Several critiques of Ehud Olmert, Israel’s previous PM, have been featured at this blog. They are resounding indictments of his political failures, and with equal emphasis placed on his moral shortcomings.

But this blogger can hardly light a candle to the critical analysis of Professor Paul Eidelberg; one of the deepest thinkers on the Israeli & American landscapes (http://www.i-ari.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Eidelberg). Conferring with him on pressing issues of our times is a distinct honor (https://adinakutnicki.com/about/ ).

‘Degeneration and the Plight of Israel and America’

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

“My article “A Critique of Modern Psychology,” published in the Journal Psychology,” sheds startling light on Ehud Olmert and, incidentally, on Barack Obama.

Although I am not a psychologist, I dare say that Israel’s former Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, now seeking a return to the Knesset, is afflicted by a psychological disorder of profound national and even of world-historical significance. Indeed, allow me to warn Americans that the same degeneracy is conspicuous in Barack Obama now seeking a second term as president. This, I am persuaded, would be the diagnosis of Dr. Max Nordau (1849–1923), a psychiatrist of uncommon breadth of learning. What does Nordau mean by a “degenerate”?

In 1895, Nordau published a book entitled Degeneration. Republished by the University of Chicago Press in 1968, Degeneration has been the subject of several doctoral dissertations. Nordau deemed the nexus of moral relativism and egoism as the basic cause of psychological degeneration. His book provides insights relevant to the pronouncements and policies of both Labor and Likud prime ministers, and, incidentally, of President Barack Obama.

Nordau practiced psychiatry in Paris. He found that nearly all degenerates “lack the sense of morality and of right and wrong” (p. 18). An inevitable concomitant of their moral relativism is “egomania,” which Nordau discusses at great length (pp. 241-372). He found that in many degenerates, egomania coexists with its opposite, “self-abhorrence” (p. 20). He discovered that the combination of egoism and self-loathing in degenerates conduces to impulsiveness and suggestibility on the one hand, and lack of balance and weakness of will on the other (pp. 19, 22, 23, 257-261).

Degenerates, says Nordau, lack a sense of honor, and they display no outrage by vicious attacks against innocent people (p. 260). (Notice how Israeli prime ministers consort with Arab terrorists responsible for Jewish bloodshed, and how Obama extends his hands to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite the latter’s crimes against his own people and his malediction of “Death to America.”  Nor is this all.

Nordau claims that the degenerate is “incapable of correctly grasping, ordering, or elaborating into ideas and judgments the impressions of the external world.” The degenerate “surrenders himself to the perpetual obfuscation of … fugitive ideas” (p. 21). He pursues “fixed” ideas however visionary or unrealistic. [A current example would be ‘land for peace’ (p. 242).] Moreover, “facts which do not please him he does not notice, or so interprets that they seem to support his [illusion or] delirium” (p. 31).

Nordau anticipates Harry Stack Sullivan’s concept of “selective inattention.” (Notice how many Western leaders ignore fourteen centuries of Arab-Islamic plunder, butchery, and genocide). This selective inattention raises the question of whether degenerates compulsively misrepresent or consciously lie about reality. Nordau contends that they believe in the truth of their fabrications (p. 25). It seems to me, however, that conscious but habitual liars will eventually believe in the truth of many of their lies. In any event, since fear governs many degenerates (p. 19), such is their inability to face reality that even their instinct of self-preservation, according to Nordau, is crippled (p. 31).  Now let’s focus on Ehud Olmert.

On June 9, 2005, Olmert addressed the Israel Policy Forum in New York. The Sharon Government, in which Olmert served as Vice Premier, was then preparing (and indoctrinating) 50,000 soldiers and police to implement Sharon’s Gaza withdraw plan, that is, to forcefully expel Gaza’s 8,000 Jewish residents.

Dwelling in wonderland, Olmert spoke glowingly of the unilateral aspect of the Gaza withdrawal plan. He boasted to his American audience, “We really don’t need the United States to lead the [peace] process in the Middle East; we will lead this process.” Israel will lead the process, he said, because “it will be good for us and for the Palestinians” Indeed: “It will bring more security, greater safety, much more prosperity, and a lot of joy for all the people that live in the Middle East.”

Self-intoxicated, Olmert confessed: “We, are tired of being courageous, we are tired of … defeating our enemies.” This is a clear case of egomania confirms which Nordau’s understanding of degeneration.  Now let’s connect some dots.

Olmert could not have been oblivious of, even if he was not outraged by, the bloody consequences of the Oslo Agreement: the wave of Arab suicide bombings in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel. He could not have been oblivious of the murder and maiming and traumatizing of tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children. Yet he, like other degenerates, supported the Government’s illusionary and suicidal policy of “land for peace.”

Despite the fatal consequences of Oslo, and contrary to the warnings of Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash, head of IDF Intelligence, and Avi Dichter, Director of the Shin Bet(General Security Service), Olmert boasted that “unilateral disengagement” from Gaza would be a major step toward peace. His “selective inattention” is extraordinary. (Of course, this may also be said of other Israeli politicians.)

Further, despite the fact that the Gaza withdrawal brought Hamas to power and thus enabled Iran, via its proxy, to terrorize and depopulate the Israeli town of Sderot, Olmert persisted in his fixed idea of territorial withdrawal and even applied it to Judea and Samaria. As Nordau said of degenerates: “Facts which do not please him, he does not notice, or so interprets that they seem to support his delirium.”

Ever fearful of adverse American public opinion, Olmert said he will withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza as a good will gesture to [then] incoming President Barak Obama. (Seehttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3658377,00.html.)

Finally, a word about Israel’s fiasco in the Second Lebanon War for which Olmert was primarily responsible. An honorable man in his place would have resigned from office, especially after the Winograd Commission informed the public of Olmert’s ineptitude in the conduct of that war. But ineptitude is typical of men without honor. As Alexander Hamilton said of the scoundrel Aaron Burr:  A man devoid of honor readily succumbs to stupidity.  Have we not witnessed examples of this in the apologetic and philo-Islamic deeds of Barack Obama?”

As degenerates are wont to do, Ehud Olmert’s critical support for the “disengagement” ( or more aptly put, the destruction of dozens of thriving Jewish communities; via the expulsion of over 8,600 Jewish citizens, violating their human rights & Israel’s Basic Law! ) mirrors those whose main goal is power – by any means necessary.

And even though Ex PM Sharon, a degenerate politician (although a highly decorated warrior) was at the helm, Ehud Olmert’s important post in the government resonated loud and clear. Thus, the bitter fruits of “disengagement” are still haunting the Jewish nation, 7 years onward and counting, and with no end in sight – https://adinakutnicki.com/2012/06/22/the-bitter-fruits-of-disengagement/

Fast forward. Now, even though Ehud Olmert evaded partial indictment on his serial lawbreaking – and is still awaiting the outcome of other charges – one would think that a run for eventual re-election would be out of the question – https://adinakutnicki.com/2012/07/10/ex-pm-olmert-may-soon-get-his-just-desserts-in-the-process-heaping-shame-upon-my-jewish-homeland-unforgivable-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki-49-2/ – but NOT if one is a (im)moral degenerate.

In tandem, the most dangerous POTUS in U.S. history revealed his degenerate proclivities from the onset of his Presidency, as well as before he took office.

It is not as if the indictment againt Barack HUSSEIN Obama isn’t solid, as the most vile reprobates on the world stage champion his re-election – https://adinakutnicki.com/2012/10/22/world-leaders-openly-endorsing-the-radical-in-chief-are-the-most-vile-dregs-in-the-international-arena-why-are-they-simpatico-to-dear-leader-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/.

Talk about like-minded peers!

Make no mistake. The west’s downfall will not necessarily originate from its external foes, but from the moral rot within. For if ones leadership are bereft of any moral compass, how is it possible for them to secure the welfare and safety of their citizens, or impart proper national values? 

And by extension, doesn’t it make it that much easier for ones enemies, lurking outside, to pounce? In other words, the secondary factor is the outside one. The primary one is inside the diseased body politic.

WAY past time to clean house – in Israel & the U.S!