Going Ape-Sh**

I have been trying to understand the overwhelming and vociferous support for Hamas and other radical Islamic jihadists in the face of clear evidence of their outright goals of destroying Israel & western civilization. I could link to articles quoting the Koran or videos of their leadership calling for destruction of the west or videos of Palestinians celebrating the fall of the twin towers or I could show deadly assaults on Christians and churches, but my goal today isn't to establish right and wrong or who started but as I said, to understand WHY the world community backs such vicious violent organizations. For Islamists and antisemites the answer is easy but what about seemingly rational people?




Frans De Waal's book, Our Inner Ape, is a fascinating read on understanding all sorts of emotions, motivations, and actions as manifested in our closest cousins the apes (specifically the chimps and bonobos). In one chapter that dealt with violence and conflict resolution, he describes how a beta will often redirect his own aggression towards a weaker target in hopes that the alpha will join him in a common cause. Although quite bad for the gamma target, the two big dangerous competitors achieve a form of detente. This process is mostly subconscious (just as the guy who was criticized at work takes out his aggression on his wife when he gets home). This is in essence, scapegoating and is very effective in calming tensions among dominants in the hierarchy. De Waal's claims "...scapegoating is one of the most basic, most powerful, least conscious psychological reflexes of the human species..."



I propose the same mechanism is at work here. The world is very much afraid of the alpha, radical Islam, with all the violence it has already perpetrated and continues to espouse. Reflexively, the world supports their activity or in the very least, strongly restrains its criticism in order to appease them and appear as their ally. Wishful thinking and blind delusion drives the world to join in common cause against the gamma, Israel, the scapegoat. In their limited view, as long as Radical Islam is focused on Jews, the betas of the world are safe; tensions between dominants alleviated.



Severely miscalculating the dangers that radical Islam poses for them, the world is swept along blindly. But Radical Islam is very devout and very focused and well armed. They WILL rise to threaten western civilization. They have a goal and are willing to kill and die for it. So if you condone their actions against the Jews or join in scapegoating, don't be surprised when terror spreads beyond Jewish targets to you and your land. And don't be surprised when the doorbell rings signaling it's your turn to be commanded, "Convert or die!"