By John Pickard
There is nothing happening to Israelis that can in any way compare to the brutal and genocidal assault on the people of Gaza, where at least 75,000 were killed, overwhelmingly non-combatants, and tens of thousands of them children. The tiny sliver of land, onto which a quarter of a million Palestinians have been herded, is little more than a camp, where men, women and children have no economy, education, little health care and no future. They exist entirely on humanitarian aid.
Likewise, none of the uncertainties or fears that might be harboured by the population of Israel can compare to the ongoing and continuous pogroms and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank. On a daily basis, the smaller towns, villages and farms, are attacked as Palestinian land and farms are seized, homes torched and livestock stolen by Jewish settlers. Not a single settler has been convicted or even charged for the dozens of murders of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Socialists in Europe and elsewhere look on in horror at these developments and the disgraceful lack of action, and even the absence of criticism, from most Western politicians. It beggars belief that so-called ‘Labour’ leaders have for years tolerated and empowered the Israeli government, on the grounds that this state is an ‘ally’ of Britain. The Labour Friends of Netanyahu are a powerful lobby in the Labour Party, even now, in Andy Burnham’s new cabinet.
But as we have explained in previous Left Horizons articles, Israel’s hostility, aggression and barbarity – which sum up its policy towards its near neighbours – will inevitably have repercussions internationally and internally.
The Israeli Defence Force, described by its supporters as ‘the most moral army in the world’, beats up women and arrests children in the West Bank. In Gaza, the West Bank and now in Lebanon, it uses the dynamiting of homes and ethnic clearnsing as prime military tactics. All of this has resulted in international support for Israel withering away. But what is also happening is that it is rotting Israeli society itself from the inside.
Two more Israeli soldiers commit suicide this week
An article this week in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haartez, reports on two more Israeli soldiers committing suicide, bringing the total of active duty soldiers committing suicide to 16 this year. “The figures,” the Haaretz article says, “point to a further rise in the number of suicides within Israel’s defense establishment, continuing a trend that began after the outbreak of the war on October 7”.
There is no parallel in any military establishment anywhere in the world with the psychological mayhem in the IDF. “In the decade before the October 7 war,” Haaretz explains, “the average number of military suicides was 12 per year. Since then, the number of suicides has risen. According to military data, from October 7, 2023, through the end of that year, seven active-duty soldiers died by suicide; in 2024, 21 soldiers died by suicide; and last year, the number stood at 22 – the highest figure in 15 years”.
An earlier article in Haaretz, dealing with suicides also noted the process of psychological decay in Israel. It referred to reservists being traumatised by three years of non-stop war, witnessing events that have driven many to the point of suicide. In recent weeks, it said, Haaretz conducted discussions with mental health officials who paint an “alarming picture”.
“The numbers [of suicideal reservists],” explains Eyal Fruchter, chairman of the Israeli National Council for Post-Trauma, “leave no shadow of doubt…Israel faces a national crisis”. Haaretz then refers to figures from the Israeli defence establishment: “Before the war, the rehabilitation branch dealt with 62,000 injured, of whom 11,000 were dealing with mental health issues. As of last month, the numbers had shot up to 82,000 and 31,000 respectively.”
The problem of PTSD is not something that disappears when the war or the tour of duty is over. “The damage that we’re seeing today constitutes just a small part, even the tip of the iceberg, of what will be coming,” one expert, a world-leading researcher in the field of trauma, told Haaretz. “The research shows significant rates of delayed reactions. It’s precisely periods of quiet that allow traumatic content to erupt. Many discharged soldiers are ticking time bombs.”
Generalised social malaise in Israel
This is not just an issue that is affecting reservists who have seen active service. It reflects a generalised, social malaise, brought on in part by Iranian (and to a lesser extent, Hezbollah) missile and drone attacks. A significant part of the whole population is suffering PTSD, according to the experts. “Israeli society is exhausted, feeling a sharply intense burnout. It’s grappling with moral questions, with a sense of betrayal by the state and its leaders.”
The generalised impact of forever wars, which is Netanyahu’s primary policy, has meant a recorded rise not only in suicides but also in domestic violence. Referring to a widespread rise in poor patterns of sleep, one of Israel’s leading psychiatrists commented, “This is not surprising; we live in a state of uncertainty. The phone might ring again in an hour, and missiles from Iran could be launched. We’re in survival mode – and this has consequences.”
Since October 7, the report notes, psychiatric hospitals have seen a 30 or 40% increase in self-referrals. The number of those being treated in so-called “resilience centers”, which provide support to Israelis in mental crisis situations has risen from 5,000 in 2022, to 36,000 in 2025.
As Israeli society rots from the inside, its international support has withered. US Vice-president JD Vance made an astonishing dig at the Israeli leadership this month, when he commented on the reluctance of Netanyahu to go along with the first ceasefire agreement with Iran. The USA, at least to an extent, is trying to force Israel into an agreement with Hezbollah and into accepting that its long-term aim of destroying the Iranian regime is not possible. Vance’s speech was a part of that process, as he reminded the Israelis who was ‘boss’.
“Donald J Trump”, he said, according to CNN, “is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.” That is not strictly correct, given the craven support given to Israel by the like of Starmer and other European leaders. But nonetheless, Vance was letting the cat out of the bag.
“We are your only friends” – JD Vance
“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government,” Vance continued, “I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” Here, Vance is acknowledging that world opinion has swung massively against Israel since its onslaught on Gaza was started, then to be followed up by ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
On a global scale, the thousands of demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza, involving tens of millions of protesters, often week after week, we have seen the biggest political protest movement on a single issue in the whole of history. It has had a profound effect on Western politics, although not yet on the majority of the political leaderships and governments.
Even in the United States, where the American-Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) once bought Democratic and Republican politicians with its extremely deep pockets, public opinion has swayed massively against Israel.
According to the magazine +927 (January 2026), over Israeli 150,000 citizens have left the country in the past two years, many of them with one-way tickets and no plans to return. It is taking a long time – far longer than most on the left would want – but the policy of the Israeli right wing is going to be demonstrable proven, even to Israelis themselves, to be unsustainable.
Military hegemony over the whole region, with a constant round of wars, occupations and aggression is not a route to a ‘safe and secure’ homeland for Jewish people. It is a road to psychological, political and social decay.
[Feature photograph from Wikimedia Commons, here]
