One year after October 7: Israeli resilience and new opportunities for unity - opinion

A year later, the deep pain and ongoing torment that Hamas’s surprise October 7 massacre, and the consequent wars brought still impact the Israeli and Jewish psyche. Yet, a year later also, the questions regarding the failures of Israel’s vaunted military power and intelligence capabilities, and the solidity of its Arab partnerships are being responded. Israel and its Arab partners knew that military capabilities and deterrence, surprised for a moment, see to be fully restored.

It is now reaffirmed that, while it is heartbreaking to see that world Jewry is still in ongoing danger, Jews have a country and can defend itself militarily and diplomatically. Powerless for two millennia, the Jewish people are no longer defenseless. Despite the October 7 devastation, the gut-wrenching hostage situation, and the existential threats from seven neighboring nations, this may still be the greatest time in the last 2000 years of Jewish history: Jews are militarily powerful and able to defend themselves.

There is one serious drawback to such an Israeli military power that Israel must better navigate when making its case to the nations. In today’s world’s eyes, where military power is confused with abuse or oppression, Israel’s vaunted military power transformed it into Goliath while it continues to be an endangered David. Israel, a collective underdog forever confronting hostile genocidal forces, must explain it does not have the luxury to falter even once. And it must not be blamed for its ingenuity in taking such an extraordinary care of its citizens’ safety. Thousands of Jews are not dying in this war because Israel invests heavily in safety.

UNTIL THE WORLD gets the message, Israel is still in high peril. Israelis and world Jewry must take the following steps during these trying times to successfully fight this battle.

The first step is to fully integrate that all Israeli internal disputes must take second place to the unity needed for survival. Addressing the serious differences between the parties in Israel will come again in due time. However critical one might be towards the government and political adversaries, the call for genocide of the Jews from Hamas, Iran, and its proxies is unmistakable. The danger is flagrant. It must be fully recognized. It cannot be denied, nor explained away, and cannot be replaced by political polarization.

The seriousness of the threat and the need to effectively defend themselves verbally has opened the way for the Jews to work towards forging a strong, unified identity. What they have in common is a heritage they can be proud of and a well-proven resilience against antisemitism and its unfair accusations. The challenge is to define their own Jewishly colored democracy without having to be apologetic or to assimilate to belong. They can be encouraged by the many friendly voices rising against antisemitism, even though they are not sufficiently reflected by mainstream media.

Israelis must recognize and resist the obvious foreign forces (including friendly ones) that openly act to weaken their democracy and destroy their unity. Jews everywhere must resist these forces and unify against the external implacable enemy.

One year later

A year later, October 7, 2023, must remain the wake-up call. The call that moves Jews to better understand how each of their socio-political sectors contributes something crucial to the Jewish synthesis. It is a call to foster a harmonious blend of all the Jews’ spiritual and material capacities to strengthen unity.

Affirming an identity profoundly anchored in Judaic historical role and values, which have survived exile and persecution and held onto hope and resilience, will legitimize their claim to the land in the eyes of people who feel deeply guided by their religion. 

Jewish Synthesis Identity requires secular and religious Jews to dialogue and learn from each other. Each group will be able to contribute its own richness.

Jewish Synthesis Identity requires consciously using empowering communication skills to tackle the different divisions in their society and to address the international community.

To defend itself verbally internationally and unify internally, Israel must become a start-up nation in the tools of communication. Refined communication tools must be developed to confront antisemitism and anti-Zionism and change the distorted historical narratives on the conflict with the Arabs. It can be a language that avoids blame or arousing hatred, that invites understanding and cooperation and offers attractive solutions.

THIS DISTORTED narrative, which culminated in the absurd Nazification of Israel, adopted the Palestinian cause as the poster child of the underdog, colonized by the poster child of the oppressor, the Israeli Jews, all while world Jewry continues to be a victim of bias and murderous hatred. It is a narrative that has even captured many young Jews.

Israelis must stand strong when their values somewhat differ from international ones. Israel is a healthy country that reproduces itself and differentiates between the use of aggressive force to annihilate or dominate and the use of defensive force to protect itself. Its moral preoccupation and clarity about the ethical use of power allows it not to confuse power with aggression or fall for revenge but to understand when it must fight evil to get to real peace. Because of its solid justice system to assess abuse, Israel can refute false accusations of genocide against the IDF.

Israel must also request from the West that their concept of freedom of speech does not allow calls for genocide of the Jews and discrimination against Jewish university students. A good defense also includes understanding and defining antisemitism.

So many nations have practiced antisemitism throughout the centuries that it can be defined as the symbol of the deep disorder nations go through when in trauma.

Fear and resentment make people reject and be hostile to “the different, suspicious other.” Weakness, insecurity, and shame are projected onto “this other,” who stands to represent all the negative feelings, impulses, and evil actions they are unable to recognize in themselves.

But the virulence and widespread antisemitism also reflect the importance of Judaism and world Jewry to the world. It is this universal dimension that merits more elucidation. The role that Jews and Judaism play on the international scene requires that Jews take themselves very seriously, overcome their traumas and insecurity, wrap themselves in the mantle of the Judaic values they brought to the world, and do their utmost to live up to these values. In this time of great pain and great heroism, we can go through the dark night of the soul into a much bigger light.

The writer, MFCT, is the founder and president of the International Trauma-Healing Institutes in the US (ITI-USA) and Israel (ITI-Israel). A specialist in individual and collective trauma, she is the author of a series of books, Beyond the Trauma Vortex into the Healing Vortex, with tools for self-regulation, and of the Free From Conflict Model. She focuses her analytical and advocacy work on the collective trauma behind political polarization.