Maybe Israelis Simply Got Tired of Walking on Eggshells

From its very birth 77 years ago, when five Arab armies brought a welcome wagon hoping to drive their Jewish neighbors into the sea, Israel has been walking on eggshells, never knowing when one or more of its enemies would strike.

It’s not as if those eggshells got in the way of a full-on embracing of life and the creation of a vibrant culture. Rather, the unpredictable nature of terror created its own ongoing cycle of anxiety, what my friend Yossi Klein Halevi calls a state of “neurotic zen.”

If you’ve ever been in a relationship where you’re forced to walk on eggshells, you know it’s a type of emotional terrorism. An eruption can hit you at any moment.

Israelis have learned to live with this emotional terrorism for the simple reason that they’ve had to deal with the much more lethal terrorism that maims and kills. This focus on physical threats led to a doctrine of defense: Enemies attack, Israel defends. The more they attack, the more Israel defends. That’s why they’re called the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

If the price to pay to fight real terror was the emotional cost of walking on eggshells in anticipation of possible attacks, it felt like a decent trade-off.

The savagery of Oct. 7, 2023, changed that paradigm.

Seeing homes invaded, with babies and families and grandparents massacred in their living rooms, with peace-loving hippies slaughtered at a music festival and with hundreds taken captive, was so shattering, so unprecedented, it made emotional terrorism catch up to physical terrorism. Suddenly, the mere imagining of the atrocities became as terrifying as the atrocities themselves.

I’m seeing Israelis now through that lens— they’re no longer willing to tolerate the continuous anxiety of walking on eggshells, waiting for “real” terror to erupt. Over time, this anxiety itself can feel like real terror, especially if you have in mind the horrors of Oct. 7 or possible nuclear annihilation from Iran.

The threat of a nuclear Iran was always the biggest producer of Israeli anxiety. For more than 20 years, Israelis have watched Iran brazenly advertise its determination to destroy the Jewish state. Without even completing its nuclear arsenal, the mullahs knew it could terrorize Israelis through the emotional missiles of fear and threats.

With its daring assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leadership, Israel has targeted both the fear and the threats. Through brilliant military and intelligence maneuvers, coupled with a ferocious determination, Israel is effectively telling the mullahs that their attempts to terrorize Israelis with their genocidal threats will no longer be tolerated. Israel, in other words, isn’t just fighting against a nuclear bomb—it’s fighting against the human bomb of emotional terror.

After the trauma of Oct. 7, Israelis don’t want to return to Oct. 6. They want better. They want to raise the bar both for their lives and their security. Yes, right now they’re braving Iranian missiles which have caused serious damage and loss of lives, which is heartbreaking. Indeed, Iran’s criminal targeting of civilian areas only reinforces its genocidal intentions and the imperative of this war.

But Israelis know how to keep score. They know that a nuclear Iran is currently being set back with a relentless bombing campaign. They know that beyond their enemies’ bluster, they’re dealing today with a weaker Iran, a weaker Hezbollah, a weaker Hamas and a weaker Syria. They know that since the nightmare of Oct. 7, they’ve been served a dream-like scenario of weakened enemies.

Those enemies are losing, and they know it.

Look at the Iranians on social media cheering for Israel. Look at the news from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states– these Sunni Arab nations would love nothing better than to see the fall of Israel’s #1 foe in Tehran. Look at the silence of Iran’s terror proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Iraq. Where are they now when their sponsor needs them? Their silence is Israel’s victory.

My sense is that despite all the anxiety that war brings, Israelis are emboldened. They’re emboldened by knowing they’re fighting a battle on behalf of the civilized world against the evil of theocratic oppression. And they’re emboldened by the prospect of having weakened enemies who no longer have the same power to terrorize their lives.

You can’t blame Israelis if they want to press that advantage, which they are now doing with the head of the snake, Iran.

It was always silly and patronizing to tell Israel it has “the right to defend itself.” No kidding. Today, Israelis are after bigger game. After a lifetime of fighting terror, they’re now asserting their right to be free of emotional terror, and they’re willing to do what it takes.

And that includes having their enemies walk on eggshells.