THE self-loathing of so many Arabs in the Middle East regularly erupts in incidents of unthinkable dread.
It's what has picked away at the scab of Gaza.
Gaza will end in tears. Arab tears.
Secretly, it's what more than a few of them want.
It's instructive to look at recent chapters of Arab self-flagellation.
Only a people who hate themselves could set about killing whole communities with which they live, in the manner that Iraq sought to exterminate that country's Marsh Arabs.
Following the first Gulf War in 1991, the Iraqi government flew bombing missions against the Marsh Arabs, who had lived in the wetland region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for perhaps 5000 years, killing up to 60,000.
It was reported they had also been napalmed.
The watercourses, in which the Marsh people grew rice, caught fish and raised buffalo, were then mined, and sometimes poisoned, before a massive program of water diversion and drainage ruined most of them and the ancient people who survived fled in fear.
Many sought refuge in Iran.
How desperate were they?
Only a people who truly think themselves and their countrymen and women worthless could think of attaching remote-controlled explosives to the mentally retarded and sending them to work as suicide bombers.
Last February, bombs were strapped to two Down syndrome women who were then sent to busy pet bazaars in Baghdad.
The bombs were remotely detonated, killing at least 73 innocents.
The women's afterlife benefits in paradise were not recorded.
And in any case, as presumably unwilling participants, perhaps they were not granted martyr status, with its Koranic promises.
Only a people who despise themselves could dispatch their women in so-called "honour killings" - these are popular across the Middle East, and especially in Pakistan - where relatives murder their daughters, sisters and cousins because they refuse an arranged marriage, fall in love with men from other tribes, have pre-marital sex and, in some cases, "allow" themselves to be raped.
These killings have been thoughtfully caught on camera to be shared over the internet with those locals unlucky enough not to have seen the live show.
Some of these poor women may even have been educated.
But many will not have been.
Just last month the Taliban in northern Pakistan - a member of the Commonwealth, a Test cricket nation, an ally of Australia - ordered closed all girls' schools in the Swat district.
The demand was announced in mosques and broadcast on radio.
The deadline is this Thursday, after which they will blow up the schools and kill the children.
They have deadly form, and have reportedly destroyed 125 girls' schools already.
"Female education is against Islamic teachings and spreads vulgarity in society," said the bloke who leads the local Taliban, Shah Dauran.
The noble Dauran will doubtless conduct the public executions of the teachers who ignore his threats.
And how much would you have to hate yourself and your people to encourage your children to die while murdering the blameless offspring of people you have never met?
Raising self-loathing almost to an artform is Mariam Farhat, who is much loved by the others like her in Gaza whose sole wish is the obliteration of Israel.
Farhat's brain squirms with hatred.
She proudly sends her sons on suicide missions against Israel's more loved children, unfortunately with some success.
Her 17-year-old, Muhammad, opened fire on and threw grenades at Jewish students, killing five and injuring 23 before being shot dead.
On hearing the news, his proud mum uttered "Allahu akbar" and gave chocolates out to neighbours.
Before his mission, she did a touching home video of them together.
Since then two other sons have been killed while preparing deadly attacks. Unfortunately, she has three more boys.
The people of Gaza, so inspired by their mum of the year, voted her as one of Hamas's celebrity parliamentarians.
And I would keep that in mind as the debate of the bombing of allegedly "civilian" targets in Gaza gains momentum.
The last time Israel was wearily forced to defend itself by military action was when it was attacked from the north in 2006, after which the UN accused Israel's enemies of "cowardly blending . . . among women and children".
The Herald Sun published exclusive pictures of Hezbollah launching rockets from high-density residential areas, all of which these liars denied.
Hamas has spent much of the past two years slinging its homemade rockets without warning, and without any reason, on to the schools and houses of innocent citizens of Israel.
So many -about 10 a day - they seldom made our news pages.
Hamas now admits to having "surprises" for Israel, almost certainly rockets that can reach Tel Aviv.
Israel had to act, and it has. It can't destroy all of Hamas, but it may be able to exterminate some of its leadership.
Israel's actions in Gaza may make it more apparent to locals that supporting Hamas comes at a price.
Only a people who hate themselves could support Hamas and allow the children of Gaza to be killed as some have - and more will be.
No one in the West hated those girls and boys, but hate surely killed them.
The sort of hate Mariam Farhat can tell Gazans about with a certain Neanderthal relish.
