1. Historical Trauma and Repetition Compulsion
Freud’s concept of repetition compulsion—the unconscious drive to reenact unresolved trauma—resonates with Israel’s response to collective suffering. The Holocaust and subsequent wars have ingrained a national narrative of existential threat, culminating in the trauma of the October 7 attacks, which Bartov describes as a "tremendous shock" that shattered Israel’s sense of security . This trauma has not been processed but instead weaponized, driving a militarized ethos that mirrors Freud’s notion of repressed pain resurfacing as destructive behavior.
The Israeli historian and former IDF soldier Omer Bartov draws parallels between the dehumanizing rhetoric of far-right Israeli activists and the ideological indoctrination of Nazi soldiers, where fear of annihilation justified extreme violence . Similarly, Israel’s current policies in Gaza—marked by disproportionate force and a refusal to acknowledge Palestinian suffering—reflect a repetition compulsion: inflicting the pain of historical victimhood onto others to regain control.
