…by Jonas E. Alexis, VT Editor

In January of 2015, Israeli news commentator and former politician Yossi Sarid published an article entitled, “This Israeli Politician is a Psychopath. Guess Who.” This is basically an easy question for those who are family with the most diabolical, psychopathic figure in the Middle East.

If you are new to VT, here is a clue: the article rhetorically asked, “Could the various Knesset slates be housing people who should be receiving [psychiatric] treatment?”[1]

The article moved on to provide some definitions of a psychopath based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association.

One of the definitions includes, “Repeated lying for the purpose of gratification, confusing reality and imagination.” The article proceeds to ask, “Do three or more characteristics remind you of anybody?”[2]

Sarid did not point his finger to a specific person, but in a subsequent article, it was pretty obvious that he was talking about Benjamin Netanyahu,[3] who has a long history of lying[4] “for the purpose of gratification.”

Sarid was not the only writer who saw that Netanyahu was quickly precipitating to the psychopathic level. In 2015, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan called Netanyahu’s speech before Congress “bullshit.”[5]

Signs of Netanyahu’s Psychopathic Behavior

It must be pointed out that Netanyahu shows numerous signs of a psychopath. One of the definitions of a psychopath is that of a person “who does not care about other people, and who is usually dangerous or violent.”

Robert D. Hare of the University of British Columbia declares that those people can be “charming” but “deadly.” “Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience,” he continues. “Their game is self-gratification at the other person’s expense. Many spend time in prison, many do not.”[6]

Hare adds, “The most obvious expressions of psychopath—but by no means the only ones—involve flagrant violation of society’s rules.”[7] Those psychopaths usually use “charm and chameleon-like abilities to cut a wide swath through society” and leave “a wake of ruined lives behind them.”[8] In that sense, psychopaths function “without the restraints of conscience.”[9]

In short, all psychopaths have “a deeply disturbing inability to care about the pain and suffering experienced by others…a complete lack of empathy, the prerequisite of love.”[10] Finally, all psychopaths have an abiding hatred for the truth, and this is a crucial point here.

Kent A. Kiehl of the University of New Mexico argues that psychopaths are pathological liars; they lack empathy, guilt and even remorse. More importantly, they generally do not want to accept the consequences of their actions.[11]

Now ask yourself this question: aren’t those descriptions classic representations of Benjamin Netanyahu? How can this man seriously say that Iran has “a ruthless commitment to murder Jews”? Even Fox News—Fox News!—had an article saying that the largest Jewish population outside of Israel is Iran.[12]

Will Iran eliminate that population as well? When was the last that that population was attacked? Can we at least say that Netanyahu has been drinking his own ideological poison and expecting virtually everyone to do the same?

One person who has been drinking that poison with Netanyahu seems to be Michael Shrimpton. Despite the fact that we have refuted his entire mumbo jumbo a few days ago, and despite the fact that he doesn’t care about living in a dream world, he moved on to declare: “we needn’t worry too much about the ‘civilian’ casualty figures trotted out by Hamas.” Seriously? He even had the audacity to put civilian in inverted commas!

This man is so blind and out of touch with reality that he thinks the world hasn’t been watching the boots in the necks of the civilian population in Gaza. He could have easily double checked with Human Rights Watch, Israeli B’Tselem, and other Jewish and Israeli outlets such as Mondoweiss or Hareetz. This man will move heaven and earth to protect the ideology of his own making.

Shrimpton risibly declared that Hamas “continued to drop rockets short all week, killing scores of their own people.” What the heck does that mean? Hamas is dropping rockets among their own population, killing their own children, and blaming the whole thing on Israel? Is that what Shrimpton trying to tell us here? Why does he make the statement so ambiguous?

In any event, one needn’t pay much attention to Shrimpton anymore. As Kevin Barrett put it earlier: “Shrimpton’s role is to make sure nobody takes VT seriously. If anybody took us seriously, ‘they’ would have to kill us.”

Jewish Communities in Iran Ignore Netanyahu

What’s so interesting about all this is that Jewish communities in Iran do not share Netanyahu’s delusional (or diabolical) views.[13] For example, consider Haroun Yashayaei, the chairman of the Tehran Jewish Committee. He said that Benjamin Netanyahu is “narcissistic” and is “following his delusional goals.”[14]

The Jewish community in Iran is growing, and no Jew feels threatened by Iran’s leaders. Ciamak Morsadegh, an elected Iranian parliamentarian who happens to be Jewish, declared last year:

“Benjamin Netanyahu and the anti-Semites need each other: they supply each other with what they need – intolerance and hatred. The fact is, Iran is a place where Jews feel secure and we are happy to be here. We are proud to be Iranian. I know this doesn’t follow the Zionist script, but this is the reality. No one forces the Jews to stay here.

“The Israelis offer money to Jewish people to emigrate to Israel, but we choose to stay. My view is that the actions of Netanyahu and his government, the way they behave towards the Palestinians, cause problems for Jews everywhere. I am not the only one holding these views. Am I not allowed to say it because I am a Jew?”[15]

Morsadegh just brought the entire Zionist Kingdom down in just one statement. And here again and again we see that Netanyahu is either crazy or is following a diabolical script. Or both. Israeli scholar Avner Cohen has said in the past that Netanyahu is sometimes “crazy.”[16] Former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin declared that Netanyahu makes “decisions from messianic feelings.”[17]

No matter how you cut it, Netanyahu lacks the moral and political backbone to be a head of a state. If the Jewish community in Iran even approves a nuclear deal,[18] then how can Netanyahu really say that Iran has “a ruthless commitment to murder Jews”?

This is one reason why Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein calls him “a maniac.” Moreover, how can anyone with an ounce of common sense support this man, particularly in light of what is currently taking place in Gaza?

• [1] Yossi Sarid, “This Israeli Politician Is Basically a Psychopath. Guess Who,” Haaretz, January 23, 2015.
• [2] Ibid.
• [3] Yossi Sarid, “Beware: Republican Jews on the Warpath,” Haaretz, February 8, 2015.
• [4] See for example Akiva Eldar, “Netanyahu’s Speech of Lies,” Haaretz, September 26, 2011; Scott Peterson, Imminent Iran Nuclear Threat? A Time of Warning Since 1979,” Christian Science Monitor, November 8, 2011; John J. Mearsheimer, Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
• [5] “Ex-Mossad chief calls Netanyahu’s Iran speech ‘bullshit,’” Times of Israel, March 5, 2015.
• [6] Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us (New York: Guilford Press, 1993), 1.
• [7] Ibid., 2.
• [8] Ibid.
• [9] Ibid.
• [10] Ibid., 6.
• [11] Kent A. Kiehl, The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience (New York: Crown Publishers, 2014).
• [12] “In Iran, Mideast’s largest Jewish population outside Israel finds new acceptance by officials,” Fox News, November 26, 2016.
• [13] See for example Jason Rezaian, “Iran’s Jewish community reflects a complicated relationship with Israel,” Washington Post, October 2, 2013.
• [14] Quoted in Ariel Ben Solomon, “Iran’s Jewish community leader calls Netanyahu ‘narcissistic, delusional,’” Jerusalem Post, July 20, 2015.
• [15] “Iran’s Jews on life inside Israel’s ‘enemy state’: ‘We feel secure and happy,’” Independent, March 16, 2016.
• [16] Avner Cohen, “Israel’s leadership: Messianic and then some,” Haaretz, May 6, 2012.
• [17] Quoted in Daniel Tauber, “Can Netanyahu’s messianism save us?,” Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2012.
• [18] See for example Reese Erlich, “Iran’s Jewish community gets behind nuclear deal with U.S.,” USA Today, August 7, 2015.

Jonas E. Alexis, Senior Editor

Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the book, Kevin MacDonald’s Metaphysical Failure: A Philosophical, Historical, and Moral Critique of Evolutionary Psychology, Sociobiology, and Identity Politics. He teaches mathematics in South Korea.

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