The Narcissism of Israeli Society and its Theft of Palestinian Symbolism

The Collective Symptomatology of a Narcissistic Society and its Attempts to Construct a False Self through Palestinian Culture

“Awareness is Israel’s most hated and feared foe.”
Refaat Alareer

Norman Finklestein, often labelled along with a number of other prominent Israeli historians as a “self-hating Jew” for his searing honesty about Israel, famously described Israeli society as “the perfect mirror’ of its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - “an obnoxious, narcissistic, Jewish supremacist”.

Since then, the characterization of Israel as a narcissistic society has gained traction, with a kind of implicit recognition by many people, of how it embodies key defining traits of narcissism: its assumption not only of moral superiority but elevated status, rooted in distorted and overblown religious-ideological notions; its constant victim playing even whilst committing war crimes like carpet bombing, sniping of children, mass slaughter of civilians; its unending stream of lies and - retrospectively discredited and debunked - luridly exaggerated stories of persecution, all whilst relentlessly inflicting barbaric slaughter on a civilian population.

The compulsive projection and blame laying at the door of others and the inability to accept accountability, are all part of the fabric of paranoia that runs so deep in Israeli society – the accusation that anyone pointing out its misdemeanours is “antisemitic”. All are manifestations of grandiose malignant narcissism in action. The narcissist cannot bear the mirror, and projection is the defence mechanism of choice.

The narcissists mask is a double mask – elevated, superior, and yet beneath this, acutely aware of one’s own failings as a human being. The narcissist carries an assumption that they are better than mere mortals - surely “chosen” in some deep and fundamental way that transcends normal explanations and is rooted in special abilities and talents conferred by birth - a status above all others.

This deeply ingrained delusionary system is true of the individual narcissist, who believes that they were somehow born “special” – and also the collective narcissistic society as in the Israeli one, that believes it is religiously “chosen” and therefore has a divinely ordained status that somehow exempts it from the laws that apply to the rest of us.

In both, the false ego covers over the lack of substance and weak, deficient self beneath – in the individual the true ego which is lacking, and in the collective, the deficient structure of a society founded on borrowed and stolen “pieces” of culture, a patchwork quilt that is crudely stitched together and ugly in its derivativeness and pretensions to refinement and beauty, in its loud proclamations of authenticity that ring hollow.

The plastic, saccharine fantasy patina of supposed “perfection” seen in the numerous brochures and adverts to holiday in Israel covers over the ugliness beneath, of apartheid and military occupation, as surely as the narcissists mask conceals their own fractured self. This is not to say that every Israeli is a narcissist, but just that the collective Israeli society is narcissistic in its character.

Just like the Israeli Likud Party, Knesset and many of Israeli societies members, the narcissist does not have to follow a moral framework – such petty concerns are for ordinary human beings. Being cleverer, supremely talented and versed in the skills that have allowed the accumulation of prestige and privilege – namely, the skills of interpersonal manipulation and power play – the narcissist believes that he is exempt from ordinary rules and entitled to take what he or she pleases.

The narcissists’ ability to exploit others because he/she is a seasoned predator with a heightened instinct for people’s weaknesses, and a well-honed ability to twist the truth, means that even as the narcissist is inflicting pain on others, he or she believes themselves to be not only in the right, but justified in perpetuating a narrative to others, that paints themselves as blame-free.

Whether you have encountered victims of narcissists with similar tales of exploitation – as I have, in numerous clients – or you have antennae for the narcissist and are attuned to their deceptive ways, you will recognize those traits - whether individualized or exhibited en masse. They are always the same, an unchanging pattern – the reason for this is that actually, far from being the demi-gods they think they are, narcissists are far less developed than the average person, and are in fact emotionally stunted.

They may be clever in a devious and strategic way – but they are emotionally underdeveloped to the point where their ego forms an inflexible structure that is repetitive, unvarying, and closed off to any hopes of evolution or meaningful change. Same tactics, different day.

This is why we have seen Israel, especially over the past 15 months, replicating the same lurid stories that despite being successively debunked, have stuck in the popular imagination and are commonly used as propaganda: beheaded babies, babies in ovens, rapes and mutilations en masse – and not a shred of evidence to show for any of these.

The frequency and hyperinflated tone of these stories shows a childish and basic imagination coupled with a sophisticated mechanism of truth distortion and “smearing” that is characteristic of the narcissistic mindset. “Every accusation is a confession”, is a phrase that has become all too common on social media, in relation to Israel’s dramatic claims.

The problem with narcissism is that it requires a polarity to sustain its dynamic – and that polarity necessitates a “victim”. The narcissists victim is one upon whom they can thrust all of their own repressed darkness, their most depraved and sadistic impulses, their blame and their shame – and, perhaps most fundamentally of all: the victim, the hated and “othered” one, must be what the narcissist secretly aspires to be themselves.

In the collective of Israeli society, the aspiration is for cultural authenticity in a situation where a people have attempted to “plant” themselves in a cultural landscape to which most of them are alien, and yet they falsely “claim” as their heritage and genealogy.

A study by John Hopkins showed that 97% of Israelis have no ancient Hebrew DNA, and we can see in successive years that the influx of Europeans and Americans into Israeli society has exponentially increased, resulting in an increasingly “fake” society that shows ever more desperate attempts to seem coherent and real by attempting to shove its authenticity down our throats, and yet that is internally fractured.

Of course, this study has been widely condemned and supposedly “disproven” – as has any research that attempts to comment meaningfully on the true ancestral mix or genetic origins of Israeli society. This is not surprising in a society that imposes strict legal restrictions on DNA testing. The fear of being revealed as a sham, is the narcissists greatest fear, because without the veneer of respectability and glamour bestowed by their own inflated claims to being special and chosen, the narcissist at their core, is always revealed as hollow.

The tragedy of this particular case of malignant narcissism is that the Palestinians, with their cultural authenticity, their traditions that are rooted in the land, their very indigeneity – have always represented a profound threat to Israeli society. The narcissistic dynamic is grounded in strict hierarchy, and is always a zero sum game.

The more they can dehumanize and reduce the Palestinians, the more they can strip them of their identity, steal their traits and ultimately kill them and their culture in every way possible, the more they can strengthen their own borrowed and stolen identity; the more they feed off the Palestinians and suck them dry, the more they can invigorate their own identity and breathe life into it.

From the keffiyeh to the watermelon, from kanafeh to the olive tree, Israelis have claimed at various times that these traditions are actually their own, in their attempt to appropriate the culture of the Palestinians.

Although a minority of Israeli’s have Levantine ancestry, the vast majority, and rapidly increasing, are from Europe and the US; therefore the claim that they are a coherent society with Levantine DNA is a bogus claim. Even the term “anti-semitic” which cleverly performs a number of functions simultaneously, one of which is to claim that all Jews are Semites, is extremely troubling in its propagandic nature. The true Semites can really be said to be the Palestinians – the Arabs who have lived in the same place for generations, and who are rooted in their land.

Today, in the wake of October 7^th and thanks to social media, the Palestinians for the first time have had more of a voice – not the same “authority” of voice, in that they do not have the Western media and politicians at their beck and call, as their willing lackeys in perpetuating misinformation; but they have been able to show us real time footage of Israel’s attacks on the civilian population of Palestine, and the narcissistic web of lies that Israel has woven to hide its actions, the distortions it has used to attempt to whitewash its crimes.

Although there is a long way to go and much work to do in the path towards exposing the narcissistic society of Israel for what it really is – at least it has become apparent to many, that of the “two sides” they refer to, one has unvarnished truth, authenticity and heart – and this voice will grow louder and louder, amplified by the grass roots movements of people who increasingly demand an end to the lies, justice for the Palestinians and for the Palestinians to have the rights that they deserve.

The narcissist-victim dynamic must come to an end; and the Palestinians must be allowed to be who they are, in their own land.