National, Community, and Individual Resilience – From Uncertainty to Unity Amid War: The Israeli Case – Operation Iron Swords, 2023

Abstract

The resilience and stability of human society, be it of the individuals or the communities comprising it, depend on several key variables. At times, these variables are influenced by internal forces, such as the economy, social cohesion, and mutual responsibility; at times, they are influenced by the perceptions of the individual – as a product of one’s upbringing, education, and values; and at times, these variables are affected by external forces, such as existential threats facing the nation. The latter will be at the heart of this essay, which will delve into Israel as a nation on the brink of social collapse over the government’s push for a radical judicial overhaul. What seemed like an unbridgeable internal divide, however, was immediately sidelined on October 7, 2023, when the Hamas terrorist group launched an unprecedented onslaught against Israel, with a massacre that left 1,400 people dead. That bloody morning, which plunged Israel into war, saw all sectors of Israeli society band together immediately, rising like the legendary phoenix to stand united against those seeking its destruction and proving Israel’s national resilience as a force to be reckoned with. This shift – from distress to determination – will be the main focus of this analysis. Is there such a thing as “inherent” national resilience? Looking at the British people during World War II, when they came together to keep calm and carry on during the attacks by Nazi Germany, the answer could be “Yes,” as the national strength exhibited seemed ingrained in the British character. Still, other nations seem to lack this type of “backbone” and must therefore develop “acquired resilience” via defense training, active and passive defenses, vaccinations, etc. Does this claim stand the test of time and reality as it appears to manifest in the Israeli case? This essay will focus on resilience as a basic and central concept around which the circles of society move. It will present the variables influencing the nature of resilience and their effect on the quantity, quality, and reality of resilience, in any given country at the level of an individual, the community, and the nation. To analyze these concepts, I will present the Israeli case of 2023 to examine the fundamental question of whether an external threat is key to a nation’s unity, social cohesion, and the formation of a strong and stable communal, individual, and national core able to ward off such threats. I will also delve into the question of how, in the absence of inherent resilience – as in the British case – can a society, such as the Israeli society, preserve the cohesion and resilience it has acquired amid a military conflict.