Are the Jihadis “Individuating” @Al Aqsa?
Wikicommons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0;for a picture of t-shirt with M-16 rifle - 12,000 sold ihn Ramallah in one week see TOI article cited below
Understanding the Alleged “Disenchantment” of the Al Aqsa Jihadis Ramadan 2022
In yesterday’s article at TOI https://www.timesofisrael.com/lone-wolf-palestinian-terrorists-show-private-gripes-now-top-ideology-say-analysts/ an ex-Israeli military intel officer offered an interesting analysis that the jihadis are now launching “individualized” attacks. Generally, in the past such attacks have fallen under the rubric of a lone wolf attack. The analyst claims that these youth, the Shabaab, are disenchanted with the control and manipulation of their own terrorist organizations – be they Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and/or even ISIS but especially Hamas which seeks control of the Temple Mount.
What caught my eye in the article was his particular use of the word “individual” efforts:
“young Palestinians are fed up with ‘the ideologies and the high politics’ and are thus turning to ‘individual efforts’”
The article claims that this indicates a shift in the dynamics concerning terrorism, that is a shift which marks a move away from the “terrorist group” to the “individual” asserting his or herself as a terrorist in their own right without group backing.
My work has underscored the importance of the individuation-separation stage for narcissistic, psychopathic behaviors concerning Political Violence, in particular with regard to the hamula/clan/teip (Chechen)/qabila/qabil (Som) which are all fused undifferentiated groups. They are enmeshed masses.
Individuation-separation leads to creating and fostering emotional intelligence, something which jihadis no matter if they are in a terrorist group or an alleged “lone wolf” clearly lack. Elsewhere I have written that it is a fantasy to think that “lone wolf” attacks are unsupported by group dynamics. Indeed, this argument falls short because among one of the first things that law enforcement does is to interrogate the family which is the first group in life where bonding and attachment is learned, where violence is inculcated. Terrorism is fundamentally a family affair. It is cleverly writ large under the rubric of Political Terrorism. Yet scratch the surface of such a family and you will find domestic violence, bullying and zero personal boundaries leading to child abuse.
This is not to say that the ex-military intel analyst is not perceptive in recognizing some kind of a shift that is taking on. However, it must be underscored that this is a “pseudo” individuation-separation for Palestinian society. Why? Because these jihadis are still provoking and engaging in willfully spilling blood in order to cleanse the honor of their Mother Mosque, Al Aqsa. They do not know how to negotiate peacefully. The script of vengeance was internalized early and the jihadis are unconsciously caught in its internal loop narrative. The real Other, termed by them as the infidel/Jew has been hijacked into their bloody narrative. Being an Israeli infidel was not of the choosing – it was and has been a label foisted upon them.
Jews have the longest history with Islam as Mark Regev has eloquently noted https://www.jewishrefugees.org.uk/2022/04/regev-muslim-antisemitism-is-not-an-aberration.html. On the Temple Mount the Israeli police remain this Other. There has never been tolerance on the part of Islam and the Ummah to share the Temple Mount let alone Jews to come and pray there. The police and IDF are there to not only safe guard the alleged “status quo” but to protect the Jews who are praying at the Kotel down below very vulnerable to being attacked by stoning. (See my earlier blog post, https://www.nancykobrin.org/post/the-real-reason-why-they-throw-stonesthe-desecration-of-the-temple-mount).
This lop-sided relationship continues to nonverbally express the long and painful history of “dhimmitude” that Islam has foisted up non-Muslims, Christians and most especially Jews. This nonverbal picture of the Jews worshiping below and the Muslims above in the holy complex should not be underestimated. Yet this is not the picture which is disseminated by Arab social media. Obviously, they are “selective” in what they choose to circulate in order to inflame the fire which they have quite literally and concretely lit @Al Aqsa. Indeed, the ammunition for their “fauda” remains fire and stoning. Yet it is a political “fashla” (Heb. Screw-up coming from Ar.) if there ever was one. It has to be remembered that in the jihadi’s world – “what is good is bad and what is bad is good.”
Nothing good will come of this as the entire Palestinian population falls to extract themselves from victimhood and continue to raise jihadis. Indeed, as cited in the above article at TOI a Palestinian shop owner in Ramallah sold 12,000 t-shirts with M-16 rifles in one recent week. He too adds fuel to the fire. Shouldn’t he be held accountable for using bad judgment, profiting from jihadi violence. He hides behind the jihadis for his own rage. The shift to alleged “individual” attacks remains pseudo at best. Jihad is a communal affair.
Finally, it is not surprising to me that these jihadis have been described as having lost interest in the “ideologies” because the reason for this is an unconscious one -- not a political one. Ideologies merely package their boiling rage which is not of this time and not of this place. Its roots are grounded in early childhood due their huge unmet psychological needs for they have always been nothing more than narcissistic objects to their abused mothers in their shame honor culture.
