Dr. Yaron Gilat: Between Two Deaths
Dr. Yaron Gilat uses the tragedy "Antigone" to argue that Israel is trapped between two deaths: the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, who died biologically but remains symbolically alive, and the October 7 massacre, which represents the return of the repressed. He compares Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Creon, who refuses to acknowledge his failure and leaves the country in a space between life and death.
Dr. Yaron Gilat, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, uses Sophocles' tragedy "Antigone" to analyze the political situation in Israel following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the October 7 massacre. He argues that Rabin died biologically but remains symbolically alive, and that Israel hovers in a space "between two deaths"—a concept borrowed from psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Gilat compares Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to King Creon, who seeks to protect order by repressing what does not conform to it, but refuses to acknowledge his failure even after the disaster. According to Gilat, Netanyahu excludes himself from the fabric of Israeli society and leaves the country trapped between what was repressed and what returns to claim its place.