Schadenfreude , the arousal of positive emotions in view of negative experiences of another, is considered one of the most inappropriate emotions in social life. Its international manifestation is puzzling, as it arouses the question of why people in one state enjoy seeing the residents of a friendly country suffer. To address this, the article offers a conceptualisation of international Schadenfreude and treats it as an emotion with purifying and cleansing qualities. I argue that Schadenfreude assists in self-justifying our policies, behaviours, and beliefs within political interactions. I suggest four interrelated conditions that are responsible for the emergence of Schadenfreude . The likeliness of the emotion is thus high when one side (1) perceives an imbalance vis-à-vis the other as unjust; (2) views the other’s misfortune as relevant to the perceived imbalance of the relations; (3) already carries negative sentiments towards the other; and (4) considers the trouble of the other as a minor one. The significance of international Schadenfreude is illustrated here through the Israeli responses to the terror attacks in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. Aiming to link official and popular emotional expressions, the research is based on both discourse analysis and elite interviews.

中文翻译：

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了解国际幸灾乐祸：欧洲的痛苦作为以色列自我认知的保护盾

幸灾乐祸，即因他人的消极经历而唤起积极情绪，被认为是社交生活中最不恰当的情绪之一。它的国际表现令人费解，因为它引发了一个问题，即为什么一个国家的人民喜欢看到一个友好国家的居民受苦。为了解决这个问题，本文对国际幸灾乐祸进行了概念化，并将其视为一种具有净化和净化品质的情感。我认为幸灾乐祸有助于自我证明我们在政治互动中的政策、行为和信仰。我提出了导致幸灾乐祸的四个相互关联的条件。因此，当一方（1）认为相对于另一方的不平衡是不公正时，这种情绪的可能性就很高；(2) 认为对方的不幸与感知到的关系不平衡有关；(3) 已经对对方怀有负面情绪的；(4) 把对方的麻烦当小事。国际幸灾乐祸的重要性在这里通过以色列对 2004 年马德里和 2005 年伦敦恐怖袭击的反应得到说明。旨在将官方和大众的情感表达联系起来，该研究基于话语分析和精英访谈。