The Complexity of Superficiality or Not So Cognitive Dissonance
Attending a conference in the Negev about rebuilding local relationships between Jews and Arab-Bedouin society, reviewing data on mutual fear and distrust, and how sustained long-term relationships reinforce hope, individuals understand the mutually beneficial value of cooperation, not necessarily values-based understanding – that’s where I was. On a barstool at the entrance to the lecture hall, because that’s where you sit when helping with logistics in a filled room, every seat taken. A glance at my phone. Critical injuries, shooting, perpetrators killed, a Jerusalem bus stop. Two Palestinian perpetrators, killed. Funeral times for Jewish Israeli victims announced as released. Video clips of the scene. News spreading across the conference hall.
At a roundtable, in smaller groups, an Arab-Bedouin participant shared – so we Jews would be aware – that their in-group discourse, their wildest fears speaking, they say if Israel should attack the whole Arab world, they’re done with, and if the entire Arab world were to strike Israel, that too would be their end. Rationally unlikely?
The following afternoon, productivity resumed following that familiar detach, zero functionality. That’s my reaction to terrorist attacks. A glance at my news feed before leaving the office. Israel attacked in Qatar, to take down Hamas leaders. Damn. I know we shouldn’t have done this! Equally – damn, we pulled off such a maneuver? Timing. Our government again doing more to endanger than to save the remaining hostages and their chances of returning home. Despite the maneuver, the operation later rated a failure – the victims not the targeted Hamas leadership.
Revenge will be sought. Cycles of revenge. What’s not to understand? Only our revenge is justifiable?
After Friday dinner, primetime interview with a popular musician describes volunteer work he did several years ago, enabling surgery in Israel for children without access to treatment elsewhere. He once helped bring a Gazan child to Israel for that purpose. The child’s father belonged to Hamas (perhaps less imposing at the time). That child became an adult and a member of Hamas. Interview subtext: there are no innocent children in Gaza.
Haim and I discuss the impact of this interview on certain members of the family. The subtext penetrates. That’s it. No innocent people in Gaza. I ask Haim why they don’t counterbalance that with an example like the Green Prince, son of a Hamas leader who became disillusioned with Hamas ideology while in an Israeli prison and became an agent for Israel. The complexity of superficiality.
Amidst it all, surveys continue to show for months a steady number of Israelis in the 70% range wanting the hostages released and the end of the war. It’s believable that they want the hostages released. It is less believable that they truly want the end of the war. End of war discourse is flavored to taste with talk of what Israel can subsequently do to take down Hamas after the hostages are returned. That is not the language of people committed to ending this war. It’s the language of vengeance. Not so cognitive, dissonance.
Unlike past patterns, when Israeli masses rallied around retaliation for a week or month following intense Hamas attacks, until center-left voters eased back into various degrees of moderation and calls for peace and negotiations, demands for a more militant approach remain intact – on the surface or below it – since October 7.
On October 7, Israelis were humiliated – in their own eyes, in the eyes of the world, and in the evil eyes of Hamas. Hamas took Israel by surprise, took hundreds of hostages, and over 1200 lives in one day. Humiliating when you have the technological and military capabilities to orchestrate the beeper attack in Lebanon in September 2024, target individuals in Iran, in Syria. But demands for revenge are evoked by humiliation. The attack in Qatar easily recognizable as another unrelenting attempt for revenge. Not to mention other political explanations and interpretations.
Qatar considers its response. New alliances arise as Iran speaks of imminent retaliation for Israel’s attack in June. Israel’s friends call for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Ostensibly irrational concerns in Arab society in Israel tread on sand shifting positions in a hardening regional psyche.
Now, I am more certain this will soon end. When nothing makes sense, the dissonance could become cognitive and reason could kick in, shattering desire for revenge, as invisible silencers enable the explosive hopes tearing my heart to pieces to transcend evil and vengeance.
Harriet Gimpel, September 13, 2025
