Reports of mental health struggles among Israeli soldiers

 

James M. Dorsey discusses on TRT World the impact of the Gaza war on Israeli soldiers, with hundreds reportedly taken their own and many more suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

To listen to the podcast or watch the video, go to https://jamesmdorsey.substack.com/p/reports-of-mental-health-struggles

Transcript

Let’s go to James M. Dorsey, he's a Middle East analyst at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Welcome to you James.

{Neil Harvey} The reports that have come in just in the last few days, reservists expressing doubts, a significant number, they've seen combat and they're not sure whether they want to decide to go back or not, for a variety of reasons, including the mental health, that they are, injuries that they are suffering, the physical injuries and doubts about the political cause that they're involved in. Short term, could it be a problem or not, do you think, for the Israeli army?

[James M. Dorsey] Of course it's a problem. I think there's several factors to take into account here. First of all, we're dealing with two traumatised societies, Gazans and Palestinians traumatised by the horror of the Israeli conduct of the war, and an Israeli society that is fighting the longest war in its history.

Israel is used to or to measuring wars in terms of days or weeks, not years. On top of that, keep in mind that the Israeli army is a reflection of the Israeli society. That is to say that a majority of Israelis want the war to end, perhaps not because of the horrors that the Gazans are enduring, but because they don't believe that it's going to free the captives held by Hamas, and they don't see what the purpose of further fighting is.

[Neil Harvey] I wonder, it's one of those things that might not be a short-term problem, but down the road, it could be a real kind of legacy of this conflict, a bad one for Israel, the mental health impact. Is that what history teaches us, that actually a lot of these soldiers are going to suffer further down the line?

[James M. Dorsey] Well, I mean, the mental and psychological impact of what soldiers witness is horrendous. I mean, it's basically as horrendous as what the Gazans are encountering. Even if, to be fair, there's a segment of the Israeli military which favours the brutality of the war.

[Neil Harvey] This is no ordinary war, though, is it, James?

Because the number of dead children that these soldiers are seeing, now, some of them may have pulled the trigger, some of them may not, but they still see these bodies of dead children.

[James M. Dorsey] Absolutely. And a lot is going to depend on how Israel as a society and how Israeli institutions deal with helping soldiers who come back from the fighting, readjust, deal with the traumas and the atrocities that they've witnessed, if not committed, and reintegrate. And that's going to be a major part of this.

But this is going to leave a legacy and certainly is going to shape in part how Israel goes, if and how Israel goes to war in future.

[Neil Harvey] You talked about the impact on the Israeli public. Now, I think this is a key thing, because maybe that's the one thing that might put pressure on Netanyahu to do things differently. And I wonder, with the EU considering ending its free trade agreement, our correspondents suggested actually that could be significant, because if you start hurting Israeli businesses, which are already struggling, that could maybe produce a tipping point.

What's your opinion?

[James M. Dorsey] I think there are two aspects here. One aspect is something that people may not realise, which is Europe, not the United States, is Israel's largest trading partner. That is to say that European investment in Israel doubles that of the United States.

European trade with Israel is larger than that of the United States. And Israeli investment in Israel dwarfs Israeli investment in the United States. So European actions to sanction Israel are going to be felt.

And you're already having Israeli technology entrepreneurs warning that their businesses are in jeopardy if there are going to be European sanctions, because their startups are funded by the European Union. I think the other side of the coin of your question is with regard to public pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu. I think we need to face it that almost two years of war, Netanyahu has ignored public opinion, even though a majority of Israelis want to see an end to the war.

And thousands and thousands of them are in the streets demanding an end to the war. If anything, we've seen Netanyahu this week double down, in which he basically said that Israel would have to become a Sparta, with an autarkic economy, with other words, an economy that is self-sufficient, even though that may be pie in the sky.

[Neil Harvey] James, appreciate your analysis. My guest, James Dorsey, who's Middle East analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.