Beck on radio, before he left for Israel, talking about his upcoming rally in Jerusalem, on August 24th:

The other good thing that is going to happen – it seems to be something that everybody ignores or – I swear to you! – I mean this sincerely – there’s a possibility a pillar of fire appears, heh – I think this could be miraculous!

We already knew he was a bit nuts, but it appears Beck, on his mission to Jerusalem to “change the direction of the world,” as he put it last week, has caught a malady first written about by Jerusalem psychiatrist Heinz Herman back in the 1930s.  It has since become generally known as Jerusalem Syndrome:

The Jerusalem syndrome is a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by a visit to the city of Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single religion or denomination but has affected Jews, Christians and Muslims of many different backgrounds.

The best known, although not the most prevalent, manifestation of the Jerusalem syndrome is the phenomenon whereby a person who seems previously balanced and devoid of any signs of psychopathology becomes psychotic after arriving in Jerusalem. The psychosis is characterised by an intense religious theme and typically resolves to full recovery after a few weeks or after being removed from the area.

The religious focus of the Jerusalem syndrome distinguishes it from other phenomena, such as the Stendhal syndrome, which is reported in Florence, Italy, or the Paris syndrome, which has been reported predominantly inJapanese individuals.

Three types of Jerusalem Syndrome seem to have been recognized, and where Beck fits in may bend the borders between the types a bit:

Most of the discussion has centered on whether this definition of the Jerusalem syndrome is a distinct form of psychosis, or simply a re-expression of a previously existing psychotic illness that was not picked up by the medical authorities in Israel.

The distinctions between types are:

Type One: Jerusalem syndrome imposed on a previous psychotic illness.

Type Two:Jerusalem syndrome superimposed on and complicated by idiosyncratic ideas.

Type Three: Jerusalem syndrome as a discrete form, uncompounded by previous mental illness.

Beck seems to be somewhere in the strangeness between type one and two.  Here is Beck’s long promo for the event, which is officially called “Restoring Courage”:

He has used overtly messianic terms in several of his media appearances leading up to his current trip to Israel:

A life-changing event.

The rally will open “the very gates of heaven”

He has visited the Fogel home, site of the awful murders of five members of a settler family on March 11th.  The visit inspired him to some blood-soaked invective, recounting and quasi-procphecy:

“I went to Itamar in Judea and Samaria, and I… our cameras were the first to be allowed into the home.  It is empty now and they are ‑‑ they couldn’t get all of the blood off the walls.  I will tell you, this was one of the most horrific, bloodiest massacres I could imagine.  It was horrifying, horrifying.  And yet in that community, profound hope.”

“If you stand in their backyard, you can see the two mountains:  The Mountain of Blessing and the Mountain of Curse.  It is the ‑‑ it is scriptural.  Which do you choose?  The mountain of blessing or curse.  And this community has both.  I can’t believe what people go through here in Israel, and the world stays silent.  The media is distorting and lying, lying to you.  Lying to you.  And it is important that you know it.”

Beck’s Jerusalem Syndrome has more than a small component of talk radio host Tourette’s Syndrome to it, as he comments inanely on one thing after another, about which he knows virtually nothing.  As Paul Mutter observed today:

A lesser pundit would no doubt use this time to take in some sites or idly eat hummus while drifting on the Dead Sea and waiting to be bungeed up to heaven on the wings of the Messiah. But Beck’s a man of action, a truth-teller, and by Monday, he and his lackey sidekicks, Steve Burguiere (aka Stu) and Pat Gray, had successfully sniffed out and exposed their first conspiracy, the dark, twisted, hard-left-socialist-radical motives of Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard protesters.

Haaretz is entertained – at least so far – by Beck’s ignorant rants:

Beck then went on to suggest that the housing crisis could be solved by simply building up empty land in the West Bank. The right-wing commentator emphasized that the area, biblically referred to as “Judea and Samaria”, is “Judea – like Jews”.

The commentator said that Judea and Samaria is the contested territory’s real name, not the West Bank.

Beck continued to poke holes in the “extreme left” protesters’ demands calling for decreased privatization of health care, free education and an increase in minimum wage.

Beck also insinuated a possible collaboration between socialists and Islamists, pointing out historical instances in which the two movements went hand in hand.

In the article by Paul Mutter, cited above, Mutter deconstructs Beck’s delusional description of some of these alleged collaborations.  Even Commentary Magazine, which has seemed to egg Beck on in his fantasy world at times in the past, called Beck on his ignorance of the political and economic environment from which the summer demonstrations in Israel have emerged:

Any discussion of these protests must begin by stating the reason why most Israelis are sympathetic to the demonstrations: the price of housing and food is sky high and the middle class is being squeezed even in an economy that is on the upswing. Complaints about an inequitable distribution of wealth strike many Americans, including Beck, as mere left-wing rhetoric. But when Israelis speak of the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few families they are, for the most part, not calling for socialism. Rather, they are noting the fact that during the sell off of state properties when free market reform in Israel began during the Rabin and Peres governments, a few individuals were able to snatch up bargains that enriched them in a manner that better resembles what happened in Russia in the early 1990s than anything out of a Milton Friedman economics text.

These are things that Beck needs to take into account before he opens his mouth on the subject.

Beck will inevitably get wackier and wackier as the 24th approaches.  He’s an awful economist, a pathetic historian, a very strange religious figure, and a relentless purveyor of hatred.  But understanding his actions between now and the 24th without taking into account the Jerusalem Syndrome might keep one from taking in the whole bizarre picture.

hat tip to DICKERSON3870 for reminding me about Jerusalem Syndrome

Sarah Palin flew from New Delhi to Tel Aviv late Saturday, and arrived in Jerusalem early Sunday, for the first day of Purim 2011.  Wearing a gaudy Star-of-David necklace, she was given a tour of “the Western Wall and its adjacent tunnels. [She] will visit the Old City again on Monday, tour Gesthsemane and the Mount of Olives, and have dinner with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at their official residence in Jerusalem.”

World Likud chairman Danny Danon and Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz served as Palin’s tour guides on Sunday night. Palin was told that Jews were not allowed to pray openly on the Temple Mount and about the Arab riots that accompanied Netanyahu’s decision to authorize the creation of an exit from the Western Wall tunnels in 1996.

Rabinowitz said that Palin prayed at the point closest to the Holy of Holiesand left a note with a personal prayer. Unlike when then-presidential candidate Barack Obama visited the Western Wall in July 2008, no one removed her note from the wall and gave it to the press.

“She said that she absolutely supports Israel and that America is the biggest friend that Israel has,” Rabinowitz said.

When Rabinowitz shared the story of Purim with Palin, she told him it was especially meaningful to be at the Kotel on Purim.

Palin’s closest devotees know about Purim.  Some of them actually believe Palin is a present-day reincarnation of the Biblical Queen Esther:

At Palin’s number one shrine, Conservatives4Palin, commenters were ecstatic about Palin’s visit to the Holy Land:

God bless Sarah! She’s doing the right things without the title or trappings of leadership, when those who have the title and trappings continue to do the wrong things! She is already my President!

and:

As I said before our beloved blessed Israel will have a strong and dedicated friend in the White House soon!!! :D
Sarah Palin 2012!!!
America’s return to exceptionalism!!!

and:

At least the Palestinians are up front and open in their desire to destroy Israel unlike Obama and the Left who seek to destroy the GOP, the conservative movement and evangelical Christianity in America but are, using one of Obama’s words, subterranean about it.

and:

Governor Palin looks incredibly beautiful in these photos. She is a beautiful person inside and out.

Read the rest of this entry →

The process that resulted in the March 26, 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty was long, though not by standards Palestinians, for instance, might seem particularly arduous or epic.  Israel attacked Egypt on June 5, 1967, occupying all of Egyptian Sinai and forcing a long-term closure of the Suez Canal as one of many direct results.  Then, just over six years later, on October 6, 1973, Egypt attacked Israel, seeking to reclaim their occupied territory and restore the Canal to normal use.  Israel considers the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to have been their victory;  Egypt considers it to have been theirs.  People still fight over which side won at the war’s Wikipedia article.

The preamble of the 1979 peace treaty reads, in part:

PREAMBLE

Convinced of the urgent necessity of the establishment of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East in accordance with Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338

It is interesting that the Israeli Government’s web page devoted to the treaty shows a map of Israel clearly marking all of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights as part of Israel, without any sort of differentiation between these zones and what is generally regarded to be Israel proper – pre-1967 War Israel.  The Egyptian government’s page devoted to the treaty is currently down.
Security Council Resolution 242 is considered to be the originating document requiring Israel to relinquish its control, occupation and settlement of the West Bank and Gaza, and its original interpretation by everyone on the planet outside of the Israeli and (then) South African (apartheid) governments regarded all of the West Bank lands occupied in 1967 as just that – occupied.  Soon after  the adoption of UN Res. 242, – November 22, 1967, Dean Rusk, who was then U.S. Secretary of State, said:

There was much bickering over whether that resolution should say from “the” territories or from “all” territories. In the French version, which is equally authentic, it says withdrawal de territory, with de meaning “the.” We wanted that to be left a little vague and subject to future negotiation because we thought the Israeli border along the West Bank could be “rationalized”; certain anomalies could easily be straightened out with some exchanges of territory, making a more sensible border for all parties. We also wanted to leave open demilitarization measures in the Sinai and the Golan Heights and take a fresh look at the old city of Jerusalem. But we never contemplated any significant grant of territory to Israel as a result of the June 1967 war. On that point we and the Israelis to this day remain sharply divided. This situation could lead to real trouble in the future. Although every President since Harry Truman has committed the United States to the security and independence of Israel, I’m not aware of any commitment the United States has made to assist Israel in retaining territories seized in the Six-Day War.

Since that time, many U.S. governments have sought to muddy the clarity of what 242 meant and means.  How that reflects upon whether or not Israel is currently in violation of the Israel-Egypt pact has not been addressed by any of the many, many reports in the media about whether or not the incoming regime in Egypt might or might not honor it.  It appears to be a moot point, as Israel is in very obvious violation of one of the most basic tenets of the pact and should therefore be seriously considered as having abandoned it already.  The Palestine Papers clearly reveal that Israel has no leg to stand upon in defending their non-compliance with 242 and the peace pact itself.

As Rusk stated in 1967, regarding adherence to the spirit and letter of 242 and Israeli intransigence and outright deceptions, “[t]his situation could lead to real trouble in the future.”

Friday Morning, at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, in New Orleans, Sarah Palin termed the ongoing illegal expansion of Israeli settlement in and around East Jerusalem a "minor zoning decision," as she tried to articulate what she described as "The Obama Doctrine."

Here’s Sarah Palin this morning at the GOP conference in NOLA that has yet to mention Hurricane Katrina:

"A minor zoning decision"? Here’s a video that explains the history of what the former mayor of Wasilla has described is these quaint terms:

And here’s a map that shows how that "zoning" has worked in the larger area of the former Palestine Mandate, since 1946.

In her Friday morning Southern Republican Leadership Conference speech, Palin’s intentional mispronunciation of "nuclear" as "nukular," – or however one spells it – is as troublesome as her belittlement of the beginnings of the most important nuclear arms agreement in a generation was the other day.

I’ve seen Palin’s cold eyes, as she told me that the world is a mere 6,000 to 7,000 years old, that humans and very, very big dinosaurs walked the earth together (presumably before the Noachian Deluge), and that she looks forward to seeing Jesus return to Earth during her lifetime. Perhaps in a new zone in Jerusalem, marked "Jesusland"?

I’ve long been critical of our Alaska media’s refusal to openly condemn or even chastise Palin for inciting divisive conduct and activities up here. But now, with George Stephanopoulis’ insinuation of this superstitious pathological liar into dialogue with the President on nuclear armament, without putting the craziness of this woman and her beliefs into context, the same irresponsibility regarding Palin I’ve seen in Alaska for years, is coming front and center into national politics.

Her ability to misframe issues was proven in the "death panel" affair last summer. Will we see the national media’s desperation for hits and viewers, combined with their realization that Palin brings more hits and viewers than anyone else, cause the same sort of damage to the national discourse her presence inflicted upon Alaska up to last year?

Not my words. Andrew Sullivan’s. He also claims today, "Joe Biden was kicked in the balls as he came to Israel, with a simultaneous "fuck you" by the Israeli government announcing new settlements – 1600 houses – in East Jerusalem."

No sooner did Biden boldly make Netanyahu wait 90 minutes for Biden to show up for dinner, than Biden totally accommodated the Israelis by delivering a message designed to show our properly deferential role to Israel in dealing with those pesky Palestinians:

United States Vice President Joe Biden warned Israelis in a direct address from Tel Aviv on Thursday that the status quo in the Middle East was not sustainable, and vowed that the United States would do everything in its power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

He also urged both Israelis and the Palestinians look toward direct negotiations to end the long-standing conflict.

"The demographic realities make it difficult for Israel to be a Jewish homeland and a democratic country," said Biden in his speech to foreign dignitaries, Israeli officials and students at Tel Aviv University. "The status quo is not sustainable."

"To end this historic conflict, both sides must be historically bold," he said.

That’s pretty bold, eh? The Israelis’ answer to Biden’s challenge to be "bold"? This announcement, made early today:

Some 50,000 new housing units in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line are in various stages of planning and approval, planning officials told Haaretz. They said Jerusalem’s construction plans for the next few years, even decades, are expected to focus on East Jerusalem.

Most of the housing units will be built in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, while a smaller number of them will be built in Arab neighborhoods. The plans for some 20,000 of the apartments are already in advanced stages of approval and implementation, while plans for the remainder have yet to be submitted to the planning committees.

The planned construction includes the 1,600 homes in the ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo that were approved Tuesday. Saying the decision undermines peace talks, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has publicly condemned the move, which the Interior Ministry announced during his visit to Israel.

Sullivan goes on to write:

I cannot read Netanyahu’s mind. But I can observe Israel’s actions. They intend to occupy and colonize the entire West Bank for ever. [emphasis added] They may allow some parceled enclaves for Palestinians, but they will maintain a big military presence on the Eastern border of West Bank, and they will sustain this with raw military power and force. I certainly cannot see any other rationale for their actions these past few years that makes any sense at all. Many Israeli politicians now use the term "apartheid" for this future.

The Israelis’ bold move may be intended to do more than just kick the Vice President of the United States in the nuts.

Biden mentions "bold." The Israelis accommodate him. But the Palestinians are quite limited in the range of ways they can show "boldness."

It may well be a provocation designed to not only make it impossible for the Palestinian Authority to negotiate at all with the Israelis, but also to force the level of demonstrations in the West Bank to escalate beyond their current relative peacefulness, to levels where the IDF can claim it has to perform a Cast Lead type operation in the regions where the expansionism is already going ahead full bore.

The Israeli government is mounting an intense campaign in the United States to keep Americans from being allowed to stop militant expansionist Zionism. Without even attempting to hide the direct links between the Israeli government and the campaign’s enablers, militant Zionist expansion organizations have pretty much taken over the anti-BDS campaign, with a lot of Israeli (and American) money.

This article at mondoweiss, links to a paper being disseminated now by something called the "BDS Working Group." The pamphlet is called "Delegitimization of Israel: “Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions,” and is credited to Co-Chairs: Dr. Mitchell Bard and Professor Gil Troy.

Go to mondoweiss and read the document. If you teach college, are involved in union activism, or will be participating at upcoming Democratic Party caucuses, you may begin to see the products of the "BDS Working Group" real soon. Mixed in with more rhetoric about bombing Iran.

And just so it is clear, I am not in favor of the BDS campaign as it is now configured.