Evil and Us – a Prelude – and The Day After

Prelude –

Real victims don’t act like victims. They just try to survive.

Maybe I’m the one who’s obtuse. That could be. Perhaps I see it too simply.

This is the most difficult essay I have attempted to write. Maybe because I don’t know exactly what I’m going to say, but I’ll slog through it anyway.

I think I have a different relationship to evil than most. Previously, I assumed that most evil came from the political far right. In fact, I spent the better part of a decade, right here, reacting to news in America and Israel, railing against Trump and Bibi. And that’s fine. But that’s not all.

In the years where I didn’t write publicly, I came to understand in a visceral way that evil didn’t actually care about politics, other than how it could manipulate and control it. There were no clear lines, as I had thought nearly my entire life.

The people we think are polar opposites, not on the same side, not even remotely connected to one another, are not interested in politics — not in progressive politics, not in fascist politics — all of it is a facade.

What they have in common, what they are passionate about, is perpetrating evil. If there’s anything they worship, it’s themselves and the manifestation of their evil inclinations.

And while they are interested and wholly invested in their own greed, there is more. There is gun running and drug smuggling. That’s kind of like their day job. But what really fascinates them is people – and their drive to abuse people.

Just as the world is obsessed with celebrities and sex — evil people are obsessed with sexual violence. Not because they’re more interested in sex but because it’s the ultimate in abuse and power and control and it’s the most exhilarating form of evil.

I’m not a psychologist. I am not analyzing their psychosis. I am saying doing so doesn’t change anything. What matters is how it plays out.

October 7th revealed, exposed to the world what had remained mainly hidden, for years. And most of the world turned their back on recognizing this phenomenon of evil, recoiled from acknowledging it — we don’t even have sufficient language to describe the mass rapes, the mutilation, the torture, the barbarism. And in the two years since, it’s been mostly glossed over.

The world was easily, quickly distracted. That may be self-preservation and cowardice. But it quickly became aggressive and compounded the evil perpetrated on Oct 7th.

The obsession with Israel and Gaza was like a global cultish OCD. The world has learned little since the Holocaust.

I wish to God I had more answers. I only know that collectively, we have barely begun to find them. Not in politics, science, spirituality… we have a long, long way to go. But the victims need our immediate and long-lasting attention and focus.

The Day After –

A lot of my friends hate Bibi. A lot, a lot of my friends hate Trump. Me, after nearly a decade of feeling the exact same way… I just can’t get it up for those feelings anymore. It’s not that I like or approve of them, either.

It’s that I know that evil comes from many ideological, religious and political corners. I’m not stuck on, my side is really, really right, yours is really, really wrong.

I reserve my fury for more tangible evil. Hamas, aka Islamic Nazis, and Nazis.

Maybe I’m just too weary. Maybe I know shit that most people don’t even think about. Maybe because I’ve lived with evil.

I don’t know if it will ever make sense. But I do know that as long as people pretend to themselves that one or two men embody all that is rancid in the world… it may be a source of comfort to think that way… but it does nothing at all to protect the vulnerable. And that feeling of helplessness is what’s really driving the animus.

There is an underbelly to this Ceasefire deal. We don’t want to face it.

Releasing terrorists only motivates Islamic Nazis to terrorize again. This strange, inhumane policy, like the inanity of land for peace, only kicks the can down the road.

You know what my prayer is for the day after? That somehow, Israel managed to subvert and deradicalize and turn some of the terrorist, raping, murdering prisoners released yesterday, as they did with young militant Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of former Hamas co-founder. I hope that a whole bunch of the released terrorist prisoners are actually plants.

That would make a great movie or animated series. But with nearly 2000 terrorist prisoners who had been duly convicted under due process released for our 20 innocents tortured and held captive… sigh.

Yes, our beloved, wholesome innocents are each worth much more than their insane, nihilistic, satanic, empty souls. Our beloveds love real women (maybe some men.) To digress, just think about a corrupted patriarchal premise of Islamism – that murder-suicide is rewarded with not one, but 72 virgins.

And then think about how the majority of young people in America are in favor of this evil, in the name of being progressive. Not just the young… too many I once counted as friends. Even one was too many.

My prayer the day after is also, most importantly, this — that every one of the survivors, former hostages, family members — stays alive, heals from the horrific trauma.

That road the can is kicked down – that road is far more treacherous and nearly impossible than we can foresee. There are thousands of shards of metal in their, our path.

And we haven’t prepared for them. We don’t yet know nearly enough about how to heal from severe, unimaginable trauma. Our human ignorance, our avoidance on a mass scale — here in Israel and everywhere — will cost us a premium of suffering.

I’m heartsick about Nova survivor Roei Shalev’s suicide last week at age 30. All the headlines mentioned that his girlfriend Mapal Adam and friend Hilly Solomon were murdered in front of him on October 7th. His mother’s suicide shortly after October 7th is barely a footnote — she is still yet to be counted as a victim of terrorism — but she, Raffeala, was.

His father, Ronen Shalev, said that perhaps Roei didn’t want treatment enough. Here’s the thing – we ALL need to want it for them. He also said this needs to be treated as a National Emergency.

We can’t just rejoice that the hostages were able to walk out on their own two feet yesterday, including the metaphor.  That’s shallow and irresponsible. We need to prioritize trauma treatment.

I even read a few days ago that there are possibly new technological innovations for severe trauma treatment. We need them faster, better… now.

If you are more obsessed with Bibi or Trump than you are with the heartbreak of Nova survivor Shirel Golan’s suicide on her birthday nearly a year ago, October 20, 2024 – well, consider that your priorities might be misaligned.

She was 22, suffered from PTSD, and her family feels that authorities failed to provide her sufficient treatment.

But we, we all were supposed to be her safety net.

Her death haunts me, every bit as much as the images of the women and men being bloodied and captured on Oct 7th haunted me. Those catastrophic events formed part of my motivation to make aliyah recently.

October 7th was a tragedy, a massive failure – Bibi, the Security network, Israeli and even US Intelligence – you name it. But what happens next is on us.

And I haven’t even touched on the suffering of the IDF. Or the toxicity of incessant Jew-hatred.

Israelis pride themselves on a culture of independence. But that is incompatible with trauma treatment. We need not only vastly more treatment, knowledge, insight, patience… we need more watching, monitoring… we need not to leave them alone.

And the families cannot do it on their own. They need treatment, too. Israel is a tiny country. Surely you know someone who needs your help? We need to be vigilant.

I know, I know, I know… most of us are still recovering… from the Gaza and the Iranian Wars. We feel broken when we yearn to feel whole. Yesterday was just a start.

You can’t pin this just on Bibi or Trump. We’ve known about severe trauma for at least 40 years – no, for 80 years. All those leaders failed, too. And it’s not only about surviving – it’s also about quality of life.

We’re really going to need a forceful national mental health movement. Can we rally around that in Freed Square?