Parshat Noach: Arab Porn

I see the bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way…

Don’t go around tonight
Well it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
–Creedence Clearwater Revival

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is heating up, culminating this week with the errant bomb that went off in a Palestinian hospital killing many. Of course Israel was blamed even though all the evidence to the contrary was presented within 24 hours of the event. Many in the Western press jumped on the story and happily offered the false Hamas narrative that hundreds were killed by an Israeli strike. 

As of Thursday this week when it was clear that Hamas was lying, The NY Times was still claiming “things were unclear about what Palestinian authorities say killed hundreds” and reassured us that it was “working to assess the various accounts through an analysis of photos, video footage and other evidence.” They then presented each party’s claim such as the US, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Israeli Army, as if to equate them all in their degree of truthfulness. Yeah, we can trust Hamas and Islamic Jihad to give us an objective assessment. Idiots. The NY Times I mean, not Hamas.  

The real facts were a bit too late getting out and thanks to the useful idiots in the press the cat had been let out of the bag and the protests and Jew-hatred naturally followed. In reminds me of a quote from Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin when Christian Lebanese Arabs massacred hundreds of Palestinian Arabs in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon when Israel was at war then in 1982: “Goyim kill Goyim and the Jews are blamed.” 

The Palestinians in Gaza have been living in a hell-hole since Hamas won elections back in 2006. There has not been an election since. It is well documented that Gaza has received billions and billions of dollars in aid and that Hamas has squandered and funneled it into their so-called resistance against Israel. Instead of using those funds to create a functional society, they have directed those billions towards terrorist efforts. 

Take a look at a map of Gaza. For such a small place it has lots of nice beach-front property right on the gorgeous Mediterranean. Anywhere else in the world with such location there would be hotels, resorts and multi-million dollar properties. What an opportunity for creating jobs and wealth. That coupled with living next door to the most successful country in the region, Gaza has the potential to be Paradise instead of a Garbage Dump. 

Which begs the question, why is there no uprising against the mismanagement and perverse ideology of Hamas that governs and ruins the lives of millions? We constantly hear about the innocent Palestinians who are caught in the crossfire of Hamas’ war with Israel, but why has there been no “Arab Spring” moment in Gaza like there has been in other Arab nations? Where is the voice of opposition, of discontent, of “Enough is Enough, we just want to live normal, happy, healthy, productive lives.” 

It will be brutally suppressed you say? Ok, like in Iran, but at least there and elsewhere they have been attempts. But in Gaza, nothing. Nada.

I am sure there are many reasons that Gazans accept their fate but one thing to consider relates to something I wrote over eight years ago and unfortunately still resonates today. I call it Arab Porn. 

Every society has its passions and obsessions that often border on addictions. For the English it’s Football (soccer), for Canadians it’s Hockey, for Americans it is the NFL and college football. Every society has its obsessions that it cannot get enough of. On a similar note, the entertainment industry, in particular movies, cannot offer Western society enough violence and sex. For outsiders of any of these or others particular crazes, people wonder, “How much of this can you watch? Doesn’t it all get a bit repetitive?” 

The key to understanding obsessions is to be familiar with the nature of the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination – that part of us that animates our lust, desires and ego. The Yetzer Hara in us creates the need, desire or want anew as if you never experienced it before in your life. Each and every game, movie, food, depiction of sex, or drink seems brand new and first – like it never happened before. 

And then there’s the Arab world and its own unique addiction, its own brand of porn that seems to excite them to no end. While Western society has its shtick about food, or pretend violence or sex or sports, the Arab world seems fixated on real violence, death, destruction, suicide bombs and severed limbs. As outsiders we look at their culture and wonder, “How many more screaming mobs of yelling protesting young men does there have to be? Don’t they get tired of it?”

Funerals seem to be their “Game of the Week”, the crowd hoisting the coffin high like we would a winning quarterback or rock star. Their masses never seem to tire of another death for Allah or of a Shaheed who was gloriously martyred for Jihad. It was no accident that Hamas meticulously recorded their murders, burnings, hostage takings and beheading of babies – stuff even the Nazis didn’t do since they at least tried to cover up their atrocities. No, not Hamas – they know their audience. Give ‘em what they want. Pass out the candies and popcorn to the kids in celebration. Hamas knows they will get more clicks and views with these vids than anything else in the Arab world.  

And right alongside this sick lust comes their accompanying Day of Rage. How many days of rages can there be? Every other week is another protesting Day of Rage with its expected Israeli and US flag burnings, with mobs of men screaming that they are ready for Jihad against the evil Satan West. It’s all so predictable and quite frankly tiresome at this point. When is the last time you heard about a Day of Love, a Day of Reconciliation, a Parade for Peace, a Concert for Unity and Brotherhood in the Arab world? Exactly. Death, Destruction and Violence seems to be their Porn.