Israel is small. Around 8,300 square miles. This banal fact of geography can be hard to keep in mind when the country looms so large in international news, wields military force disproportionate to its size and is imbued with almost supernatural powers of global influence by its enemies.
But a sense of the nation’s littleness is vital for understanding its sense of existential vulnerability – the deep-tissue dread of erasure that is at the core of Israeli identity and politics. Also, in a small country, practically everyone has some connection to everyone else. These factors vastly compounded the trauma of the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks.
