Yossi Klein Halevi: War’s toll on Jewish community

The Zionist Federation of Australia hosted a frank discussion on Sunday evening about the psychological toll of the ongoing war, with ZFA president Jeremy Leibler and Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi sharing their struggles with recent images from Gaza.

Speaking at the event titled “Yossi Klein Halevi: Live from Israel”, both leaders expressed deep exhaustion from defending Israel while grappling with disturbing footage of starvation in Gaza.

“I am feeling rather exhausted at the moment,” Leibler said, citing the “never ending barrage of text messages and tweets and media requests” and the “never ending stream of demonisation of Jews”.

“I don’t want anyone to be offended by this, but I’m equally exhausted at hearing many well-meaning and ideologically aligned parts of the Jewish community engage in black and white, simplistic narratives that are devoid of capacity for nuance or empathy or complexity.”

Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, described Israel as fighting a “three-front war” – military battles across seven fronts, a war for Israel’s legitimacy, and a domestic crisis over the country’s democratic character.