I'm looking at a picture of Bar-El Hadaria and I'm sure I've seen him before.
In fact, I have seen it many times.
This is what my children's friends, and yours, look like.
This boy was beautiful in his life, and after his death his beauty became painful, so it is hard to look at the picture.
This is the victim.
These are our firstborns.
We bring up the best that the people of Israel have to offer.
A pure and polished diamond, a world of beauty and goodness.
The best son of the people of Israel like him we will no longer have.
I pray today for the upliftment of Bar-El's soul, embrace his parents Nitza and Yossi and pray in the corps and tremble that I will be worthy of them.
Without us noticing, David and Goliath switched roles. The spirit of the Palmach, of Unit 101 and of the retaliatory actions is the wind that blows in the sails of the Palestinians. Few against many? Absolutely. Just think who are the few and who are the many. We can chuckle until tomorrow at the sight of the primitive incendiary balloons, until we remember the Davidka cannon. Until we remember the tank in Degania. We too were once ridiculous like that. What I suggest is start respecting the enemy. At least that. The house.
The dignity of an iron dome is in place.
This system is the pride of the State of Israel, and rightly so.
At the same time, when a missile defense system is the epitome of any military combat strategy, it indicates a deep rift.
I wish I was wrong, but sometimes it seems to me that the phenomenal success of this system comes only to save the State of Israel the need to take real action.
"The rockets landed in open areas and no damage was done," the announcer said on the radio, "but the damage was done and more."
This sentence is the damage.
A straight line runs between the shameful slackness of the IDF, with Bedouins from the south stealing weapons from it time and time again, and the growing daring of the terrorists approaching the slit in the wall, up to a handful of IDF soldiers - and victorious.
The difference between who we are today and who we once were is the difference between "contain the dead" and "the name of the universe will be blood."
Nobody wants to go to war.
Sahadi in the heights, if I had known that reinforced concrete and American armament would ensure the life of my children - I would beg to raise the wall, to thicken the fortifications.
But I know not.
I know the last step before defeat is to sit armed up to your neck in a bunker and wait.
The State of Israel has become a security power.
This is its power, but it is also its weakness.
There is nothing wrong with waiting, without rushing.
Restraint can also be a weapon, provided that at the end of it all comes a ruthless iron fist.
As of today everyone sees that the iron is delaying, and the feeling is that there is no longer a punch behind the fortifications.
I wish Shabar-El would be the last one whose death we would have to contain.
