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Harriet Berkal

 
Harriet Berkal: The Ultimate Catch 22

Tortured Souls

by Harriet Berkal, Oct 27, 2024

 

Without hesitation, we’d all certainly agree, that wars are horrific!At times they are initiated by others and the recipient has little choice but to defend and resist. They start for a wide variety of reasons, but ultimately cost the lives of both those guilty and innocent.

 

It’s been over a year now since October 7, and we are seeing some of the real costs of battle. This list includes the victims at Nova, the families in the kibbutzim, the hostages and their loved ones and even the innocent Palestinian women and children.

 

The other day scrolling through Instagram, I came across a beautiful photo of a 22 year old female. Her name is Sharel Golam and she in fact, had survived the Nova Music Festival. She was only there for three hours but that’s all it took for her to witness 11 of her friends gunned down by Hamas. Ultimately this became her inner demon and she committed suicide after a year of trying to survive its savagery.

 

She ended her life on her 22 nd birthday. Her brother indicated that social service’s mental health treatments are offered primarily to those who reach out versus a wider cast net to all who survived.

 

She is not alone. To date, one survivor claims there have been up to 50 individuals who came out alive from Nova, but due to severe PTSD, survivor’s guilt or having the inability to move forward, all chose to end their lives. This number has been disputed. What they saw was too much for them. The unspeakable would never be erased from their minds. Many have turned to drugs or alcohol. They are offered 36 hours of free psychological help. ( thejc.ca )

 

A small percentage of IDF soldiers who had been fighting in Gaza and returned to Israel are adamant that due to trauma they would rather go to jail than return to their armed forces duties. (CNN)

 

You have multiple war fronts in Israel and yes they have made progress in killing many heads of Hamas and Hezbollah. But there are soldiers who have been injured, traumatized and will have PTSD. War exacts a terrible price, Do you reach your end when you simply intended to go to a peace music festival and ended up running for your life ? In the meantime, many of your friends were not as fortunate and suffered brutalities at the hands of Hamas and many civilians.

 

When you watched the coverage of a young woman who was paraded half naked through the streets, obviously raped and tortured, with thousands celebrating her demise - how do you deal with that reality of hate?

 

Some of the soldiers spoke about remembering driving mostly terrorists over with their tanks, hearing the bodies squishing under its wheels. (CNN)

 

Judaism values LIFE. Israel did not want this fight. But to do nothing post October 7 would be insane as it was a second Holocaust.

 

Oddly I’m searching for suicides on the other side and not finding the same incidents. I have searched and have not found the same dilemma in Gaza. It might exist and Hamas doesn’t want to publicize this data.

 

What does this tell us about Jews? We have a moral conscience and are not wanting to truly destroy lives. But if not, what is the alternative? Negotiations have gone nowhere.

 

Yes many terrorist leaders have been taken out but surely they will be replaced by others.

 

The ideology of hate has been so ingrained in their youth that it may never be reversed.


The cost of war, including to the many young Israelis suffering severe PTSD , is horrific, but Israel really had no choice.

 

Thousands of survivors are being treated in mental health care institutions. This too, is not good.

 

The same people who were once carefree or had military training are returning changed people.

They represent the future of Israel.

 

If October 7 had occurred in the US or in Canada, there would be retaliation. But Israel is a small country and countries such as Iran, Russia, China, and Turkey are aligned against it. I surely hope that Israel can ward off this mounting pressure.

 

I suspect a huge inquest on the origins of October 7. How did this happen? Did Israel drop the ball in fighting about its judicial system and did this division enable a massacre?

 

All that is evident is that war creates internal struggles for all involved.

 

War has unified the Israeli nation. But at the same time, Israel’s future generation realizes the need to be on guard. Yet,there are some reservists who are exhausted.

 

The stress of antisemitism on the rise is affecting all of us in the diaspora. But we don’t face the day to day combat. We haven’t lived in a tunnel for over a year in Gaza. We aren’t running to bomb shelters as sirens go off.

 

We are privileged to live here but slowly our rights are eroding too.

 

When Canadian flags and chants of death to Canada and Israel are being espoused - what does our future look like?

 

I don’t envy our grandchildren living in such a state of affairs.

 

The planet is big enough for all of us. It’s shameful and scary that history is being questioned and politics is fuelling what happens next.

 

More turbulence, more deaths, and god help those hostages

 

Some say it didn’t start October 7 and instead has been brewing for 75 years. They are the same ones who are protesting on campuses and elsewhere suggesting that Jews are not indigenous to Israel.

 

They are trying to rewrite history and are ill informed. But nonetheless their voices echo the sound of increasing antisemitism we are all witnessing.

 

And yes some of those questioning are Jews themselves. They are anti- Zionist, and they are a small minority of Jews.

 

This was not the vision of Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. What would he be saying to the world now?

 

Let there be lasting peace in the Middle East, notwithstanding it appears remote right now.

 
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