The Pathetic Solidarity of Helplessness

If we continue with the release of three hostages every week, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as deals would phrase it, apparently it would take 11 weeks to bring home the remaining living hostages  – and I am not giving up on the return of the bodies of the rest of the hostages. But do the living have 11 weeks?

The pictures this morning claimed my emotional space. Empathy for the other knocks at shaky boundaries of that space, but this is a “no vacancy” moment.

Watching and evading heartbreaking pictures of returning hostages this morning, sometimes juxtaposed with their pre-captivity pictures, reading a report by a documentary film student and reaching a point where I stopped reading and started skimming, because it couldn’t get worse, and I couldn’t contain more, but I read the closing paragraph repeatedly. Full disclosure: I read the closing paragraph the other day and knew I had to find time to read from the beginning for as long as I could. Israel’s actions appear reprehensible. And Israel is vulnerable. And Israel has absolute enemies. And nothing Israel does is likely to change that. Still, Israel must rise above reality with a higher moral message buried in rubble and tunnels in Gaza. Yet we know our moral fiber as a nation began rotting before this war.

Defending our soldiers, something I want to do even when I have written the worst of things about Israeli policy. I walk that tightrope void of the luxury of thinking we don’t have to be primed to defend ourselves. I accept the idea that citizens have obligations to their societies, and if we all took options of noble social service which I endorse, we would be helpless in the face of attack by hostile armies or terrorist organizations. In that closing paragraph that I read and reread I sought some more rationalization on behalf of soldiers defending us, doing their civil service by doing military service, and understanding the interlocking links where Intelligence feeds into strategies, and soldiers, like civil servants in a government ministry, implement policy.

Torn and tearing. Sometimes silence is powerful. Powerfully shredding the fiber of your values. Powerful. With zero impact.

I know today and every day: the only path to recovery requires agreements. Others articulate it eloquently, and I “like” their posts. Tell me there is no partner, and we have to defend ourselves when agreements are violated. I don’t have the counter argument. I have pictures from this morning. They tell me there’s no time for temporary ceasefires. We need a permanent ceasefire. We need all the hostages home now!

Public opinion-makers frame  visuals in their empty campaigns of victory, and our solidarity. I feel only pain and loss resonating from every part of our society, solidarity only in helplessness and pain. The only way to distance yourself is to distance yourself, protect your emotional health – if you succeed. The Prime Minister, for example, extended his stay in the United States.

• Harriet Gimpel, February 8, 2025