Differences in the Psychology of Nations in Dealing with External Threats

(Iran, the Zionist entity, Arabs)

President Trump's provocative, contradictory, and sometimes ambiguous statements are numerous, but regarding the war on Iran, the greatest mistake was when he threatened to wipe out Iranian civilization from the face of the earth.

This statement stirred the feelings of all Iranians, including those opposed to the regime, and revealed the falsity of Trump's claims when he spoke of the greatness of the Iranian people and his concern for them; how can that be when he threatens to wipe out their civilization from the face of the earth?! No Iranian will accept the destruction of their ancient civilization that has been history for thousands of years, and thus the popularity of the regime increased even though it is internally repressive and aggressive towards neighboring Arab countries. Instead of the equation that Trump and Netanyahu wanted to promote (the people against a repressive regime), it shifted to (the nation facing an external existential threat).

This behavior of the Iranian people, even if it is temporary and not guaranteed to last, aligns with a theory in political sociology called (the theory of transcending conflicts), established by the German sociologist George Simmel, and is known today as the "Rally 'round the flag effect"; it indicates that when any people face an external danger threatening their national existence, they transcend their internal disagreements and unite against the external enemy. This is something we also see in the case of the Zionist entity in its recent war and all previous wars.

There is a book by the French author Gustave Le Bon titled (The Psychology of Crowds) that analyzes the collective psychological behavior of crowds in general and touches on the psychology of oppressed crowds. Although the book is old, with its first edition dating back to 1895, it is still valid for analyzing collective behavior in the Arab case specifically.

And because one thing reminds one of another, Netanyahu and his government threatened to eradicate the Palestinian people, even denying the historical existence of Palestinians in their land, yet the Palestinian people did not unite to face this danger threatening their national existence. Likewise, when Netanyahu and his right-wing government threatened to establish "Greater Israel" from the Nile to the Euphrates, presenting a map to the world showing the borders of this state, and he and his racist government leaders uttered all kinds of insults against Arabs and Muslims, the Arabs did not move, even to call for a summit—or anything lower—to discuss this threat.

In the Arab case, all laws and theories in the social sciences find no place for application, and what is applied occurs in a distorted manner: democracy, liberalism, socialism, nationalism, patriotism, human rights, etc. It is as if the Arabs are still in the stage of searching for identity and belonging.

Unfortunately, the majority of Arab peoples have not established (the state) as a haven for the entire national entity that rises above parties and political disputes and that deserves sacrifice for it. Additionally, the idea of the nation as a collective framework embodying identity, culture, and shared history remains just an ideology disconnected from reality.