A Nation in Trauma: The Year since October 7

If only my head were water and my eyes a fountain of tears,

Then I would weep day and night

For the slain of my people’s daughter!
                                                        Jeremiah, 8:23

The mood in Israel is undeniably gloomy. There is no end in sight in the fight against the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, the threat of war from Iran persists, and social tensions remain high. Time seems to have stopped on October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Shoah. For Israelis, this date marks a turning point between ‘Before’ and ‘After’.

The Day the Clocks stopped

On October 7, 2023, approximately 6,000 armed Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel’s heartland. Within one day, they murdered more than 1,200 and injured over 5,400. At the Supernova Music Festival, 364 mostly young people were brutally massacred. Twenty-one kibbutzim were attacked and destroyed. More than 250 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip. Over the past year, an unknown number of hostages have been murdered by their captors, while others continue to be held, some under inhumane conditions in narrow tunnels.

In my psychotherapy practice in Jerusalem and as a father whose sons serve on two war fronts, I witness daily the deep wounds that the massacre and the ongoing war inflict on body and soul. One year after the terrorist act, severe trauma is evident among Israeli citizens to varying degrees and in society as a whole. From my observation, four factors have had particularly destructive effects:

1. Confrontation with Radical Hate, Brutality, and Dehumanization

The atrocities committed by the terrorists defy imagination. Documented human rights violations encompass a terrifying spectrum: sexual violence, torture, and the burning of people of all ages. In an act of dehumanization, the perpetrators filmed their crimes and spread the recordings on social media.

Particularly shocking was the fate of German-Israeli Shani Louk. The images of her contorted, exposed body on a delivery van, surrounded by armed men and cheered on by Palestinian civilians, became a symbol of this horror. Such scenes make it difficult to maintain empathy for the uninvolved Palestinian population.

As a therapist, I was confronted with deeply disturbing reports. Particularly harrowing were the recorded interrogations of two terrorists – a Muslim father and his son. They independently confessed to raping a Jewish woman in a kibbutz, followed by further abuse by a relative. The father eventually returned and killed the victim with his own hands. The cruelty of these and other experiences entrusted to me went so far that I myself had to seek professional help to cope with secondary trauma symptoms.

Hamas has no interest in establishing a Palestinian nation-state alongside Israel. As an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, it pursues a pan-Islamic vision for the entire Middle East. The brutality of the recent massacre reveals the frightening radicality of this ideology: It’s not about coexistence, but about annihilation.

Particularly disturbing for Jews is the religious legitimization of such atrocities. The use of religious exclamations like “Allahu Akbar” (God is the Greatest) in the context of extreme violence is perceived as a perversion of religious values. From a Jewish perspective, this appears as nothing other than blasphemy – a misuse of faith to justify unimaginable cruelties.

2. The Experience of Weakness and Failure

Many Israelis feel that their state has failed in its most fundamental task: protecting the Jewish people from atrocities like those committed during the Shoah. This experience weighs particularly heavily on Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

My 86-year-old mother, who survived the Shoah as a child in Belgium, now lives in Jerusalem. I carry the name of one of her grandfathers – both were murdered by the Nazis. Faced with her anguish by current events, I find no comforting words. The present is too shocking, the parallels to the past too frightening.

The failure of the politicians and security forces to prevent the massacre, shook the foundation of Israeli sense of security. The painful realization: The IDF’s excessive focus on modern technologies had fatal consequences. Against an invasion of thousands of barbaric terrorists, the highly praised Iron Dome is basically useless, or in the words of American security expert Michael Doran: “Mad Max has defeated Star Wars.” Israel had prepared for the wrong war.

Even the strategic partnership with the USA suddenly shows its downsides: While it ensures indispensable military and diplomatic support, it also brings restrictions. In the complex multi-front war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis, Israel finds itself significantly constrained in its scope for action. And so many Israelis feel cheated out of their right to self-defense.

3. The Burden of excruciating Moral Dilemmas

Israel is confronted with a perfidious tactical calculation by Hamas: The remaining hostages serve as human shields, while the Palestinian civilian population is deliberately pushed into the crossfire. This strategy aims to force the Jewish state into seemingly unsolvable moral dilemmas.

Now, Israeli decision-makers face daily excruciating conflicts: How can the fight against terrorists be conducted without endangering hostages or civilians? The tragedy of this situation is further intensified by the history of hostage agreements. Statistical data show a sobering reality: Released terrorists have taken more lives in the past than were saved by their release. A particularly striking example is Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 2023 massacre. He was released in 2011 in exchange for a single Israeli soldier – along with over 1,000 other prisoners.

The ethical questions surrounding the acceptable conditions of a hostage agreement are dividing the Israeli population. The anguish of parents whose son or daughter has been in the hands of frenzied terrorists for almost twelve months is immeasurable. But who can weigh the lives of the hostages against the lives of those who may be kidnapped or murdered in the future by the released terrorists?

Both sides try to support their position with rabbinical sources. Some quote the postulate of Maimonides (1138-1204): “There is no greater commandment than the redemption of captives,” while others cite the decision of Rabbi Joseph Karo (1488-1575): “One must not pay too much for the redemption of captives, as this encourages enemies to strive for further kidnappings.”

As early as 1286, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, one of Germany’s greatest Halachic authorities, was imprisoned by the German King Rudolf I for the purpose of extorting an exorbitant ransom. The Jewish community raised the amount, but Rabbi Meir himself forbade the payment to avoid setting a precedent for the arrest of other Jews. He died after seven years in his undeserved captivity.

Perhaps I may add here what our firstborn son told us before he went to war months ago: “If I should be taken captive, not a single one of our soldiers or civilians should be put in danger for my release.”

4. The desperate Struggle for the World’s Empathy

The widespread support for Hamas in Western democracies deeply shakes the Israelis. Whether at universities or street demonstrations – the solidarity with a cruel terrorist organization is incomprehensible to them. Particularly revolting were the hesitant reactions of international women’s rights organizations to the well-documented cases of sexual violence against Jewish women.

The statement by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on May 20, 2024, also causes outrage. His equating of Israeli warfare with the atrocities of Hamas is met with incomprehension in Israel. His accusation that Israel is deliberately starving or killing civilians in Gaza stands in stark contrast to reality: Thousands of trucks with food pass the border to Gaza daily. But Hamas immediately confiscates these deliveries and sells them at exorbitant prices to the civilian population. Its misuse of civilian residential buildings, schools, and hospitals as weapons depots, deliberately endangering civilians, is a war crime.

The true human rights crimes are committed by Hamas itself. Every civilian killed under these circumstances must be attributed to Hamas. A clear condemnation of their terrorist tactics by the world community would be the most effective protection for the Palestinian population.

So how must Israelis feel when the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court slanders them in this way? They are left only to wonder: Is it naivety? Stupidity? Or is it pure Jew-hatred behind it? One thing is certain: If Israel is measured by different standards than the rest of the international community, that is nothing other than discrimination. It is antisemitism in its modern form.

Israel’s Social Breaking Point

One year after October 7, 2023, the wounds in Israeli society are still far from healing. The suffered hate and cruelties, the collapse of fundamental assumptions about Israel’s security, the excruciating moral dilemmas, and the feeling of isolation in the face of globally increasing antisemitic tendencies have triggered a profound crisis.

This new shock hits an already divided country. Even before the attack, Israelis were wrestling with questions of national identity, especially in the context of the controversial judicial reform. After a brief phase of national unity, these conflicts are now breaking out again with renewed intensity. The uninterrupted attacks of the past year have led to an accumulation of pain, grief, and frustration. These emotions are now discharging in the form of aggression between political camps. The painful debates about war goals and possible hostage agreements make the traditional fronts appear even more hardened than before.

In this context, the deeply rooted Israeli ethos of never abandoning their own citizens in danger, but also taking risks to protect enemy civilians, proves to be a double-edged sword. It is simultaneously the strength and Achilles’ heel of the Jewish state – a fact that is unscrupulously exploited by the terrorists. As a result, more and more Israelis are falling into an ideological identity crisis.

Let me quote a patient of mine who grew up in one of the now-destroyed kibbutzim and has lost several relatives in the massacre: “My parents raised me with universal humanistic values. They taught me that our Palestinian neighbors simply want to live well and raise their children, just like we do. But those were just illusions, and I’m left facing ruins; my kibbutz is destroyed, and so is everything I believed in.”

But now, in Israel, there is a growing call for a generational change, away from politicians who have deliberately intensified social tensions in recent years, towards those who focus more on compromise and agreement. The time is ripe for Israel’s young generation, which is currently paying the bitterest price for the failures of politicians and military strategists. Their task will be to revive the deadlocked civil society dialogue and guide it into new paths.

The Deceptive Successes of Terror

At first glance, Hamas and its Iranian patron seem to have achieved their goal: The massacre of October 7, 2023, will go down in history as a devastating terrorist act that deeply shook the Israeli civilian population. The partial support by international intellectuals and institutions such as the International Court of Justice even exceeded the terrorists’ expectations.

But this apparent success is deceptive. Palestinian society has been done a disservice. As long as its leadership remains unchanged, the growing generation will continue to be exposed to indoctrination that sows hatred and glorifies martyrdom. Only a profound change of heart that moves Palestinians towards a partnership relation with Israel can open up realistic future prospects for them.

Israel’s Resilience

Israeli society will, in all likelihood, once again demonstrate its proverbial resilience and overcome the current crisis. In doing so, it can continue to count on the support of numerous people worldwide who are not blinded by the loud anti-Israeli propaganda.

Those who look closely recognize the unshakeable solidarity within Israel that emerges especially in times of crisis – despite all social tensions. On October 7, 2023, numerous civilians left their families at the Shabbat table to face an overwhelming force of terrorists. They rescued injured people in their private vehicles and repeatedly returned to the danger zones, with many of them losing their own lives. These hero stories are in the process of being collected in Israel and are to be published in book form.

An entire book could also be written about the mutual aid efforts within Israeli civil society during this war. Hundreds of volunteers compete with each other to assist the relatives of those killed and injured. Taxi drivers transport the injured to outpatient treatments free of charge, while entrepreneurs arrange for disability-friendly renovations of their homes. When one of our sons received a 24-hour leave from the army, a private person immediately drove him hundreds of miles from the northern border with Lebanon directly to Jerusalem, so he could spend as much time as possible with his family.

Another recent example of solidarity in Israeli society: A few weeks ago, Gal Morenu, the young widow of Itai Morenu, sadly announced that she had lost her husband’s wedding ring at the beach in Ashkelon. Since Itai had fallen in battle against the terrorists on October 7th, Gal had been wearing his ring, adorned with biblical words, on a necklace. Promptly, dozens of volunteers gathered at the beach and combed through the sand for hours until the ring was found and returned to the widow.

The Path to a Common Future

In conclusion, it must be emphasized: Both Israeli and Palestinian society face the inevitable reality that the status quo cannot be maintained. A paradigm shift on the Palestinian side towards peaceful coexistence with Israel would be met with great willingness for a new beginning on the Israeli side.

Walls can be torn down, and innovative solution approaches can be developed. Ultimately, love for God and fellow human beings must triumph over cynicism and destructive nihilism – not only for the good of Israel and its neighbors but in the interest of the entire world community.