Israel
Prominent Israeli psychologist – and former Winnipegger, Dr. Solly Dreman, gives talk about the psychological effects of war and terrorism
By BERNIE BELLAN Before I sat down to write this story abot Dr. Solly Dreman, I researched how many times I was able to find his name in past issues of The Jewish Post and how well-known the name Dreman was – and still is, in Winnipeg.
I mention this here because I was fascinated to read that, in 1980, as a matter of fact, Dr. Dreman gave a talk on the same subject as he did last Tuesday – at the old YMHA. (That talk was titled “Israeli victims of terrorism and its effects on family behaviour”.)
When I discovered that 35 years ago Dr. Solly Dreman was discussing the psychological effects of terrorism in Israel, I wondered whether, 35 years hence, Dr. Dreman (or perhaps more likely, someone else) will be giving a talk on exactly the same subject.
The setting this time around though was not the auditorium of the old Y, it was Temple Shalom. Also sponsoring Dr. Dreman’s talk were: Winnipeg Friends of Israel (about whom I have more to say on page 17); Canadian Associates of Ben Gurion University; and to a much smaller extent, The Jewish Post & News.
In welcoming the more than 120 individuals who showed up on a cold Tuesday night, Yolanda Papini-Pollock, who has been the driving force behind Winnipeg Friends of Israel, noted that “Dr. Solly Dreman has become an expert on the psychological effects of war and terrorism because he has lived through them.” (Dreman made aliyah to Israel in 1964.)
Prior to Dr. Dreman’s talk, two other individuals spoke: Michelle Strain, who is involved with the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Manitoba; and Edith Kimelman, a Holocaust survivor and retired educator.
Because Edith Kimelman was able to bring a personal perspective to the experiences of a victim of war, it is worth noting some of her remarks.
She began by noting that she arrived in Canada in 1949 at the age of 14.
Only six years old when the German army invaded Poland in 1939, Edith related the horror of seeing her own father’s bullet-riddled body in a field near her family’s hometown. (He had been taken away by the Nazis.) Not long after, Edith revealed, her own mother was also “so severely beaten that it led to her eventual death.”
Like so many other Holocaust survivors, Edith has relived the nightmare of living under Nazi occupation all her life.
“When I had my own children I lived in constant fear that something terrible would happen to them,” she admitted.
“I was left scarred for life… There is a constant fear of the unknown,” Edith said.
Further, “I find it very difficult to speak about the Shoah as I grow older,” she continued. “But, I’m proud that I survived and that my children will survive me,” she concluded.
Following Edith Kimelman’s remarks, Winnipeg psychiatrist Dr. Will Fleisher introduced Solly Dreman. Dr. Fleisher noted that Solly Dreman had graduated with a degree in Commerce from the University of Manitoba in the early 1960s before deciding to make aliyah. (You can read more about the entire Dreman family on page 4.)
Once in Israel, Dreman entered into the study of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In 1971 he received his Masters degree in psychology, and in 1975 he received his Ph.D. in psychology,. Solly Dreman was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute at the Medical School at the University of California in San Francisco in 1976-77.
Dr. Fleisher went on to note that Dr. Dreman has received “training in a variety of psychotherapies and was a professor in behavioural sciences at Ben Gurion University.”
In addition to his academic work, Dr. Fleisher added, Dr. Dreman “has done extensive work with clients” and is the former head of the “Centre of Family Intervention and Treatment” at Ben Gurion University.
Dr. Dreman began his remarks by referring to an incident that happened in Tel Aviv on January 1st of this year.
“At 2:45 pm at a popular bar in Tel Aviv a terrorist went on a shooting spree” (killing two and wounding seven others).
“Five days later, he was still on the loose,” Dr. Dreman continued. “The city was gripped by helplessness…Parents were faced with the dilemma of having to decide whether to send their children to school.”
The population of Tel Aviv was engulfed in feelings of “anxiety, chaos, and helplessness,” he said.
Noting the pervasive effects of trauma Dr. Dreman explained that many veterans of the Yom Kippur war are still suffering from post traumatic stress disorder 45 years after the original events.
In comparing the effects of war and terrorism, Dr. Dreman noted that “terrorism can often result in severe and debilitating trauma that is not confined to a specific geographic location or time dimension in contrast to war.”
What are some of the general effects of terrorism?
According to Dr. Dreman, they typically include: a withdrawal from social events and visiting public places; keeping children from playing in public places; and an avoidance of confronting the victims of terrorism. (Individuals will cross a street in order to avoid having to encounter victims of terrorism.)
By the same token, victims of terrorist attacks themselves often experience feelings of guilt, Dr. Dreman noted.
Referring specifically to the role of the media in heightening public anxiety following terrorist incidents – or even prior to their occurring, Dr. Dreman was especially harsh in his criticism of how much media add to “overkill” by “constantly bombarding the public with repeated broadcasts of horrific events” that “exacerbate the situation.”
In explaining to the audience some of the inferences that he has drawn as a result of more than 40 years he has spent working with victims of war and terrorism, Dr. Dreman chose to focus on two specific case studies that, he suggested, would illustrate some of the incipient effects of life-altering events, such as being the victim of a terrorist attack.
Both case studies dealt with families. In the one case it was a mother and children who lost their father when he was blown up by an explosion in a Jerusalem appliance store; in the second case it was two brothers, 9 and 11, who were left orphaned when terrorists attacked a bus in which they and their parents were riding.
Dr. Dreman and his cotherapist Dr. Esther Cohen of the Hebrew University felt at the time that they had adequately dealt with the trauma precipitated at the time of the traumatic events but the ten-year follow up they conducted showed that this indeed was not the case.
Unfortunately, “there are only two things certain in life,” Dr. Dreman observed: “Death and uncertainty.”
Thus, as much as he had thought that the therapies that he had provided had helped the survivors in both cases to cope with the aftereffects of the terrorist incidents, that proved to be far from the case.
“Ten years later it (the trauma) came to the surface,” he said, in both families’ cases. In the case of the two orphan boys, one resorted to becoming a robber – a form of behaviour that, Dr. Dreman suggested, was deliberate.
“Being caught and punished for a crime expiates guilt over surviving,” he suggested.
“Loss of control,” he added, is a typical result of trauma.
In fact, Dr. Dreman admitted, despite what he thought had been successful therapy in the case of the two boys, “we failed in dealing with them.”
The results of the treatment of the members of the other family, although also mixed, proved more successful in the long run. Here, too, though, it was a very long and protracted process that saw many failures along the way.
In the case of the widow of the man who was blown up by the bomb in the appliance store, Dr. Dreman said that for quite a long time after the incident, she “forgot about her own personal life” and refused to have any social interaction except with her own children.
As well, “she was angry at her husband over leaving her.”
During the course of therapy the mother was persuaded “to demonstrate grief in order to get the children to exhibit grief.”
Still, one of the typical results of the trauma as a result of a terrorist incident is overprotectiveness on the part of parents.
The mother in this case had to be convinced to “let the children’s lives return to normal”, Dr. Dreman noted. For instance, he had to persuade her “to let the children travel by themselves” – something, he suggested, that is often one of the most difficult things for parents to do.
So, too, it is necessary to instill a “sense of empowerment” in victims – in order to overcome the feelings of “helplessness” that are all too common in such cases.
The two children of the man who was blown up also exhibited extreme anxiety around the time that they were to be inducted into the army. The boy, whose name was Ari, actually “became anorexic just prior to army service.” For Dr. Dreman, this was a sign of “unresolved intrapsychic issues.”
Working with teachers in schools attended by children of terrorist victims, Dr. Dreman also emphasized the importance of attempting to restore some sense of order in their lives. “Get them into a routine,” he suggested.
But, contrary to what most people might think, Dr. Dreman warned that children “should not be ventilating their emotions all the time.”
“Ventilation and expression of strong emotions should be done gradually in order to avoid overwhelming anxiety and trauma which could result in severe psychological after affects,” he said.
“Allow them to express their emotions, but make them do their schoolwork. Finally, and in what might have come as a surprise to members of the audience, Dr. Dreman added: “Don’t send the kid immediately to a shrink!”
As far as how trauma as a result either of war or a terrorist attack can be exacerbated by the government, the media, and social networks, Dr. Dreman was critical of certain aspects of the roles played by all three.
The government, he says, although well intentioned, often contributes to the social isolation of widows of soldiers killed in action, he suggested. How is that? you might wonder.
Because the government is exceedingly generous in the granting of pension benefits to war widows or, as was the case of the widow of the man killed by the terrorist bomb in Jerusalem, to widows of terrorist victims. There is an economic disincentive to those women remarrying. In fact, while the widow of the terrorist victim did remarry a year and a half after being widowed, she divorced that man three year later.
Why? Because her new husband was not able to provide her with as much of an income as she had been receiving when she was a widow and, for purely economic reasons, she decided to become single again.
The media should not keep repeating minute after minute events that have occured but also they should not wait overly long periods to report on such events as people will then be uncertain about what actually has transpired and this could cause severe anxiety
As usual, the optimum would be “somewhere in the middle,” he concluded. Perhaps repeating the details of a terrorist event “every four hours” might be “optimal”, Dr. Dreman thought.
Finally, the role of social media in exacerbating anxieties on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was referenced by Dr. Dreman. He took note of one of the phenomena of what is now known as the “intifada of knives”, as young Palestinians are urged to kill Jews on social media.
“One young woman had a fight with her parents – then she went out to kill a Jew,” he said. Yet, trying to control that kind of impulse is not easy, Dr. Dreman observed. “Human behavior does not follow the rules of chemistry or physics since it is multidimensional and often unpredictable.”
In conclusion though, Dr. Dreman noted that, in the current situation of random knifings and car rammings, while Israelis may be angry at Palestinians, the level of animosity is not equal between the two sides.
“Their hate is greater than our hate,” he concluded; “they wake up in the morning wanting to kill Jews.”
Israel
It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
By ORLY DREMAN (Jerusalem, Nov. 16, 2025) When the live hostages were returned a stone was lifted from our hearts. It was like going from Memorial Day to Independence Day. It is a relief after two years of sadness and worry about the hostages being tortured. With the ceasefire it feels good not to think every ambulance alarm is a siren and that we must run to the shelter. I would like to take things out of the shelter- like mattresses, chairs, water, first aid kit, a generator, flash light, batteries, games and canned food and put back the stuff that was there before when it was just a storage room, but it is not over. I do not see tranquility in the horizon. The children used to ask the grownups to take money to the shelter in case the house is destroyed and they will have nothing left. They also ask if they will have to be soldiers when they grow up and if they might die. We want a better future for our children. My two nieces, one from Tel Aviv and one from the center, plus several good friends whose houses were hit, can now return home.
In days of turmoil it is important to build hope and strength. The whole country was one big family due to our Jewishness, comradeship, the connection of each one of us to each family in Israel. We missed the days of quiet and freedom. Now you see more people shopping at the malls and going out to restaurants without feeling guilty; we would like to be bored.
We are living with uncertainty. It is not a question if Iran attacks, but when. Our people have gone through so much and lost so much. Living in existential stress, we are now going back to routine tension; however, now we already have chronic sleep disturbances. The reservists got out of the war, but the war will never leave them – what they saw and experienced – the trauma and the thoughts that never leave. Therefore, many soldiers, as well as survivors of Oct 7th, have committed suicide. The reservists are also those who paid the highest prices, not just on the battle fields, but also when they returned to civilian life. Because they served in the army during such a long war, they were fired from their jobs or lost their businesses and they are in debt.
Early in the morning we wake up to hear the news. There is no good news – only the names of those who were killed (even during the cease fire). We check if any dead hostages were returned. These are the values we were raised on; we do not leave anyone behind. Hamas is returning them slowly, one every few days. The relatives of the fallen who are still in Gaza are going through a storm of emotions. We cannot heal until everybody is back home. Then come the funerals – which are heart breaking, but it is a closure for those bereaved families. Hearing about Jews being attacked somewhere in the world is already considered normal. I recommend reading a book by Eli Sharabi called “Hostage.” After being tortured in captivity he returned to find out that his wife, his two daughters, and his brother were murdered. He tells about the starvation, the darkness, the loneliness, the physical and mental pain. He is a very brave, strong, optimistic man who chose life.
In the last few weeks there have been many reports about Iran, which is rushing to develop missiles for which they are getting the components from China and North Korea. Hamas and Hezbollah we cannot believe; they are already rearming. For every terrorist that is killed hundreds of new ones arise. We believed them in the past and then came Oct. 7th.
The ceasefire is not significant to Hamas. Only this week they returned an Israeli hostage who was taken into captivity eleven years ago during a ceasefire. If they do not return all the bodies then we feel in our hearts that it is not over. They suck hatred from birth. They are incited at the mosques and at school. Killing Jews is the most grand thing for them. They say out loud that there will never be reconciliation. Peace talk for them is a weakness because if you have talk then you cannot attack and they want to attack. Whatever we offer them – they want more and more. They know how important the holiness of life is to us, so they use it to demand more all the time. Maybe Hamas did not defeat us militarily, but they did beat us politically. The situation of Israel in the world is the worst it has ever been. We are isolated economically and socially. We feel like a child who is excommunicated by bullies.
Once again we still have hope that the words of the prophet Isaiah will happen: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore”.
Israel
Israeli Parliament Advances Death Penalty Bill for Convicted Terrorists
The Israeli parliament has advanced a bill that would mandate the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists convicted of killing Israeli citizens, with some lawmakers believing it would prevent future prisoner-release deals.
In a vote held late on Monday – the first of four needed for the measure to become law – the bill passed with 39 in favor and 16 against, out of 120 lawmakers.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben–Gvir had called on all political factions to back the bill, which he has said was aimed at creating deterrence against “Arab terrorism.”
“This is how we fight terror; this is how we create deterrence,” he said in a statement after the initial vote. “Once the law is finally passed — terrorists will be released only to hell.”
SOME PARTIES BOYCOTTED MONDAY’S VOTE
The bill will now move to a parliamentary committee for further debate before a second and third vote. It is not guaranteed that it will become law, with several key political parties having boycotted Monday’s initial vote.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid was quoted by Israeli media as saying that he would not vote in favor of the bill.
The PLO, the Palestinian national umbrella political group, condemned the vote, with Palestinian National Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh calling the draft law “a political, legal, and humanitarian crime”. The vote was also criticized by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954, and the only person ever executed in Israel after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962.
Ben–Gvir has argued that imposing the death penalty would deter anyone considering an attack similar to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and resulted in 251 hostages being taken to Gaza.
Israel stopped its ensuing military campaign against Hamas last month, when a tenuous ceasefire was agreed that included the release of 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza, plus the remains of deceased ones in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
PRISONER RELEASE DEALS
Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees since October 2023 in exchange for the release of the hostages that were being held by Palestinian terrorists.
Most of the hostages have been released except for the remains of three deceased Israelis and one foreigner.
Tzvika Foghel, a member of Ben–Gvir‘s Jewish Power party and chair of the parliamentary national security committee, where the bill will now be debated, said imposing the death penalty would mean no more prisoner deals.
Palestinians who have been released have included many convicted of serious crimes, including murder.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was released in 2011 as part of an exchange of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier held in Gaza. Some Israeli politicians such as Ben–Gvir have, during the war in Gaza, opposed the release of Palestinians who were involved in the killings of Israelis.
Ben–Gvir handed out sweets to fellow lawmakers after the initial vote passed. Critics noted that, in Gaza, some Palestinian militants had handed out sweets to the public after the October 2023 attack.
Israel
Israel report by former Winnipegger Bruce Brown
10 minutes
(Posted Dec. 24, 2024)
02:11 AM: Sound asleep.
2.11.01 AM: Wide awake. Awoken by a blaring missile alarm. Incoming. Took me no time to react. Ivan Pavlov would be proud. I quickly scooped up my dog. Grabbed my glasses. An inhaler. My phone and power cord. And sprinted to the safe room. Right across the hall. My wife overseas on vacation. So did this one alone. Er with my dog. We have 90 seconds to reach safety so no real panic, relatively speaking.
2.11.09 AM: In my safe room. Slid shut the heavy steel slabs across the window. You can hear this happening throughout the building. Kinda like a horror movie. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Then mine. Screech. Slam. Next I jumped across the room and slammed shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. It also makes a slamming sound, a really loud one. Then slumped down on the couch with my dog. With some level of relief. Where is this missile coming from. Can’t be from Gaza, they don’t have the capability anymore…I hope. Nor Lebanon, living too far south…I hope. Yemen? Possible. Those dang Houthis?
2. 14 AM: Oh oh. Need to pee. Like really bad. Once in the safe room, you should stay there for ten minutes. Unless there is another siren. Each siren requires a ten minute respite. Respite? Odd choice of words as you are not really resting. Way too tense. Especially as you can occasionally hear the booms of intercepted missiles up above. Kind of unnerving. Back to my need to pee. Its quite dangerous leaving the room during this period. Should your place be hit by the missile or falling debris from the sky. You don’t want to be caught with your pants down, literally, hovering over your toilet. And condos have been hit in Rehovot with some death and much destruction. Hmmm. To pee or not to pee. That is the question. Whether tis better to suffer the pangs of having to pee or the missiles of outrageous fortune. You get the point.
2.14.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.14.40 AM: Back in the safe room. With my dog. Sitting on the couch. Fiddling with the remote control. I work in hi tech. The semiconductor world which can be pretty complex. But I simply have not mastered the remote. Really want to see what’s going on. Where is the missile from. Are there more attacks elsewhere in the country. Pushing this button and that button But the TV still off. Okay. Will check my cell. Although the connection sometimes comes and goes when shuttered in the heavily reinforced concrete and steel safe room. Works! Ya! Showing three bars. Sometimes four. Checking my feeds. But no news yet.
2.17 AM: Seriously. I need to pee again. Like really bad. Dang prostate! To pee or not to pee. That is the question…. You get the point. I chose to pee. This time I don’t actually slam shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. And my dog follows me out. This could get complicated. But first things first.
2.17.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.17.40 AM: Chasing after my dog around the condo. Poncho!!! There he is. In the living room. Like master. Like pet. He too is relieving himself. Probably the tension. Dogs can sense these things. “Faster Poncho!. Faster!” I encourage him.
2,18.02 AM: We’re back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut. And then I start worrying. What if I have to pee again. Its really dangerous out there. Idea! I’ll bring a cleaning pail in here. And if worse comes to worse. Well, I am alone. Sans my dog.
2.18.22 AM: I dart for the cleaning cabinet in the bathroom to grab the pail. Making sure the heavy, reinforced, steel door is shut less my dog run out again. Wait! As it dawns on me at 02.18.22 AM. This is not the smartest thing to do. At least I could have combined grabbing the pail with actually having to pee again. Like maybe I could hold out for the next three minutes or so in the safe room. No urgent need for the pail. But I am already there….
2.18.25 AM: Grab the red cleaning pail
2.18.28 AM: Back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut again. Siting on the couch with my dog again. Red pail glaring at me from the side of the room…daring me. But my bladder is relaxed. I try the remote again. I feel like my 85 year old mother who often complains about getting her remote to work. I console myself thinking that it must be the batteries. Hmmm. Maybe a mad rush for the utility room to get some new batteries. But that would be mad. I’ll take care of it in the morning. Only a few more minutes and I can safely leave the safe room and go back to bed.
2.19.45 AM: I pour myself a glass of mineral water. This I store in the safe room per Homefront commands. Fresh batteries not, hrmph. As I down the water I realize this is probably not the best idea. Less it creates the urge to pee…. Alas no. Start surfing my feed again. The intercontinental missile was fired by those crazy, dang Houthis from Yemen. All of central Israel sent to their safe rooms. Dang Houthis! The next couple minutes go by pretty smoothly. Although seems like an eternity.
2.21 AM: Back in bed. Albeit sleep comes slowly as my adrenaline starts to reside.
As it were. Israel bombed the dang Houthis that night. For the third time since the outbreak of the war. In retaliation for them firing over 200 ballistic missiles and 170 drones at Israel, which fortunately had not resulted in much damage. We struck them with over 60 bombs in two air raid sorties. Destroying mainly military targets as well as ports and energy infrastructure. Maybe that will teach them for waking me -and a million other Israelis- in the middle of the night.
As it were. Falling debris from the dang Houthi attack landed on a school in central Israel, forcing its collapse. Fortunately and thank G-d it was the middle of the night. Sometime between 2:11 AM and 2.21 AM. So no casualties. Can’t even imagine the tragedy had this strike occurred mid-day.
As it were. I changed the batteries in the remote. It works just fine now. And I left the red cleaning pail in the safe room….just in case. But I hope the dang Houthis finally learned their lesson. Although probably not.
As it were. Two nights later. Another 2:00AM missile from the dang Houthis. . They just wont let me sleep….
As it is. Please continue donating to the Israeli war and revival efforts. You may have given earlier. But give again. The financial costs to Israel are and will be billions. Billions! Sderot and Metulla and Tel Avi and Haifa are Israel’s front lines. Israel is the diaspora’s front line.
Bruce Brown. A Canadian. And an Israeli. Bruce made Aliyah…a long time ago. He works in Israel’s hi-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. Bruce is the winner of the 2019 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award for excellence in writing. And wrote the 1998 satire, An Israeli is…. Bruce’s reflects on life in Israel – political, social, economic and personal. With lots of biting, contrarian, sardonic and irreverent insight