Five ways Israel is changing after six months of war in Gaza

When the Brothers in Arms organization announced at a Tel Aviv rally last month that it was returning to anti-government protests, ending a post-Oct. 7 hiatus, it was taken by some Israelis as a hopeful sign.

Maybe Israel was starting to recover and find some semblance of normalcy after that terrible October Saturday when Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza, killed mostly unarmed civilians, took hostages, and forced Israelis, for the first time in their history, to abandon large swaths of national territory.

Brothers in Arms, a reservist group, had surged onto the national scene in early 2023 as part of huge pro-democracy protests against government plans to overhaul the judiciary.

But after Oct. 7 it became known for transforming overnight into something of a shadow civilian service corps, providing food, shelter, and even counseling services to those most affected by the attack, filling in for what many evacuees felt was an absent state.

Now it was resuming demonstrations.

“The only way to get things done here is through protest,” Omri Ronen, a captain in the army reserves, announced at the rally. “This may be our last opportunity, and we must not lose it.”

Whether the protests constitute a sign of recovery is open to debate. What seems clearer, experts and social observers say, is how