Middle Eastern Axioms and Quicksand

CNI philosophy on discussing and reconciling societal trauma

This past Friday I thought I was going to publish CNI’s latest psychological profile on another dark, dangerous and clownish sociopathic politician who has been predictably front and center yet also in the shadows of America’s current political chaos, but decided to give it a fresh Saturday morning read. I woke up excited and ready to tie up any loose ends to the highly revealing threads in the profile, but then I checked the news and saw the Middle East had exploded into pure malevolent and sadistic psychopathic insanity. Like many of my fellow writers, “I had no words.”

As the minutes and hours went by, I then found myself on an emotional roller coaster with far too many words, thoughts and feelings that could not be organized, harnessed or contained into anything coherent, and I know the Middle East well, so at least understood the likely how’s and why’s. I can only imagine the type of roller coaster of shock and confusion for those who do not know the complex “Holy Land” history, or all the current players and entities well, because this is the one region in the world where when people use the term “biblical,” it is a memory.

As hours and days went by, it weighed heavily upon me how this sociopathic clown who was quasi-secretly assisting the Republican Party’s relentless march towards christo-fascism for us, and gun-toting libertarianism for oligarchs and their flying monkey minions almost appeared trivial in comparison to the shock and horror of the rapidly evolving crises in both Israel and Palestine, and has become an ongoing PTSD crisis for all the humans who care about other humans, just as longtime allies Hamas, Iran and Russia coldly and callously intended. Or it is just massively coincidental and convenient that they all had existential motives and an indisputable opportunity to create this traumatic global distraction they all desperately wanted and needed.

Of course there is nothing trivial about the Republican Party marching America on the road to libertarian con man christo-fascism, but the shock of what happened/is happening in Israel and Gaza overwhelms the senses, and obviously takes priority in what most needs to be psychologically analyzed and reconciled.

The question I kept asking was what could be added beyond the massive amount of commentary that would be useful, by merging a Middle Eastern focused International Relations background with a Counter-Narcissist-Intelligence lens?

A few times this past week I thought I had concepts important enough to share, but each time thought better of it because understandably with so many lives cruelly lost and so many more still at stake, there is currently little interest, tolerance or capacity to remember situational nuance when primal emotions are burning so hot and raw, and everyone knows much more death and trauma is yet to come.

That is why I kept coming back to keeping it simple by sharing some of the key historical insights, axioms and current realities I know well. As a fair-minded person who has studied the Middle East for almost 40 years, certainly part of the reason to keep it simple for now is I know better than most what a minefield discussing the Israelis and Palestinians can be, even when emotions are not so raw. 

It certainly became less treacherous by gaining a degree in International Relations at the end of the Cold War with focuses on Europe and the Middle East, but as most know or have recently learned, few global issues can match the intensity, ferocity, anger and division generated by the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

What I know or highly suspect are the main motivations of the key entities.

Hamas wanted to blow up the peace-deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia because there is a Palestinian agreement which is in total conflict with the Hamas raison d’être, to destroy Israel. They most certainly would coldly sacrifice the Palestinian people’s interests to achieve their goals, just as they have done by knowing full well Israel would respond with massive retaliation to ISIS-like brutality and civilian mass-murder “originating” from Gaza. The leader of Hamas apparently lives in the Gulf and likely in comfort, while his actions set-up the Palestinian people to suffer greatly under Israeli vengeance.

Iran wanted to blow up the peace-deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia (Iran’s #1 rival), so if their quasi-proxy Hamas could trigger Israel into massive overreaction against the Palestinians as a whole, the treaty could very well die.

Side Notes: I have not studied the U.S. / Israel / Saudi deal but what I have heard sounded a lot like normalizing and protecting the psychopathic rule of MBS and that cornered narcissist Netanyahu was in desperate need of a win. Long before 10/7, Bibi’s competence, honesty and motives were, are and will always be highly suspect to me. He too basically said, “I alone can keep Israelis safe,” which has now proven to be an epic fail and nothing more than a campaign slogan meant to scare Israelis into letting him become an authoritarian ruler under the guise of security. By failing so massively in his promise to keep Israelis safe, his dictatorial efforts to change Israel’s judiciary structure so he can escape criminal indictments of fraud, bribery and breach of trust should be dust. Teflon Bibi Netanyahu is no more.

Perhaps the peace-deal is realpolitik and the best pragmatic move considering all the pluses and minuses, but I would like to know a lot more detail before we sign such an important treaty with two dishonest brokers in Bibi and MBS. Thankfully, 20 Democratic Senators recently refused to ratify the treaty in its current form, and it was reported Biden will not get it done without them since treaties require 2/3rds vote in the Senate. Hopefully, Israel’s next leader is a democrat and not another entitled, wannabe authoritarian narcissist like Netanyahu.

Putin certainly wanted a massive distraction from his continuing failure in Ukraine, to divide the U.S. and Europe, and would like an increase in oil prices, which every Middle East crisis seems to cause. He also wants to help trump and the RINO party by distracting America from the trials of his puppet aka the multi-indicted cult leader of the GOP, his intellectual gibberish, treason confessions, Biden’s successes, a Republican House that cannot govern itself, serial liar George Santos getting indicted, fascist billionaires corrupting and compromising our Supreme Court, the public realizing several “Justices'' are of dubious moral and ethical character, and that the far-right Supreme Court like the Republican Party has lost all moral and ethical authority and legitimacy.

I am certainly not saying trump, the GOP, domestic authoritarian billionaires, or Supreme Court “Justices'' played any knowing role but societal trauma is almost always to the benefit of malignant narcissists, which is why they cause it, or use someone else’s to shamelessly rationalize their own abuses as justified, or a lesser evil. These are not nice people. They will sacrifice anyone or anything to serve themselves, save their own skins, and never miss an opportunity to capitalize on a tragedy regardless of whether or not they had a role in causing it, or who they hurt, unless they know that person or entity can hurt them back badly.

In fact all authoritarians, corrupt entities and malignant narcissists compulsively create traumatic distractions to take the heat off themselves, because it causes us or society-at-large to lose track and forget about the greed and/or evil they have been trying to perpetrate every moment of every day. That is also why authoritarians, the corrupt and narcissists flock together. A crisis can often be mutually beneficial to all willing to exploit it without guilt, remorse or shame.

Hamas is quasi-owned and run by Iran, and Russia and Iran have been close allies since the Cold War, and whether you want to believe Russia was involved or not, what happened in Israel serves Putin’s interests in multiple ways, but that is a story for another day.

For those newer to the Counter-Narcissist Intelligence think tank, a foundational aspiration that makes CNI somewhat unique in the information space is that everything we do is meant to be “solutional,” or at least a step forward on a constructive and positive path.

However, truth and justice are also foundational to CNI so please be assured that while we seek positive angles and small victories, we do not shy away from or sugarcoat the darkness, unless it is part of a strategy to ridicule or weaken it. This is to say that the philosophy dictates we never feature excess darkness beyond exposing it or how it reveals constructive and/or solutional answers via narcissist spectrum psychology, because we are only here to strengthen the defenses of humanity’s goodness and light, so must never add to the power or myth of those who do evil, and definitely try to keep triggers at a minimum. Aka the less darkness the better.

CNI philosophy also dictates that firm and solid solutions and constructiveness are both therapeutic and some of the fiercest counters against the societal and individual chaos narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths are always instinctively trying to create. By definition, malignant narcissists compulsively lead people and their societies negatively backwards often using false promises of traditionalism via grooming, gaslighting and trauma. This ancient mind control process sadly leads far too many people down into destructive pits of darkness where the lead narcissist can gain near total puppet mastery over those who fall into their psychological trap.

They constantly crave building a dystopian self-fulfilling prophecy of darkness and to convince others to help, so they can be “right” about everything, instead of acknowledging and dealing with the dark version of a human they always were, or have become. To be fair, science has yet to find cures or even highly effective treatments beyond the margins for malignant narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths, so it is really up to us as free societies who want to stay free to contain the exact same types of psychologically dark, sadistic and twisted minds that always seem to find ways to create, implement and run cruel and brutal torturing and mass-murdering campaigns in every Dark Age.

All of human history proves most forms of dark and demented narcissists will continuously attempt to take over any relationship, family, group, organization or country every time they are given the opportunity to do so, because unlike most people, they have no shame, guilt or remorse to stop them psychologically. They are basically on a pathological narcissist autopilot of craving power and control to protect their scared and fearful inner-self, and/or trying to fill a bottomless and insatiable hole inside themselves, they never can.

As many have found out, weighing in on any Israeli/Palestinian issue can be fraught with peril. Certainly with 10/7 now taking its place in history as the day the most Jewish people were killed since the Nazi holocaust, global nerves have been shocked, sledgehammered and frayed, thus currently making most psychological analysis as treacherous as Middle Eastern quicksand. That is why I currently believe that the best way for CNI to be utilized at the moment is to mostly listen, learn and observe. There will certainly be more intelligence to come, but only when it can be useful, solutional or constructive, and can be heard above the raw emotion, pain and trauma of it all.

After reading the axioms, if you have a good and respectful insight or question regarding the conflict, please post it in the comments and questions may get answered. However, since everyone’s emotions will be raw for a while, divisive, triggering and/or destructive content will be deleted and potentially earn a ban, because adding fuel to a white hot fire is definitely against CNI’s solutional and constructive mission.

I also truly hope you will forgive me if you disagree with anything I have stated regarding the conflict, because the intent is to be raw and honest, and is backed by decades of study, observation and personal experience. It is certainly not everyone’s perspective but it is the truth and reality I have done my best to honestly assemble over decades, so I hope you look past areas of disagreement and focus on the parts that can be useful to you, like perhaps the axioms below that should bring some greater clarity to everyone not highly versed in the modern history of the region or the Arab-Israeli conflict.   

Middle Eastern Axioms

There are of course many general cultural rules about every region but one of the most useful axioms I learned from my former State Department Middle East professor was “Arabic to its roots is a language of negotiation.” To paraphrase his lesson, Western languages are languages of specifics. This means this, that means that, here is my fair good at my fair price. In Arabic, the first price is the start of the negotiation. This is why most Westerners get shocked when the normal Middle Eastern reaction to “a fair good at a fair price,” is for the buyer to scream righteous outrage that the merchant is trying to badly rip them off.

Here is the trick. An Arabic seller knows the buyer is trying to work him and the buyer knows the seller knows he is trying to work him, and it is just the normal Middle Eastern sales kabuki dance. Yes, everyone knows everyone is exaggerating when the semi-histrionic and dramatic negotiations begin, as they have done for 1000s of years. There is a similar dynamic in the Russian relationship with the truth.  

A constant failing of Western media when covering the Middle East, Russia or other peoples with exaggerating tendencies is to not understand, account for, or relay the various cultural communications differences, so viewers can have an understanding of what level of “truth” is meant, and adjust accordingly. In other words, no one can hope to relay good information or have a solid understanding of the Middle East, Russia or similar entities if they do not factor in the normal amount of cultural exaggeration that is neither dishonest nor malicious.  

This difference in communication that often gets lost in translation also explains why so many Middle Eastern people, Russians and others with negotiating cultures are such naturally talented salespeople. I can personally confirm that after haggling several times in the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City at 18 years old, I left with a degree in haggling that has served me well in business and all my travels ever since. It is not that I follow that style. It is about knowing when I am supposed to know someone is exaggerating, so we can be honest with each other, and get on with negotiations.

A second main axiom useful to the current crises is to disabuse yourself of the idea that the leaders of other Arab or Islamic countries really care about the plight of the Palestinians at all. Nearly all of these countries are authoritarian and the deal they make with their people is talk all the sh*t you want about Israel and America but do not dare attack your own rulers for any reasons, or else. They certainly want to appear to support the Palestinians for the previously noted Islamic world street cred, but any time a Middle Eastern leader has a choice between their own interests and the Palestinians, the Palestinian’s interests get sacrificed, every single time.

Just to take the point home, my university had a visiting Palestinian professor give a lecture on the conflict around 1990. At the end of the talk, I had a gotcha question hot and ready for him. I asked him how other Arab countries had treated the Palestinians in comparison to how Israel did, already knowing the answer.

To my surprise, he was completely honest and said all the Arab countries have always treated the Palestinians like pawns and much worse than the Israelis. This was not meant to excuse any Israeli human rights abuses. This is just to say that when leaders in the Middle East express sympathy for the Palestinians or accuse Israel of human rights abuses, they are usually being massive hypocrites and manipulating liars, since Middle Eastern authoritarians are among the worst human rights abusers in the world.  

Certainly one thing I have known since the 1980s when I started studying the Middle East, nearly every aspect of every person, group, nation or issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Middle East as a whole is almost always far more complicated and layered than it seems. Indeed the entire world is complicated but due to such a long, storied and biblical history, the cradle of several foundational civilizations and religions may be the most complicated of them all, because old feuds and claims almost never truly seem to end there. They appear to just pause and hide in the shadows until ready to start up again.

That means it is useful to know that a lot of the time when you believe you have the full Middle Eastern picture, think again. There are multitudes of angles that need to be considered if we as a species are ever going to solve one of the most intractable conflicts in human history. This seems obvious to say but far too often people speak out about the Middle East without knowing or understanding the relevant information, evidence or players, so they are just wasting time, energy, resources and spinning our wheels for no good or productive reason, which are all things we never want to do at CNI because time, energy and resources are too precious to waste at humanity’s current inflection point.

Sam Ray © 2023 - Counter-Narcissist Intelligence