My husband takes a lot of cabs in the Holy City.

Most of them are driven by arabs, who live in East Jerusalem.

Strange to say, over time, my husband has been getting into more and more conversations with his arab cab drivers, and one of the things that is coming through loud and clear is that they also have yeoush about the ‘matzav’ – and also, just want all the war and fighting and uncertainty to stop, already, so the tourists can come back.

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In our ‘theoretical’ world, where all the talking head wax eloquent about peace in the Middle East and all the abstract issues standing in the way, it’s easy to forget that bottom line:

99.9% of the arabs here want peace, and to live their lives, and make enough money to do that.

And that small percentage that doesn’t want that, is like the small percentage on the Israeli side of the equation, too, who for some reason seems to be committed to never-ending, non-stop, violence and war.

Who wants all this ‘war’?

You and me don’t.

The arabs don’t.

So, who really wants it, who benefits from it all?

That is the question.

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Every day here, there are new stories of IDF soldiers with PTSD killing themselves.

The heart weeps, about the loss of life still going on, young men in their prime, men with families, with young kids, with spouses.

Killing themselves, because we have built a society that glorifies violence and war, and goes to great lengths to cover up the real impact of forcing very young men into positions of killing others or being killed.

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Armies have known about PTSD since at least WW1.

The Powers That Be deliberately covered up the studies that showed that soldiers with ‘shell shock’ were not to blame for going to pieces, and that the process of being engaged in war itself was to blame for their severe mental issues, afterwards.

That didn’t fit with the ‘O, what a glorious war!’ government propaganda, so soldiers with PTSD were routinely punished – including being shot as deserters.

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That was more than a 100 years ago, surely we’ve moved on since then?

No?

This is a website exploring military PTSD in the US army:

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Here’s an interesting snippet:

• 80% of the Korean War veterans (‘50-’53) were found to have PTSD.

• Between 15%-30% of U.S. veterans who served in the Vietnam War (with direct U.S. involvement between ‘65-’75) are reported to have developed PTSD. Additionally, due to the controversial nature of the Vietnam War, its veterans faced a great deal of criticism upon returning home. That said, recent decades have offered greater compassion and better mental healthcare to U.S. veterans, including those of the Vietnam War.

• 12% of U.S. veterans from the Gulf War (‘90-’91) are believed to have developed PTSD.

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According to this site, young men are much more at risk of developing military PTSD than older soldiers.

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Let me tell you about a nice guy and his wife we hosted for Shabbat, a few years ago.

He was originally from the US, a ‘modern orthodox’, who decided to move to Israel and join the army.

He saw active service here, and lost two very good friends in operations.

The whole thing traumatised him so badly, he had to move away from Israel, and when we met him a few years ago, he was still finding it very hard to even visit the country for a couple of weeks.

He still loves Eretz Yisrael, loves Jews, is still religious – but, he clearly had untreated PTSD from his experiences (which he was still telling us all about, in gory detail, many years later…) and his way of dealing with it was to flee the country.

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Most of the guys with military PTSD here don’t have that option.

So they stay – and the nightmares, irritability, shot-to-pieces nervous system, horrible feelings overwhelming panic, anger and fear, massive questions about the apparent pointlessness and fragility of life – all that stuff continues to drag them under, until and unless it’s properly dealt with.

And it’s NOT being properly dealt with, at all, because we built a society that glorifies war and violence, and that simply doesn’t want to talk about the huge psychological, emotional and spiritual effect of sending young men into situations, repeatedly, where they have to kill or be killed.

O, what a glorious war!

Until, that guy leaves the army, and then his relationships and life falls apart, because he’s violent, jumpy, suicidal, depressed, anxious, can’t function, and very possibly, is also addicted to substances…

But, O! What a glorious war!

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Baruch Hashem, for the chareidim.

Baruch Hashem, that there is an organised bulwark in Eretz Yisrael, that is not buying the propaganda, and is forcing society as a whole to really think about compulsory army service.

If someone likes violence, has a tendency to like killing other people – be vakasha, the army is the right place for you, and you’re doing a mitzvah. There are people with a military mindset, it does suit them, I guess.

Or at least, that’s what they think, until the shine wears off and they begin to realise what they really signed up to.

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But how can anyone seriously argue, that young men and women should be forced into these types of situations?

Instead of yelling about the chareidi conscription, why are we not yelling about the completely corrupt politicians and leaders who have failed us so badly, by ensuring we live in a situation of permanent, never-ending war?

Why aren’t we yelling about the very real lack of support for the demobilised soldiers, when they return home?

Why aren’t we yelling about all these poor, precious young men who are killing themselves because of COMPLETELY TREATABLE PTSD?!?!

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Bottom line, no army really cares about the people who join it.

Not even the ‘most moral army in the world’.

And until and unless that changes, why would anyone keep thinking that war is the only solution to what is going on here, in Eretz Yisrael?

Clearly, there has to be another way.

Because even the arabs want peace.