It was not easy to hear the rebuke of Nitza, the mother of Bar-El Hadaria Shmueli.
Hard words, painful, sharp as a knife, soaked in endless pain.
The right of a bereaved mother to say whatever comes to her mind.
She bought this right at the highest price there is.
It is the duty of the political echelon and senior command to listen, and to bow their heads.
This has always been done by generations of leaders and commanders.
Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan suffered much harsh criticism after the Yom Kippur War;
Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon - in the First Lebanon War;
Yitzhak Rabin dealt with the anger of the families of the victims of terrorism and with the harsh criticism of Ron Arad's family, who did not make any concessions to him.
But the pain of parents who are all, heavy and understandable as it may be, is neither a work plan nor a policy.
These are also not set in the city squares or on social media (nor by some irresponsible journalists).
What has been going on here in recent days is dangerous, bordering on anarchy.
The explicit calls against army commanders put a wedge between them and the soldiers they are supposed to lead in battle.
This is a recipe for the hesitant, neutered army, who shyed away from any action.
It contains the seeds of the catastrophe of the future decline in motivation, and of the fear of reactivating the Army in the next campaign.
Criticism of the military is desirable, even very desirable.
The writer of these lines is considered the sharpest of the chief of staff's critics, Aviv Kochavi.
But criticism - any criticism - must be based on two pillars: it must be fair, and it must be based on facts.
And the murky wave of criticism that accompanies Bar-El's death rests primarily on emotions and sentiments, fueled by cynical political elements.
The dry facts are that no one restricted the IDF from operating on Saturday two weeks ago near Nahal Oz. No prime minister, no military attorney and no commander changed the opening fire regulations or prevented the force on the ground from operating. That the IDF does not just shoot at civilians.
He does so not only so as not to find himself in The Hague, but because the State of Israel, its army and soldiers have morals and there is a conscience.
This is what sets us apart from our enemies.
This is a policy that was not born in one government or another.
The previous government, and its predecessors, did exactly the same.
Anyone who claims otherwise is simply lying.
Bar-El's killing was made possible due to a tactical mistake: the decision not to clear the firing slits as soon as the crowd stormed the defensive wall.
This is a mistake that has happened thousands of times in every campaign.
Some also came up in the lives of warriors.
It's part of the battle and its uncertainty.
It is impossible to come up with decisions from home and implement them in the field.
The events are dynamic and require an immediate response.
Sometimes the responses are good, and sometimes less so.
It's part of this cruel profession called the military: it has no luxury wars.
Commanders were wrong, and more will be wrong.
If any commander who makes a mistake is sent home, there will be no commanders left in the army.
"A company that does not back up its soldiers and commanders even when they are wrong, will find that there is no one to fight for it," the chief of staff wrote yesterday in a letter to IDF commanders, and was right.
If it is negligence - as in the case of the drowning in Nahal Snail - commanders have to pay for their job.
Not so by mistake: every parent should pray that whoever commands his soldiers is a commander who has already made a mistake.
You learn from mistakes.
Lessons are being learned.
Getting better.
There is not a single general in the General Staff for generations who did not make a mistake, and whose soldiers did not pay for his mistakes in their lives.
It made them much more responsible and worthy.
It is an existential matter, no less.
Israel has no other army.
Leadership can be replaced at the ballot box.
The army does not.
Criticism is desirable, as stated, but in its current form it is destructive and dangerous.
It's time to stop her, before she consumes the only common denominator left here.