How Trauma Perpetuates Conflict in the Middle East

Anyone struggling to make sense of Israel's response to the October 7 Hamas attack would do well to study "Israel and the Trauma of Annihilation" by Israeli historian and professor Dan Drayer.    Written in 1982, it argues that the trauma of the Holocaust holds Israelis in a ongoing perception of themselves as "victims".  This perpetuates an endless cycle of mistrust and violence that is now far more entrenched in 2024 than when Drayer writes this provocative essay.

The essay explains how the trauma of the Holocaust, coupled with the history of colonialism caused Israelis tend to perceive the ongoing conflict with neighbors in the Middle East as a continuation of their European past, denying the Palestinian narrative and their own responsibility in the creation of the conflict. Diner further discusses the dangers of this distorted perception, arguing that it prevents Israelis from truly understanding and addressing the conflict's root causes and thus undermines the possibility of peace.

It's long! I recommend listening to this 17 minute audio conversation as an accessible way to grasp the contents.  It's a conversation created by NotebookLLM, between two AI hosts.  They present the key ideas engagingly, and to my ears, quite faithfully to the original text.   The original article was written in Hebrew, and can be read in English translation here.

Let there be no confusion: The reality of historical trauma is no excuse for abuse of others.  Israel has increasingly abandoned all accountability to international law and gone fully rogue; it now systematically engages in tactics whose advocates, including several politicians now in the ruling Israeli coalition, openly state their intention to drive all Palestinians from Israel forever.    This is ethnic cleansing and its consequences are genocidal. 

As the world struggles with how to respond with a nation most people think of as a victim, we must recognize that Israel is a profoundly traumatized nation whose responses reflect predictable trauma patterns.  Israel's self-understanding and messaging to the world is deeply rooted in the trauma of the Holocaust and the centuries of victimization by Christians that preceded it.   

People defined by trauma do not function "rationally"; they are in survival mode and see all events, all actors, in "black/white" terms.    International law, codes of conduct, norms of democracy and free speech, and consideration of long-term consequences don't mean much when people perceive themselves as under mortal attack.   The focus is survival, here and now.

The truth of course is that Israel has been and is now under attack.   The danger is real!

But here is the larger and even more dangerous truth: Israel's reactions to short-term danger have systematically fed hatred and polarization in the region, thereby increasing the long-term dangers for Israel.   These dangers hold a vast and growing cloud of darkness endlessly in place over the future of Israel.

For the rest of the world, this permanent conflict constantly destabilizes the entire region and threatens global survival.  We ignore this conflict at great peril to humankind.

US policy has been to support Israel regardless to its conduct.   Israel is by far the largest recipient of American military and other support - since 1946, over $300 billion of aid.    This is nearly double the next highest recipient of US aid (Egypt, whom we pay to go along with support strategies for Israel); it dwarves the costs of our own wars, including the Korean, Vietnam or Iraq Wars.

This policy of blind, unconditional support by the US enables Israel to live in a state of permanent, self-perpetuating trauma.    Outrageous conduct is expensive.   Arrogant attitudes, constant military construction, and instinctive escalation of conflict result in costly battles and ever increasing demand for armaments. 

When America pays the costs without question, Israel is spared the financial reality checks most nations must cope with.  

Israel is a nuclear nation and it will be hard to prevent other nations in the region from building their own nuclear weapons in response.  Weapons of all kinds grow ever small, more powerful, easy to hide, and hard to evade.  

If we care for Israel, for its longterm survival, if we care for the survival of others in the region, if we care for our own survival, we must end the enabling role the United States has played in this conflict.   We must find a way to actively support Israel but not to bankroll the costs of policies, practices, and actions that guarantee the perpetuation of war.    

Israelis are trapped by their history and their trauma.   They truly believe they are permanently in mortal danger.  They truly believe that the only hope for survival is hegemony, ruthless destruction of all who challenge them.   It will be painful to step back from our embrace with  a this terrified nation.   But we have to do this, not just for the sake of the Palestinians, not just for the sake of Israeli, but for all of us whose survival is increasingly endangered.

This will be hard, but one thing would be even harder, coping with the unspeakable consequences of failure.