DEMOPHRENIA

(1990)

From its inception in 1948, the government of Israel, regardless of which party or coalition was at its helm, has been afflicted by a mental disorder which I call "demophrenia."

Demophrenia is a deeply rooted malady of national and even of world-historical significance.а It involves a logical but compulsive application of democratic principles to moral problems and ideological conflicts which are impervious to, and even exacerbated by, those principles.а This disorder is most advanced in Israel, for its government is animated by a democratic mentality in conflict with the moral and territorial imperatives of Zionism, and ineffectual against the anti-democratic mentality of Israel's Arab inhabitants and neighbors.

The discussion of demophrenia that follows will be better understood if the reader will bear in mind certain characteristics of schizophrenia.а Some schizophrenics, like those afflicted by demophrenia, may be able to deal efficiently with various parts of reality.а

In principle, however, schizophrenics suffer from a lack of congruity between the three psychological elements that form the personality, namely, the intellect, the emotions or affective reactions, and the will.а Confronted by recalcitrant aspects of reality, schizophrenics exhibit mental decrepitude and emotional apathy or impotence.а Symptomology includes autism, paranoia, and escapism.а

Although demophrenia exhibits all these characteristics, the disease is far more complex and profound, and more difficult to recognize, if only because it involves the dominant mentality of our age.

The late Professor Gil Carl AlRoy once trenchantly observed:а "One cannot help being astounded at the sheer determination with which the Yishuv [the Jewish community in Palestine] for so long denied conflict with Arabs--in the face of conflict.а There was an extraordinary tension here between the empirical world and personal and group conceptualization."а When conflict was admitted, secular Zionists explained it away by saying the "Arabs did not truly wish it, but were put up to it by others"; or that Arab hostility, while real, "was contrary to the essence of the [fraternal Semitic] relationship," to the "historic alliance of Jews and Muslims."ааа

Many secular, and not a few religious, Jews cannot cope with Arab animosity.а Else they would not advocate the escapist policy of "territory for peace."а Underlying this escapism is a lack of Judaic self-confidence.а This defect is rooted in Jewish assimilation to the secular and egalitarian mentality of our age.а

In contrast, Islamic mentality is not only religious, but its most humble adherents are incredibly proud.а Writes AlRoy:а "That the illiterate Muslim, living in squalor and filth, presumed to be grateful for what the modern [Zionist] settler would do for him (some even went so far as to promise him a nominal half of power in bi-nationalism) that that wretch, as seen by the Jew with his water toilets, soap, Beethoven and Bach, was actually feeling as naturally superior to the Jew as English aristocrats would in olden days feel toward Cockneys--surely that was not the most obvious thing to the average individual in the Yishuv."а

Ironically, many secular Zionists pitied the Arab.а Because Jews are the perennial victims of injustice, how could they not sympathize with the demands of Arabs who purvey themselves as victims of injustice?а Demophrenics tend to identify with their enemies and feel compelled to yield to their demands even when, by so doing, they jeopardize their own interests.

Of course, their enemies couch their demands in democratic terms--as "rights" or as "legitimate rights"--knowing that such language disarms the political and intellectuals leaders of democratic, that is, of demophrenic regimes.а Demophrenic personalities never challenge the alleged rights of their enemies.а Instead, they try to "understand" their enemies, to "see things from their point of view."а

This seemingly empathic but really condescending attitude incites their enemies to even greater hatred, especially if the hatred is rooted in a religious ideology.а The reason is this.а

The demophrenic personality is imbued with the moral egalitarianism and cultural pluralism inherent in this democratic era.а Wishing to live in peace and equality with others, he urges on others an attitude of tolerance, of mutual respect and equality.а But this demophrenic attitude tacitly denies the validity of any religious ideology that claims to possess the absolute truth, and whose followers see no logical reason why they should tolerate error or live in peace and equality with unbelievers.а

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Demophrenia is peculiar to democratic societies because of their affinity to cultural pluralism or moral relativism.а The governments of such societies cannot cope effectively with the ideologically animated hatred of anti-democratic societies, such as those that comprise the Arab-Islamic world.

Hated by their enemies, demophrenic politicians and intellectuals begin to hate themselves.а They hate themselves because their cultural pluralism or moral relativism deprives them of any rational basis for pride, for confidence in the moral superiority of democratic values over anti-democratic values.а Given their relativism, they have no logical grounds for preferring democracy to despotism.а

In fact, cultural relativism diminishes their mental capacity to hate their enemies on the one hand, and to love their own people on the other--at least to the extent of wreaking vengeance on those who have assaulted them.а Lacking pride which, after all, involves self-love, demophrenics internalize the hatred directed at them by their enemies.а

This self-hatred prevents them from upholding their own rights or from making any demands on their enemies.а They prefer to appease their enemies either by meekness or by acts of kindness.а Animated, or so they think, by reason, demophrenics cannot understand why reason, graced by benevolence, fails to overcome the malice and violence of their enemies.а Obviously this kind of mentality emasculates them.а Their very instinct of self-preservation is bungled, in consequence of which they hesitate to use force, let alone lethal force, to quell the lethal violence of their enemies.а

Demophrenic governments or personalities--especially if their people have long suffered persecution--have a fearful desire to be loved and accepted, and nothing so much disturbs them as hate-filled rejection.а Even when their assailants falsify reality and defame them, they desist from speaking the truth and exposing their calumniators as wicked liars.а Like blind-deaf-mutes, they see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

Because Israel's demophrenic government cannot face the truth, it is constantly the victim of lies.а Yearning for the acceptance and approval of the nations, it is repeatedly condemned by the United Nations.а

The lack of pride manifested by the government of Israel must be juxtaposed to the well-known overweening pride of Muslims who cannot abide equality with infidels, and must lord it over them whenever possible.а Hence, for Israel's government to think that its own self-effacement will humble Arab pride betrays not an error in judgment--which experience might correct--but a syndrome.а It is not a Jewish a syndrome but democratic syndrome, one that renders it impossible to dissolve the Arab-Israel conflict.

It needs to be emphasized that Israel's political leaders are psychologically incapable of transcending, at least in action, the mental horizon of secular democracy.а They are aware of Islamic hatred, but they find it incomprehensible.а Lacking faith themselves, these secularists have no conception of what belief in Allah demands of the faithful.а

One of those demands is hatred of the Jew.а But inasmuch as those afflicted by demophrenia are incapable of religious hatred, they continue to think that Arab hatred can be appeased, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Unfortunately, Israel has for many years been plagued with governments consisting of demophrenic personalities.а These people, like schizophrenics, are not amenable to reason if only because their mentality is strait-jacketed by the limitations of a democratic mode of thought, the dominant mode of the age.

So long as Israel is ruled by demophrenic personalities--and they dominate not only the government but various media of education--precious Jewish blood will be shed in Eretz Yisrael.