The Jewish Voice

Israel National News

Oh, how my heart has hardened.

Last night, Eastern Standard Time, I was astounded by the frenzied joy in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem when the grieving activists learned that soon all the (still barely) living Israeli hostages and the corpses that Hamas may or may not be able to find--will be returned.

Oh, how genuinely alarmed I was by so much ecstasy after two years of agony and rage--and mainly against Netanyahu, much less so against Hamas. And I could not help but wonder how many Israeli leftists and their European and American counterparts will now have a few kind words to say about President Trump. Or even about Bibi Netanyahu.

How dare I--who have never served in the IDF and do not pay taxes in Israel--refuse to share in the joy of ransoming Israeli captives? I do understand that doing so fulfills a major Jewish obligation. I have not lost a single intimate relative, but they are all my relatives, my people.

However, in my humble view, the price being paid is simply too high--and the deal only represents yet another short-term pause in the nearly two thousand year Jihad against the Jews, infidels, tolerance, post-Enlightenment values, and modernity.

This is a deal that will allow thousands of Arab terrorists with blood-on-their-hands to return to Gaza, where they can perpetrate Jihad again and again; a deal which essentially rewards Hamas, grants them immunity and a safe exit, and consigns governance of the Gaza strip to international and Arab Muslim oversight. I cannot forget that Israel returned Yahya Sinwar plus many others like him for one Israeli, Gilad Shalit.

How can I trust the second and third phase roll-outs of such a deal? Do you? Please read the measured and sober words penned by Gregg Roman up at the Middle East Forum and NGO’s own Gerald Steinberg up at the Jewish Chronicle.

And so I say:

Oh, how the sight of Jewish blood unleashed a storm of still ongoing and very vicious attacks on Jews both in Israel and around the world; the still ongoing violent protests for Hamas and “Palestine.”

Oh, how these protests served as the strong wind beneath Hamas’s sails, enabling them to fight on and on, and to refuse to release hostages, both living and dead. Clearly, Hamas has won the propaganda war as well as the hearts of Westerners. Loud masses of people have internalized the most lethal lies, the deranged inversion of reality, so much so that hundreds of thousands of people in hundreds of countries around the world were inspired to march, launch flotillas, sign petitions for Hamas/Gaza, resolve new anti-Israel boycotts--and recognize a state that does not exist.

Yes, Oh Yes: I also hope for the impossible as some others do. I understand that this may be the best deal possible in a Jew-hating region that is murderously, tribally, unstable.

Please allow me to sound a much darker note, as a psychologist, and as a recovering academic.

The great founder of psychoanalysis, Dr. Sigmund Freud, sounded the theme of Eros versus Thanatos--the life instinct versus the death instinct--as it operated in humanity and in civilizations. He did so hard on the heels of World War One (in 1920 and 1930), and he further developed his thinking on this in 1939, during the rise of the Nazis. However, even though he should have known better, Freud refused to flee his beloved Vienna until very late in the day. This particular fact continues to haunt me, namely, that it is difficult for even someone like Freud to act on his own theories, or to accept what is now gone forever.

It is clear to me that the entire world, including the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Far East, is engaged in a battle between Eros and Thanatos. Mobs attack individuals; strangers murder other strangers; Muslims crucify Christians; rape and gang-rape remain ominously present everywhere; packs burn down cities; “lunatics” assassinate and attempt to assassinate political, media, and judicial officials; students attack teachers; children murder parents; there are no restraining boundaries; crime is rampant everywhere and in every way.

Some of us seem to be supporting or enacting a death wish and others are in favor of life, sanity, truth, and survival. I reviewed a recent 2024 book on this subject, written by the brilliant philosopher and psychoanalyst Dr. Jon Mills. Its title is End of the World. Civilization and its Fate.

Mills asks whether or not human aggression and our “death wish” will or will not outweigh our individual and collective desire to survive, as a species. Will Freud’s concept of thanatos ultimately prevailt over eros? Mills asks “to what degree will the will towards violence be sublimated into the higher tiers of self-conscious ethical reflection that reason can afford?” Is the urge to death a desire for union with God or simply our desire to destroy everything, including ourselves and each other?

Mills cites “pathological narcissism” and “psychopathic Islamdom” both of which are both upon us. He reminds us that the much maligned Freud was--and still is--really great. Freud said: “Men are not gentle creature who want to be loved;” rather, according to Mills, “they want to exploit, con, use, conquer, humiliate, torture and kill.” Mills reminds us of this poignant exchange.

“Einstein approached Freud on behalf of the League of Nations and asked the question, ‘Is there any way of delivering mankind from the curse of war? Freud responded with reservation, suggesting that perhaps it may only be mitigated.”

Mills hopes that our children and grandchildren will “reverse our foolish path...But, as it stands, humanity is on a collision course with disaster...If I were a betting man, I would say that we are on the brink of extinction.”

Oh, how I see that if and when Europe awakens and chooses to fight against being totally Islamified, we may be facing a primarily Christian vs. Muslim war in Europe. Otherwise, the demographic Jihad will completely take over European identity, law, and customs. Everyone is also fighting for tolerance and against intolerance but these concepts are interpreted very differently.

America faces another kind of battle entirely, namely one against well-educated radical Islamists and Marxists, who have begun to occupy powerful positions in government, medicine, academia, law, education, and the media and who are fixated on rewriting history, destroying all meritocracies, obliterating rational thinking, and thus bringing America down.