Two Israeli opinion pieces reflect on life and work three years after 7 October

Right · 2Both pieces are first-person opinion columns published by Israeli outlets around the third anniversary of the 7 October 2023 attacks. 1 2 Right · 1In JNS, Cathy Lawi describes a young woman from a group of youth counselors from Israel's northern border who broke down in tears after three years of war and displacement, once she finally took a day off. The woman asked whether it is easier to be in emergency mode. 1 Right · 1Lawi argues that Israelis may have "mistaken functioning for healing", and that trauma can look competent while it runs organizations, raises children and answers emails. She calls this "sleeping trauma", which stays quiet while people keep going and surfaces when they pause. 1

Right · 1She cites a survey conducted after 7 October in which 42% of Israeli adults aged 20 and over reported insomnia at least once a week, compared with 31% of those surveyed before that date. 1 Right · 1Lawi gives everyday examples, such as listening to tell a plane from a fighter jet, and a 3-year-old girl on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard who begins to shake when a motorcycle starts. She says adaptations to danger kept people alive but are not healing, and that a nervous system cannot be asked to feel safe where the environment is not yet reliably safe, especially along the borders. 1 Right · 1Lawi hopes Israelis can drop constant vigilance while keeping the solidarity, courage and appreciation of life the period taught them. She writes that post-traumatic growth does not mean suffering was good and that Israelis are "not going back to Oct. 6". 1

Right · 1In The Jerusalem Post, arts and culture writer Hannah Brown recalls the Haifa International Film Festival awards night on 5 October 2023, which she calls her defining "before-October 7" moment. She says she believes all Israelis have a memory of that last "before" moment. 2 Right · 1Brown says she spent three years balancing coverage of new films and series with art that chronicled and honoured those killed or taken hostage. On 7 October itself she wrote about festival refunds and children's content while sheltering, and later recommended comfort viewing for adults. 2 Right · 1She recounts members of the arts community who were killed or kidnapped, including actress Tamar Goldenberg, filmmaker Yahav Winner of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Fauda crew member Lior Waitzman, and David Cunio, who was kidnapped from Nir Oz and released in October 2025. 2

Right · 1Brown describes interviewing television writer Hen Avigdori while his wife and 12-year-old daughter were held by Hamas, and says they were released in the first hostage deal. 2 Right · 1She notes that cultural life gradually resumed, with later films and series about the attack such as Of Dogs and Men, Red Alert and One Day in October. Avi Nesher's Our Loves, which has just opened at the Haifa festival, is due in Israeli theatres on 15 October. She says she wishes she had found more ways to keep victims on the culture page. 2