The government’s decision on whether to expand the war in the Gaza Strip and fully occupy it can’t be made only on an operational level.
It also has to take into account the human element.
There are the dangers facing the hostages held by Hamas if the IDF enters areas in which they’re being held, but there is also the toll – both physical and emotional – to our armed forces, who have been fighting nonstop for almost two years.
The volume of reservists seeking treatment for trauma has jumped from 270 per year to around 3,000, a jump of more than 1,000%, Lt.-Col. Uzi Bechor, head of the Combat Mental Health Unit for reservist soldiers, told The Jerusalem Post this week.
Since the beginning of the year, 16 soldiers have committed suicide, seven of them reservists. Most of the suicides were linked to combat-related circumstances and the psychological toll of extended stays in war zones, according to a KAN report, and the IDF has acknowledged that the phenomenon is connected to the ongoing war in Gaza.
The choices made in the conference rooms of the government have a direct consequence on thousands of men and women who, month after month, are being sent back into the battlefield, into danger, and into trauma.
These soldiers are not just names or numbers; they are sons and daughters, spouses and parents, students and workers, all of whom have been repeatedly called to bear the unbearable weight of this war.
Rippling effects of war
The public alarm bell that the Post reported on this week, regarding the trauma of soldiers and the heartbreaking stories of suicides or attempted suicides, is not isolated or coincidental.
It is evidence of a deeper crisis that has been brewing beneath the surface for some time now.
What soldiers see and experience in war, especially this one, is particularly scarring. What the soldiers experience does not affect just them; it has ripple effects on their families, loved ones, and communities at large.
Soldiers carry what they saw and experienced on the battlefield when they catch up with friends or sit with family, while every partner, child, mother, and father of reservists and soldiers carries an inescapable and eternal stomach-knotting fear.
Even during brief respites at home, their war doesn’t stop.
Unfortunately, Israel is not new to war. We have a long collective memory, and we know the signs of psychological collapse when they begin to emerge. Veterans of the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the long chain of conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza carry emotional scars to this day.
This price cannot be belittled, ignored, or downplayed when policy is set that will place our armed forces in greater danger for even longer periods of time. The conversations around policy, retaliation, and deterrence are often devoid of the human cost and the daily suffering that lives on long after a mission ends.
Our leaders must take into consideration that cost when deciding their next steps in the ongoing war against Hamas and the efforts to free our sons and daughters held in Gaza.
The government can’t take the heroic soldiers who have devoted the last two years to their country, at the expense of family and career, for granted. Their sacrifices cannot be treated as background noise.
The next choices will be pivotal to the status of the war and will affect Israel’s overall well-being, both inside and out.
If the government tells our exhausted soldiers to carry on and keep fighting in Gaza, how can they at the same time fight tooth and nail to bring about a draft law to exempt eligible ultra-Orthodox (haredi) men from service? With policies like that, a decision to expand the war and occupy all of Gaza will bring all of the divisiveness that has plagued Israel over the last few years to a head.
Ahead of Thursday night’s critical security cabinet meeting, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir expressed the correct sentiment when he said, “We are dealing with matters of life and death, in the defense of the country, and we do so while looking toward our soldiers and the civilians of Israel.”
Let’s hope the rest of the people sitting around the cabinet table take heed.