[lbo-talk] more on lunatic state

[Wojtek S]

[WS:]  Not necessarily.  The "madman behavior" is not uncommon among state
actors, especially in situations of power imbalance or perceived power
imbalance.  If you are a small guy, the rational behavior would make you a
predictable pushover when confronted by bigger guys.  But if you do not act
rationally, or at least convincingly convey a message that you do not, the
predictablity of you being pushed over disappears, and the big guy will
think twice before provoking your "mad response" to his threats.  And that
is precisely what a small guy who does not want to be a pushover intends.

To me, Israeli politics contain quite a big dose of projecting the image of
a "madman state"  (just like North Korea does) - from unverified perception
that they have nukes to  disproportionate lashing out at relatively minor
threats to its interest.  Their perception seem to be that they are
surrounded by mortal enemies that would run them over many times if given a
chance.  This was clearly the case prior to the Six Day War and they simply
lucked out that their foe was the Egyptian Army and not, say, the Wehrmacht
or the Red Army or the US Army.  Things changed since then and anyone
tethered to reality is aware that the success of the SDW could not be
repeated today.  Hence the madman strategy.

I am not trying to defend the reprehensible behavior of the Israeli state -
which btw is not that much different from what many other states do to their
respective "unruly" minorities - but simply to paint a more multi-faceted
picture instead of simplistic vilification.

Wojtek

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 8:27 AM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:


> ^^^^^
>
> Dennis Claxton
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I just watched the Finkelstein RT interview and don't know if this has
> come up here but he appears to be taking the term "lunatic state" from
> Israeli policymakers themselves. Does anyone know where he got this?
> http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=128748&sectionid=3510302
>
> [...]
>
> Of course, Israel in part wants to convey the fact that it is out of
> control. For example after the Gaza massacre, several Israeli
> officials said that the reason they carried on the way they did in
> Gaza was because they wanted to show that they are capable of acting
> like a mad dog and capable of acting like a lunatic state. But the
> question now is... are they only "acting" like a mad dog and a lunatic
> or have they really "become" a lunatic?
>
> [...]
>
> ^^^^^^^^
>
> CB: So, it's feigned lunacy, setting up an insanity defense to a
> charge of fascism racism and genocide ?
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