Dr. Chaim C. Cohen, whose PhD. is from Hebrew U., is a social worker and teacher at the Hebrew Univ. School of Social Work, and Efrata College. He lives in Psagot, Binyamin.
In clinical terms, we, Israeli society, are not currently a society in a state of trauma. We are actively coping with never before experienced challenges with much resilience and self-growth.
But simultaneously, most spheres of Israeli society are experiencing very high levels of unprecedented, daily stress.
We have entered a new era of Israeli history, and this beginning is very difficult.
This essay will first study five major areas of our national stress. But it will then continue to detail the unique national social resources that we have used frequently in order to cope successfully with this stress.
The major causes of our national stress
1) The most important source of national stress is that our current war in our North and South is, and seems as if it will continue to be, a never-ending war of attrition on our borders, unlike no previous military conflict
No military or political leader really wants to admit that the nature of our current conflict is unprecedented. It is unlike all of our previous wars. And unfortunately, is a harbinger of what probably militarily awaits us in the coming decade (s).
It is unlike our war previous wars with internationally recognized Arab nations. It is unlike the first and second Lebanese war, all of which were in the context of armed conflict with/within an established state. It is unlike the second intifada because that conflict was fought with our army and settlements permanently 'present and on the ground' in the area of conflict.
It is unlike these previous conflicts because in Gaza we are fighting a population of close to two million Palestinian Arabs/ Muslims that over the previous twenty-three years was allowed to organize an 'underground, insurgent, well-armed guerilla movement'.
It pains me to write this but our war in Gaza very much resembles the French war in Algeria and the American war in Vietnam, (without the Mediterranean Sea or the Pacific Ocean separating ourselves from our enemies.) We are literally fighting a war of national self-survival with a terroristic, jihadist, guerilla, national liberation movement separated from us by a single wire fence.
We got into this self-survival trap because we were naive, and thought (wanted to think) we lived on the European continent. We thought we could create a Palestinian Arab entity that would be willing to co-exist with us for the sake of economic betterment. In the Gaza Strip itself, we made a masochistic, conscious self-choice, and removed our own soldiers and tore down our own settlements.
The point of this article is not to play a 'blame game'. Somehow, we are all responsible for this horrible national quandary. I participated in at least one hundred protests against the Oslo Accords and the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza Strip- and yet I also still feel 'responsible'. Why? Because we all dreamed that our eternal national project –' Zionism-Return to Zion-establishing a Jewish State in the Land of Israel '-would not require an ongoing hundred-year military struggle for survival.
But necessity forces us to fight this ongoing war of attrition because, although established Arab states will be willing to normalize relationships with us in exchange for short term economic and diplomatic gains, the Palestinian Arab terrorist national movement will never ever make a long- term peace with us. They can not, and will not, ever obligate themselves to peace terms based on accepting the historic and enirely legitimate claims of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.)
I believe that we are learning from our war of attrition in Gaza the very stressful lesson that an un-ending military struggle at our borders, a national life somewhat resembling that of Sparta , is what awaits us in the coming years. Our border wars of attrition will continue to exist even if parallel to that a general normalization with most of the Arab world takes place. Any Israeli who believes that his grandchildren will not be doing active military duty should make a real effort to rid himself of such delusions.
Our war of attrition with Hamas has not yet caused deep felt national trauma because we have, during the war, gained much strength by bravely 'winning many battles'. But we simultaneously feel very stressed because winning many battles has not yet meant we have ' victoriously won the war.'
I apologize for my pessimism-cum-realism, but on Oct. 10th I wrote here that we were destined to a be a state 'resembling Sparta' with wars of attrition on our borders, and I have yet to be proven wrong. Every day I pray I will be proven wrong.
[A footnote. Even though I am a sworn conservative nationalist, convinced of the righteousness of our cause, and a believer that the IDF is very "moral army", it still makes me feel uneasy seeing the pictures of destruction and human suffering in Gaza. although this feeling is not shared by those who stress that are no 'uninvolved' Gazans, none who tried to help the hostages. This, however, may also be a subconscious part of our current 'national stress'.]
In brief, the main cause of our national stress is that we are, against our will, engaged in an ongoing war of attrition with armed Palestinian Arab terrorist nationalism , with no realistic end in sight. It is certainly very stressful to live with the idea that 'peace is not just around the corner '.
2) The second main source of national stress is the suffering of the hostages, and the impossible dilemma of obtaining their release without endangering our ongoing national security.
Our unsolvable question of 'bringing the hostages home' is a direct outgrowth of the above analysis that we not fighting an enemy national state, and attempting to make a deal to bring home POWs. We are fighting 'an underground, jihadist, terrorist national guerrilla movement'.
The situation of the hostages is creating great national stress because all sides involved have very legitimate claims, and together they are unsolvable. This impossibility of solving the hostage question is the generator of much of our current tremendous, inner tensions and stress.
Let me list the contradictory legitimate claims.
One, our democratically elected government feels it must return the hostages in a way that it allows it to achieve the war's aims of expelling surviving Hamas leaders, disarming Hamas, deradicalizing Palestinian Arab leadership, and preventing the establishment of a semi-independent Palestinian Arab entity. This is the only way to strengthen Israel's long-term security, and this is the government's main responsibility.
Releasing terrorists and not winning the war is putting a future 'doomsday weapon' in the arsenal of the terrorists. They will have learned that the easiest way to win a war against Israel is to take hostages.
Two, most bereaved parents of our fallen soldiers make the legitimate claim that if we return the hostages and the Hamas remains in power, their sons will have died in vain, and in reality, their sons will have died in order to establish a de facto Palestinian Arab state.
Three, the parents of family members slain by terrorists who are now 'running free and enjoying life', make the legitimate claim that history has shown us that for every hostage released and multi terrorists freed, hundreds of Jews will be slain in the future. Freeing terrorists to save hostages' lives is a guaranteed recipe for the future terror deaths of many innocent Jews.
Four, the families of hostages still held captive make the legitimate claim that the government on Oct. 7th failed in its part of the social contract with its citizens to provide physical security to its citizens, and thus has a moral obligation to prioritize freeing the hostages over the military victory of ending Hamas rule in Gaza
This article will not discuss which of the above legitimate claims is correct. It just wants to argue that the this very sensitive, very emotional question of the fate of the hostages is so complicated because of the conflicting demands that it inevitably raises our national stress level to almost unprecedented heights.
3) The third main source of national stress is the highly polarized and combative nature of our public-political discourse
There are three main reasons for the very polarized and combative nature of our public discourse on the above very complicated topics of utmost national importance.
One, throughout the world, since the evolvement of the digital social media, all public discourse has become extremely polarized. Only the person who screams the loudest, and uses the most extreme vocabulary, gets attention on social media. The nature of Israel's public discourse is only a symptom of this world- wide deplorable phenomenon.
Two, almost all Israeli public media outlets are Left-oriented in their 'presentation' of the news. For example, as pointed out above, there are at least four groups who have legitimate claims to make their perspective heard on the hostage question. A more equal presentation of these four different perspectives would contribute to a more realistic, nuanced discussion, less black and white, of the hostage question. A more balanced, nuanced public debate would probably have tempered the discourse, and lessened its polarized nature. But the media chose to be spokesman for the anti- government hostage families, and refused to give equal time to bereaved parents, and families of victims of Palestinian Arab terror. The media must share the blame for much of our divisive discourse.
Three, (as will be discussed) the Israeli public is sociologically divided into four 'tribal-sectoral' publics (although there are other ways of dividing it), each with very different social cultural outlooks. This sociological fact also contributes to a very partisan debate on public issues.
In summary, the 'built-in' very polarized nature of our public discourse significantly raises the level of our national stress.
4) The fourth main cause of our national stress is that the war radically disrupted the normalcy of many of our daily lives.
Abnormality is a direct cause of stress. The normalcy of probably over a half of Israelis and their families has been radically disrupted during the ongoing war. Here I will simply list the most serious disruptions. One, the death, wounding and emotional trauma suffered by our soldiers and their families. Two, families in the North and South who were displaced from their homes due to enemy attacks. Three, very long reservist duties that disrupted family life, upset marriages, and left wives and grandparents to take over the absent father's roles. Four, income and business losses of reservists, and self- employed and small business owners.
5.) the fifth main cause of our national stress is that haredi sector has not actively participated in the war effort.
The 'blood and tears', and daily sacrifices of our war effort has been shared primarily by the liberal secular, and national religious-traditionalist, sectors. Here is not the place to discuss how to rectify this very serious, national dilemma/tragedy. I simply want to argue that such a blatant unequal sharing of self-sacrifice by the haredi sector has generated much resentment and anger in other parts of our society, and thus has also significantly contributed to the national stress we are experiencing.
And yet we are coping, ' keeping our heads above the water', because our national resilience and social support resources are unsurpassed in the Western world.
No other Western, democratic country has demonstrated such a degree of national resilience, national purpose, self-sacrifice and family/community social support as Jewish Israel over the last year and a half of an ongoing war. G-d has truly blessed us and supported us every hour of the day.
The reader can correctly ask, does this above statement not contradict the high degree of stress in the five areas described above?
Yes. There seems to be a 'holy sociological paradox'. How can a society that contains so much internal conflict also act at the same time with such resilience and self-help and self-sacrifice?
The existence of this 'holy paradox' of 'concurrent national stress and resilience' can be ascribed to two basic sources of social support that I will briefly describe here:
The first reason is the emotional and social support derived from our collective, national memory, and the second reason is the support derived from the internal social support systems of each of the 'tribal' social sectors with which we specifically identify, on an ongoing, personal basis.
Reason 1: The resilience we derive based on our collective national memory
More specifically, deep down inside, I think all Israelis will agree that that they strongly identify with a collective national memory that transcends the 'parochialism' of their more immediate, personal identification with their particular 'tribal' sector. For example, we all understood that Oct. 7th was not just an isolated, horrific terrorist attack, but another horrific 'pogrom', being an additional link in over two thousand years of goyish antisemitism. And just as we have survived two thousand years of brutal antisemitism, we have an inner confidence that we will now cope, overcome and defeat the 2023 version of biblical-period Amalekites who attacked us.
And as 'battle hardened' Israeli's, we gain strength when we remember that we overcame the 6000 heroic deaths of our 1948 War of Independence (1% of the population at that time, that today would be the equivalent of 70,000 deaths ), that we overcame the surprises, and failures of the Yom Kippur War, in which our soldiers fought with unprecedented valor and 2, 600 died ( the equivalent of close to 6000 battle deaths today), and they remember we survived and overcame the over 1000 civilian deaths ( the equivalent today of close to 1500 deaths) and the national stress of the Hamas suicide bombings during the Second Intifada.
I sincerely believe that the personal identification of almost every Jewish Israeli (whatever their sectorial allegiance) with this historic, national collective memory of national triumph has been a major source of social and emotional support coping with specific stresses discussed above.
Reason 2: Resilience that we derive from our 'tribal-sectoral' social support network
The support derived from our collective national memory is not sufficient.
Israel always ranks as one of the ten happiest countries in the world. In Israel people want to create families, and have children. How can these happy phenomenon be reconciled given the very difficult nature of our ongoing diplomatic and military struggles?
The answer is that most Israeli possess the following five social support resources that academic research has identified with successful coping with life's stresses. These identified coping resources include 1) growing up in a supportive family, that means with two supportive biological parents, and a number of siblings; 2) benefiting from an extended family network of relatives, living in relative proximity; 3) living, and feeling a member of a neighborhood and immediate community which provided social contacts, assistance in time of need, and activities and social cultural values that give purpose to one's life ; 4) religious belief and practice (not necessarily Orthodox, or even organized religion) that bonds one with a sense of spiritual transcendence that transcends your 'small', finite sense; and 5) political ideology and allegiance to Israel
This brings us to this article's key idea. Israelis have coped with the five areas of national stress by employing the five social coping resources elaborated above. But these coping resources are packaged according a 'tribal-sectoral ' label . There is the liberal-secular version/ packaging, the religious-Zionist- and traditional-Zionist version/packaging, the haredi version/packaging, and the Israeli Arab version/packaging of these coping resources. The source of our national resilience is the rich, strong, particular 'tribal' versions of critical social coping resources. This is the 'holy paradox of our resilience over the last year and a half.
Summary: The holy paradox of our national resilience
Israel is not in a state of national trauma. But Israel is suffering from a high level of national stress.
Israelis have, more or less, successfully coped with these stresses because they have accessed and employed the strong, rich set of social coping resources particular to the 'tribal sector of social culture' with which they identify and to which they feel allegiance.
Ironically, the same sectoral, social cultural differences that have divided us and caused great stress, have also simultaneously provided us with a set of coping resources that have enabled us to respond to this heightened stress with much resilience and creativity.
And, of course, we have resilience because our G-d is watching over us, as He has done for over 3000 years.