Sensitivities Preclude Conversations in the Kitchenette and Sedated Institutions

In the office kitchenette, a colleague spoke about her high school aged son. When others left the room, I recalled her other son in the army and asked about him. “He’s in a tank, in Gaza, since yesterday.” I don’t know how mothers maintain their sanity under such circumstances. “Back on meds,” she said.

She opened her phone and showed me photos. Her son in uniform. Pride, and concern. She said she doesn’t usually show these pictures when she’s at the office. That requires no explanation. No explanation because the office employees, all citizens of the State of Israel, are both Arab and Jewish. Sensitivities. Arab citizens of Israel, largely including a Palestinian component in their identities, largely feeling Jewish Israelis lack empathy for Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank.

In stereotypic mode, Jewish Israelis don’t expect Arab citizens of Israel to support the war, to take pride in Israeli soldiers, and more likely are suspicious of their loyalties. Israeli dissonance, in some circles, over disproportionate attacks – and devastation – in Gaza vs. justifiable retaliation to ensure Israeli security. Arab citizens of Israel, at times protected as much as any Israeli by the IDF, yet shelters in their communities and towns, and safe rooms in their homes are under-prioritized for public funding, neglected.

Distracting headline interrupts my thoughts: IDF and GSS confirm elimination of Hamas terrorist who commanded over capture of the late Shiri Bibas and her red-headed children, Kfir and Ariel, and responsible for deaths of Judy Weinstein-Haggai and Gadi Haggai at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Capability.

Of course, Intelligence can identify every terrorist involved in every incident on October 7, every hostage taken, every individual murdered, mutilated, raped. Of course, Israeli Intelligence targets each of those terrorists. Of course, that is the level of Israeli conviction and faith in the IDF and the GSS.

Of course, the Mossad pinpoints, targets and takes out terrorists in sophisticated, surgical attacks. Police place barricades on roads and stop vehicles following warnings of terrorist penetration. Beeper operation.

Organizations charged with surveillance, strategizing, and carrying out policy. Capability. How could they be warning-anesthetized? Negligible warnings – inaccurate attribution. Why would forces be dispersed from the vulnerable location, sent home from the fateful front, reinforced on another front? Failure to mobilize on October 7, 2023, at 6:29 AM. From negligible to negligence.

Capability and negligence – and rebuilding public trust in government institutions protecting us.

Human resources and the national budget. Health and education budgets diminished to increase funding for ultra-Orthodox institutions serving a Jewish community which objects to its young men and women serving in the army. If diminishing some allocations in favor of another is justified, shouldn’t defense budgets be favored?

Drifting thoughts. Government policy of police disregard for crime and violence in Arab society throughout Israel. For over two decades enabling crime escalation by selective indifference to law enforcement, on an equal basis for all citizens. My thoughts drawn back to the conversation with my colleague in the kitchenette. Conflicting loyalties of Arab citizens.

Flashback video clip: elected official a few years ago – an isolated statement that the left is traitorous. Dismissible. Except this dismissal of legitimacy for diversity of ideas, piece by piece, composed a picture. Democratic values – freedom of speech and equality – at stake. Statements emerging, bit by bit, from Qatargate add building blocks to fear that institutions intended to protect our rights selectively induce sedation of free expression.

Harriet Gimpel, April 5, 2025