Opinion | On Israeli Apathy

At one of the recent mass demonstrations in Tel Aviv calling for a hostage deal and for early elections to replace the Israeli government, one protester held up a sign reading: “Who are we without them?” referring to the hostages.Another placard read: “Give me one reason to raise kids here.”The messages encapsulate questions many Israelis are asking themselves, a year into the longest war in the country’s history: What is the value of a Jewish homeland if it doesn’t prioritize — or it gives up on — saving the lives of its civilians, kidnapped from their homes? Will I ever feel safe again? And what kind of future do I have here if the only vision our leaders are offering is endless war?A year since the murderous Oct.

7 Hamas attack set off the war in Gaza, Israel is sinking deeper into an existential crisis.It is a shrunken country, with tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from northern towns and kibbutzim, as well as southern border villages, as it fights a multifront war that is only intensifying and expanding.

And, in addition to having to cope throughout the year with loss, shock, rocket fire and overwhelming fear for their safety from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran itself, that anxiety is compounded by turmoil from within.Thousands of Israelis with the means to do so have chosen to leave Israel since Oct.7; others are considering or planning emigrating.

Many thousands more have also taken to the streets week after week, engaging in acts of civil disobedience, which began before the Oct.7 attacks with protests against the Netanyahu government’s proposed judicial overhaul and, after a brief pause, resumed with a new focus on the hostage crisis and demand for early elections.

In September, images of the former Israeli army chief of staff Dan Halutz being forcibly removed by the police from the street at a sit-in in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence, and of relatives of hostages being roughed up by law...