"One of our painful problems has a name. First name and last name - this is the combination of the two words 'it will be okay'. These words, which many of us hear in the daily life of the State of Israel, are unbearable. Behind these two words is usually hidden everything wrong : Arrogance and a sense of excessive self-confidence, power and authority, which have no place.
"It's okay" has been with us for a long time, years, and it is a sign of an atmosphere bordering on irresponsibility in many areas of our lives. Order and discipline, for non-professionalism, for idleness that will change.
She eats us everywhere.
And we have already learned in the hard and painful way that 'it's going to be okay' means a lot of 'wrong'.
"What do I want for myself a right and a duty to demand from you? First and foremost - responsibility. You give the fate of other people's lives. Their responsibility is absolute. You have no one to look behind you. The responsibility stops with you. There is no heavier and more important than your responsibility for the lives of others."
These exact words were said by the late Yitzhak Rabin at the graduation ceremony of the Command and Staff School, 29 years ago. It is spectacular how much they have been corresponding with us ever since.
And here it happened.
If there is one thing that has managed to take the phrase "it will be okay" out of most of us, it is the corona.
The thousands of Israelis we lost along the way, and the fear that she would come to beat us as well, landed us on the ground of reality.
Those who step on the spot of choice, due to arrogance and a sense of excessive self-confidence, power and authority, who have no place, are punished by the corona in its cruel way.
One example of disorder and discipline can be found in the enforcement of the renewed green mark.
Well done on the upgrade, but few places really scan it.
Another example of the Israeli atmosphere.
At Corona, responsibility is key.
We have handed over the fate of other people, and there are moments when we fight with all our might for "it will be okay" and try to keep our distance and use alcohol.
That too - not always, not everyone.
Last week I went into the ice cream parlor with my daughters, followed by a woman without a mask.
The sellers refused to serve her, and she left the place demonstratively: "Come on, you're tired of your masks, crazy."
I was glad she was deported.
The ice cream parlor did not say, "Come on, we'll pass this on, little one," but took responsibility.
The enraged lady sat down on a bench outside, and one of the staff members approached her and handed her with a smile a ball of strawberry-flavored ice cream, alongside a matching pink mask.
The rage dissipated from her face, and she placed the mask on her chin.
To an employee who solved the crisis in such an original way she said, "You're fine, you."
danieller@israelhayom.co.il