# 235 – Post-War Trauma

July 3, 2013

“Both sides should sit down together and….”

“You’re as bad as each other..”

So often do do-gooders believe that it’s just a matter of they and us just sitting down and chatting, finding a way.

They forget that, among the Palestinians, there are many voices, and few of them agree.

And the same can be said of the Israelis, though not necessarily divided in the same way.

And there is 1 parallelism that does not work: in Israel, there are Palestinians who can and do take full advantage of being Israeli citizens.

(I happen to have been recently in and out of several hospitals here; they may not want to pay taxes nor serve their community, but they sure do want society to keep them healthy). Vice versa is….. zero.

But I digress…switch off all reference to the Palestinians…

Done it?

OK….

I continue to be shocked/surprised by the number of people I meet who, when you scratch the outwardly normal surface, find that they have been directly involved in wars. Some of you will know what I mean, as you perhaps live in a region directly or indirectly involved in conflicts.

Here in Israel, anyone above or of a certain age will have been involved in 1, 2 3 or even 4 wars. And I am referring to actual wars. You know, those things with tanks, bayonets, fighter planes and missiles. (Yes, we also have the attrition-type, where, much of the time, we have to cower in cellars and sealed rooms, scared out of our wits).

My brother-in-law is Dan Livni. He’s an artist, a good husband, father and grandfather. He’s a party guy; the one who’s usually up there on the stage, or down below, dancing. He’s the first to walk in the fields, smell the flowers and watch the sea. He’s a follower of National Geographic, who not only enjoys reading about the World, but then seeing it.

And he’s been to and through the wars. Yes, you can say that Gaza is suffering because it has not had a chance to ‘stop and build’. But that’s my point: Israel, as some of you will know from first-hand experience, is a thriving country that has been built despite the wars and the pressures. That is something of which to be proud.

I am attaching Dani’s drawings of his first-hand views of the war in Sinai, the Yom Kippur War, now approaching it’s 40 years memorial…Let me quote a few words from Dani:

“‪….my works consider only Yom Kippur war

‪This war was not connected to the Palestinian issue.

‪All the drawings in that presentation convey the surprise attack

by the armies of Egypt and Syria on Israel in 1973

‪The aim and the declarations of these states was to destroy the state of Israel.

‪And in this defense war we lost almost 2700 young soldiers,

‪And thousands of injured soldiers and civilians.

‪Almost every family here was hurt.

‪And it was a real defense war.

‪It is important to explain the feeling of the Israelis after this cruel  attack

‪That similar to the feeling in London after the German blitz.

‪People here were in a deep shock”.

Stephen