With re: to “showing Israeli graphic footage in the classroom†(Julie Stern Joseph), I think it is important to keep things in perspective and understand that while the current “situation†is tense and disturbing, it is no more than a continuation of what most veteran Israelis have been experiencing for years and are sadly used to. In a study I conducted with my colleague, Dr. Jackie Weinberg and published many years ago (http://tmt.sagepub.com/content/9/3/155.abstract) we found that those adults who experienced actual terror attacks perceived a level of stress in their children that was much higher than was actually warranted. Perhaps the same is true of those committed and caring observers of Israel from afar as vicarious observers. I don’t think saying that we are all in a state of “incessant...panic†accurately reflects how most Israelis feel. As in the past, people go about their daily tasks, albeit with a heightened state of awareness and caution. Bad things happen, but functional normalcy quickly returns. We are not shaking in our boots all day and we are not all traumatized. Any educational effort needs to look at things as they are, not as we fear they are.
Unfortunately what we see now is what we can probably expect in the future, and that’s just the way things are here. Educating about the situation needs to understand there is a difference between paralyzing fear and functional distress and concern. We also need to be careful not to take some of the emotional individual outbursts on social media as indicative of how all Israelis feel. More of us are armed, more of us keep our eyes wide open, and most of us sleep quite well. The message should be that it is not a picnic, but we all cope and we all appreciate the concern that others show for us.
Irwin J. (Yitzchak) Mansdorf, PhD
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
ijm
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/2015 06:39AM by mlb.
