Israel's seventh president, Ezer Weizmann, served as a pilot and commander of the Air Force.
Once, when he looked at a picture of him from his days in the squadron and below it, the caption "Ezer Weizmann", he uttered the incredible sentence: "Weizmann is with one Y., as he helped it with one Z."
This anecdote reveals Tefah's course of action prevailing in the army to this day - from chauvinism and Palmachism, in a negative sense. Last Wednesday, pilot wings excitedly wore 39 fresh graduates of the prestigious course.
Lt. Col. Aviv Kochavi wanted to convey a sharp and clear message regarding the importance of the fighters in the military, but it turned out a bit crooked.
And I, just a question: if we have already rated, then maybe we will be ranked a little more.
And who among the warriors is really better?
The fighter who catches a line in Hebron?
Maybe a field intelligence fighter, documenting every movement on the Lebanese border?
Or maybe the officer from the General Staff patrol, who has been training for months to reach the rank of master in a quiet burglary of a building somewhere?
After all, "warrior" is a word that describes a variety of roles. There is an Mossad fighter and there is an air crew fighter and there is a Golani fighter. Oh, yes, and there's one more fighter - a cyber fighter. It is true that a pilot who bombs a convoy of weapons in Syria is in danger, but he also does not see the white in the eyes of the terrorist who tried to stab the paratrooper at a checkpoint in Qalandiya. The cyber fighter did not fly 40,000 feet, "Warrior" expresses the degree of responsibility, regardless of how close the finger is to the clamp or joystick.
What is even sadder is that this is a very limited conception of good. After all, some are suitable for certain positions, and some are suitable for other positions. The days of machoism that spoke from Weizmann's throat are long gone, but in his last speech the chief of staff continued on his way, implying that the tall, shapely warrior and man-man - he, and no other, is "the good warrior." In other words, Kochavi said to most of the servants: "Leave you, you're just less good." A crowded meeting with the Chief of Staff's Adviser on Gender Affairs may be needed.
And one more thing.
Kochavi knows that the Middle East is changing.
He is also well aware that the face of technology is towards automation and unmanned tools.
It is likely that in not too many years, a pilot course attended by flesh-and-blood people will be an archeological find that expresses a prestige that time has passed, just like a parachuting course today.
He probably knows that the weight of responsibility and information that the intelligence officer, who was found dead in prison a few months ago, was the one who also put him there.
The degree of responsibility, stars, is the scale, not the amount of mud in the shoes.
Cyber people are no less good than air force fighters or infantry fighters. It is worth honoring the chief of staff to consider reminding them of this publicly, so that God forbid he finds himself in the next battle with too many good fighters, and too few capabilities in an increasingly important space.
The writer is a reporter for News 12
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