination of the Palestinian people, once and for all. Even Hitler waited until he had a big war, before he carried out his program to exterminate Jews, Catholics, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others who did not fit the crackpot race theory he believed in.
Israel’s only goal is the completion of the Zionist settler-colonial project. It will not stop until every last Palestinian is removed from historic Palestine by any means necessary, and is replaced with what Israel calls Jews. Israel does not care who, or how many die in the course of its insane determination to complete its settler-colonial ambition. American and British soldiers, UN observers, and peacekeepers, journalists, medics, civilians everywhere, including Israel’s own are all expendable.
I cannot stomach the way the rest of the world continues to indulge a perpetrator society like Israel. Instead of stopping this psychopathic, psychotic, homicidal, state that is on a premeditated murder spree, our countries are arming Israel and continue to provide it with diplomatic immunity. Those who could stop Israel, choose to support it instead.
To ask Israeli Jews to recognise their terrible sin, their crime of settler-colonialism is asking the impossible. Any mirror Jewish Israeli society looks into, shows it what it wants to see. It reflects a false image of a sensitive, innocent, gentle, refined, deep, caring, peace-loving people who are innocent victims of an unfair and irrational hatred. Israel’s perception of its own innocence, and its own victimhood is hard to put up with, when the devastation Israel unleashes on the Palestinians and the Lebanese people lies bare for everyone to see. Israel cannot be reasoned with. It must be stopped. None of our so-called leaders will be able to say they did not know. They must not be allowed to. We are telling them. I am telling them.
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Thank you so much for reading my work!
As I said to Joy, it is not difficult. It is a relief. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and your empathy.
I salute your bravery. You are not alone in your views. See Avi Shlaim, Gideon Levy, Shlomo Sands, Norman Finkelstein, Anthony Lowenstein. Such a tragedy.