On the Idea of Sexual Terrorism: A New Israeli Startup for Global Terrorism

Political Cat: A new column by Bilha Reuven. This time, the cat delves into the inevitable connection between two types of group hysteria nurtured by our media. Why is raping a woman or a girl considered more severe than murdering her? The coupling of the taboo that most excites the masses' imagination in the #MeToo era with the idea of terrorism is extremely fertile, and we will yet taste much of its rotten fruit, all thanks to our hysteria. On porn terrorism as the future of terrorism in the 21st century - and in our conflict in particular. Because murder is so 20th century

The Meow as Israeli Ethos (Source)

It's already difficult to know who invented what in the shared imagination game of Israelis and Palestinians called terrorism, where anxieties become reality and vice versa. Since the airplane hijackings in the seventies, suicide bombings, ramming attacks - and other Palestinian-Israeli co-productions widely covered worldwide - our local conflict has become an ideological laboratory for global terrorism and a source of imitation for Muslims and the terrorism industry around the globe. Now, the local startup industry of shock - stemming from the shared creativity of both sides, in a classic dynamic of mutual evolution of predator and prey - has finally come up with a new and promising idea (which of course has ancient roots): the connection between terrorism and sex. Next time, the new ISIS might publish snuff films of child rape rather than men's murders. The view counter will break records.

Why is the connection between terrorism and rape so effective in the masses' imagination - and therefore can become a new type of terrorist weapon in a world that's no longer shocked by murder - but still excited by sex? And why are we again aiding terrorism by revealing to all (and to our enemies) our deepest fears and exposing the darkest places of the Israeli psyche, which is exceptionally excited by the combination of voyeurism, terror, and victimhood? Only the sexual conservatism of Palestinian society has so far prevented it from exploiting the obvious link between terrorism and sex - but the mass hysteria in cases of rape and murder of the girl and the rape of the child, and their amazing effectiveness on Israeli society, may yet create a domino effect of copycat acts, and change the ethos of Palestinian terrorism, which initially even opposed suicide (who remembers?).

And who's to blame? Of course - those who can't restrain themselves, and those who are publicly shocked, as a collective and pagan ritual around the victim. Terrorism, after all, feeds on the storm it stirs in the enemy's soul. In societies indifferent to human life - terrorism is much less effective. On the other hand, kidnapping everyone's child is a great idea in Israel, although much less successful abroad (because other societies are more indifferent to their soldiers). Instead of developing and practicing a kind of Greek stoic and masculine (and heroic? A bad word) perception, which emphasizes the ethos of the power of restraint ("gever" [man] from the word "hitgabrut" [overcoming]), Israeli society has a cat ethos, just without the self-respect and nobility.

The Jewish desire to wail your pain in public, and to participate in collective public wailing after every event in a brainwashing that has become a fixed ritual in the media (which will always expropriate any other agenda, because terrorism is the sovereign that can declare a state of emergency), is what turned terrorism into the central weapon in the conflict. We learned nothing from the Ron Arad affair, nor from the Shalit deal. Indifference - is strength. Whining - is weakness. And it's not just about political power or weakness, but moral strength and moral weakness. Ethos - this is the key word for a culture that wants to preserve its culture even in the face of barbarism.

The Israeli media is the biggest collaborator with terrorism (and even benefits from it economically, in a feedback loop) - as is anyone who obsessively consumes it and enjoys its content and attack broadcasts. So what's the alternative, they'll ask? Well, that the People of the Book should read a book - and learn from the ultra-Orthodox to leave the life of the hour and focus on eternal life (true, it's hard to concentrate in the smartphone era). This is the true Jewish morality, not the one that "demands retaliation" as if every Israeli carries the Chief of Staff's scepter on their Facebook wall. Resistance to current affairs in general, and to Israeli media in particular - is the great moral act of our time.

The more Israelis are shocked by the idea of rape terrorism - the more effective it will become, more legitimate in Palestinian consciousness and more common in terrorist practice (which is mostly imitation acts, and in fact is a game of images of copying and creativity, just like in an artistic genre - for it exists in its essence in the shared imagination space between the creator - the terrorist - and the viewer). This is a self-fulfilling prophecy of horror, in a feedback loop between Palestinian consciousness and Israeli consciousness that has only been growing stronger and more sophisticated for half a century. Only the point of contact between these two consciousnesses creates the shared spiritual enterprise of the two peoples, whose success is no longer in doubt, and which has made them famous throughout the world - the consciousness of terrorism. Therefore, it's time to replace it with an alternative consciousness - and alternative current affairs.