After thirteen years in the United States, I returned to Israel in August 2025. What I found shook me: exhausted public servants, military reserve soldiers who have served more than 600 days, and small businesses quietly shutting down. But the real crisis wasn’t on the streets—it was in the national mindset: a slow, dangerous return to the October 6 mentality, as if the 1,200 murdered Israelis were part of a bad dream we could simply wake up from and carry on as usual.
The basic fact is simple, but uncomfortable: a ceasefire is not Hamas’s surrender. A pause is not peace.
In September, we saw a brief flash of national focus again: the encirclement of Gaza City, and the failed assassination attempt in Doha that nevertheless reminded the world there is no safe haven for terror. In October came the ceasefire agreement at Sharm el-Sheikh, which for a moment seemed to open the door to a new order. But November has already brought back the familiar Israeli pattern: fatigue, denial, and the dangerous belief that “it’ll be fine.”
The basic fact is simple, but uncomfortable: a ceasefire is not Hamas’s surrender. A pause is not peace. We are beginning to forget the central lesson of October 7—that an existential threat cannot be “managed.” The doctrines of “containment” and “management” failed catastrophically. Anyone dreaming of returning to them has failed to grasp what happened here.
Israel today faces a three-dimensional crisis:
First – the erosion of trust in state institutions. When bureaucracy doesn’t function, when a citizen waits months for a simple decision or falls between the cracks, the message they receive is that the state is not serious.
Second – a deep fracture in social solidarity. There are those who have fought for two years straight in reserve duty, and there are those who fled the battlefield and are now trying to enshrine their escape in law, sending their brothers to die in their place.
Around 125,000 Israelis have left since 2022. This is no longer a social trend—it’s a blow to national security.
Third – the brain drain. Around 125,000 Israelis have left since 2022. This is no longer a social trend—it’s a blow to national security.
It’s important to remember: the doctrine of victory is not a cult of power. It doesn’t call for more wars, but rather the opposite—to end conflicts instead of managing them forever. A conflict ends when one side understands it cannot achieve its goals. The role of policy is to hasten that understanding, not to maintain the illusion that we can coexist beside an armed jihadist project.
To emerge from this crisis, Israel needs a national renewal plan that starts from the ground up: from the form at the National Insurance office, from the business license, from the reservist who returns home and finds no one to talk to in the system. The state must set service standards and publish them publicly. Transparency is not a liberal luxury—it’s the foundation of trust in government.
On the social level, Israel needs a new shared language: a genuine national-civil service for all sectors—military, home front defense, health, education, infrastructure—with no blanket exemptions. Haredim and Arabs alike can and should contribute to society and community.
A word to those who left. Your departure is not betrayal. Sometimes it was a rational decision. But your return is a moral choice.
Economically, small businesses and soldiers must be treated as part of the same story. Those who carried the war on their backs now need a state that won’t suffocate them with red tape. Tax deferrals, bridge financing for affected businesses, and preference for local procurement are not gifts—they’re investments in resilience.
And finally, a word to those who left. Your departure is not betrayal. Sometimes it was a rational decision. But your return is a moral choice. The country needs you—your standards, your knowledge, and the hard questions you bring. If we remain stubborn in hope and precise in everything else, we won’t reach a smooth, imaginary “peace.” But we can build a just and durable order here—a more serious state, and a society that understands victory is not a snapshot, but a daily effort.
