Ido Levy, 55, served thirty years in significant security positions. He gathered the experiences he went through and the traumas he encountered into his current role – as one of the facilitators in the ‘Back to the Future’ journeys for the fighters in preparation for the liberation of the IDF as part of the ‘Momentum’ association. The journeys deal with dealing with complex events from military service, reprocessing the complex experiences and finding resilience and ways of coping Towards citizenship. To process difficult experiences. Ido is also a Tai Chi instructor and volunteers with children with disabilities.
His first book “The Seventh Murderer” was published this month and can be found in the “Book Junction” chain of stores. The book is a work of thought that overwhelms the reader with a multitude of emotions, deep thoughts and connects us to the Israeli reality that we hear about but do not really know.
The story is written through Amir’s eyes. In two words, Amir could be described as a ‘success story’. One that includes all the elements of the Israeli dream. Any deviation from the quota of two words, and problems will begin to appear through the veil of success, like cracks in a magnificent structure. The anomalies and problems that troubled Amir with his beliefs will be revealed. By all accepted standards, he really achieved a lot materially, it can be said that all dreams came true, except for a small problem. These were never his dreams. Bottom line, he felt he had become nothing more than a mercenary, in the service of the person he hated most.
News of the disappearance of his friend Yotam causes Amir to give himself up to the thrill she has formulated in him. A feeling that only a person who has finished his life’s routine can cherish. He dives back into Yotam’s story while fighting the manipulations of memory and its barriers. A story that goes between security service abroad, the Tzalim II disaster, and Rabin’s murder. When throughout the story is woven the nightmare that accompanies Yotam the whole way. A nightmare that represents the post-trauma that pursues him until it catches up with him.
“The meeting years ago with the person who was the inspiration for the character of Yotam in the book, left a strong impression on me that did not leave me. The events that happened to him, starting with the training accident, through the impact of Rabin’s murder on him and the tragic end, caused me a feeling of great loss,” Levy said. “I realized that this is an extraordinary Israeli story that is important to be written. Quite a few years have passed since the meeting with him until one day I found myself starting to write this imaginary book in which the story of Yotam is also integrated and serves as the event that drives the entire plot.”
Yotam’s story is the kind of story that is hard to believe could have happened in reality, that it is not a fictional character that an over-enthusiastic writer has burdened her narrow shoulders with an entire epic. A young man who won thanks to his skills a central role in what he thought was a heroic story, but no one could have known that his story would change the genre and become a classic Israeli tragedy. But this story has a connection to the events that happened in reality.
The book tells the tragic story of Yotam who was a brilliant combat soldier and faced a great military future. As a fighter in an elite unit, he participated in an exercise just before a huge operation in the enemy’s rear. During the exercise, a disaster occurred that left six IDF soldiers dead. A tremendous public uproar took place in Israel. The soldier accused of that incident changed roles and served the country overseas.
When he is full of guilt and moves between hope for a new beginning and despair and suicidal thoughts, Yotam disappears and the hero of the book sets out to find him on a journey full of pain, war scars, mental difficulties and a difficult end.
This is a unique novel written with power, totality and great compassion. A breathtaking story that moves between several layers and spaces and reveals to our eyes a reality that only a few know closely.
We get a rare opportunity to dive into the reality of the elite fighters and understand their turbulent souls and the enormous difficulties they face in their careers and especially in the end.
Levy, hopes that the book will encourage fighters who carry traumas from the past, to tell, talk and share for their mental health and so that they can live with a good quality of life.