At a farm in central Israel, a former soldier feels the cold skin of a snake wrapped around his forearm. For a moment, the world shrinks. The noise of a passing drone, a helicopter in the distance—the triggers for flashbacks to Gaza—fade into the background. "I'm here with the snake right now," he says. It is the only thing that brings him peace. This is the new frontline of Israel's longest war—one not against Hamas, but against an enemy within: a spiraling mental health crisis that is claiming the lives of Israeli soldiers not with bullets, but through suicide. The death of Tomas Adzgauskas, a Lithuanian-Israeli sniper commander who took his own life after confessing to acts he "cannot be forgiven" for, is a stark, individual tragedy in a devastating national pattern. A Crisis in Numbers The data paints a picture of an army under profound psychological strain. A report by Israel's Knesset Research and Information Cen...
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