The façade might be nonchalant but terrorist attacks are taking their toll. Israelis are the highest per capita users of sedatives worldwide…
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It’s terrible. But the party will go on. We’ll be more careful in the future,” says Eden Shoshani. The 28-year-old clothing boutique sales clerk from the southern district of Florentin echoes the larger chorus of Tel Aviv residents in the wake of the recent terror attack on a café in the elegant Sarona district. “Don’t let it get to you.” “Continue on as before.” “Tel Aviv is indestructible.” “It would take more than a machine gun to extinguish our joie de vivre.” “If we show fear, the terrorists have won.” When tourists or foreign correspondents ask Tel Aviv residents about their reactions to the terror attacks, the responses are unwavering. An unflappable cool, after all, is a Tel Aviv trademark.
The denizens of Tel Aviv are not nearly as unfazed as they may present themselves to outsiders. But in Tel Aviv, unlike in Jerusalem, the unwritten rule is to maintain a façade of nonchalance. And that goes without exception for everyone – whether they are young or old, healthy or sick, native-born or a nurse from Manila. It was this invincible zest for life that made it possible for the city that was founded in 1909 on the dunes next to the old town of Jaffa, in ancient times the home of the Philistines, to become the beating heart of Israel within a few short decades, the center of economic, cultural and social life. But this attitude also exacts a price: “Show no self-pity. Not at any cost.”
“The people here are no different than they are in Haifa or Netanya. They have the same fears. But in our city they maintain a stiff upper lip. And they are determined to continue to do so,” explains Jakob Goldman. The 66-year-old was for years a professor of surgery. But after being held captive during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, he also began devoting one afternoon a week to providing mental health care to people in crisis. “During our imprisonment, we were tortured physically and mentally. The emotional scars are not visible. But they must be treated, or else the damage to the psyche will become more severe, or even irreversible.” Since his retirement a year ago, Goldman has been providing care, two days a week, to people traumatized by attacks. This trauma affects not only people who have been injured in the attacks; it also affects those who by good fortune escaped harm, and particularly the families of the victims.
Goldman explains that this “stiff upper lip” can be a source of strength in the immediate aftermath of an attack. But for people who have suffered serious injury or who have lost a family member or loved one, expert help is needed. “In the military, up to 50 percent of those affected suffer post-traumatic disorders. In attacks on civilians, therapists first tend to the people directly affected by the attack. But the people who were sitting at the next table, who escaped seemingly unscathed, often develop anxiety disorders that grow more severe over time.”
In a sense, this is true of the entire state of Israel. And Tel Aviv is no exception. No Israeli has ever experienced a lengthy period completely free of terror attacks or military conflict. This applies to both Jews and Arabs alike. The terrorists operate according to a simple and implacable logic: they attack civilians, hoping for the largest number of victims, in order to provoke a military response from Israel. This in turn fosters hatred, particularly among Arab youth. The result is a spiral of violence, which continues to escalate. Ending this vicious circle has so far proven impossible.
The people of Tel Aviv may present an unflappable face to the world. But this deliberately cultivated appearance is belied by statistics. For decades, residents of Israel have been the highest per capita users of tranquilizers in the world.
Tel Aviv is no exception.