Israelis are understandably traumatized by the October 7 massacres and the long war that followed. On that single day, 1,200 were butchered in their homes, at a music festival, and on quiet kibbutzim. Since then, nearly as many of our soldiers have fallen in battle defending the country.
This is not an abstract national statistic. It is a wound in almost every family, every neighborhood, every school.
Israelis are often described as resilient. We go back to work. Children return to school. Cafés reopen. But resilience is not the same as healing. Beneath the surface, trauma lingers. The painful rise in IDF suicides is proof that not all scars are visible, and not all battles end when the shooting stops.
And yet, this is not the first time Israelis have carried such a burden.
