We have never forgotten Lt. Col. Avigdor Kahalani - who commanded the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade, was a decisive factor in stopping the Syrians in 1973 and received the decoration of heroism for his fighting.
"In everyone resides a Kehlani," Shimon Peres said of him.
And Kahlani, in his apartment facing the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv, rejects outright the calls for resistance against the background of the struggle for legal reform.
If necessary, he is ready to physically bridge between the parties.
"The government was elected and it is legal", he says in an interview with "Israel Today", and rejects the statements that seem absurd to him about the government in Israel as a dictatorship, and the possibility that the elections will be cancelled.
Avigdor Kahalani in the Yom Kippur War (archive), photo: Tom Hyman, courtesy of the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense
"We were 30 MKs in the hall when we enacted the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom," he recalls. "The question is where does it become a dictatorship.
You can tell me 'this is a dictatorship', and I say: 'this is not a dictatorship!'
Is this government elected?
Yes.
If these laws are not good for the people of Israel - he will throw out the government anyway.
The people are not stupid."
Another group emerged this week - reserve officers from unit 8200 who are threatening to stop volunteering for the reserves.
"Regarding these officers," Kahalani says, "there are groups in our country that have decided to separate themselves from the people, and I absolutely do not accept that, in any way.
"There are many initiatives like this, for years. They make a list of champions against, champions in favor, sub-champions against, armorers in favor, pilots in favor, pilots against and so on. In my worldview, I really don't accept it. Once you get out of uniform, you are like any other citizen A security guard at a school, a chicken breeder on the Lebanese border or an agricultural worker in the Arabah - their voice is the same."
"What do they want?"
In the interview, which will be published tomorrow in full in the "Israel this week" supplement, Kehlani refers to the various protest groups.
"Groups in our country have decided to distinguish themselves", Avigdor Kahalani (archive), photo: Michael Giladi-Gini
"If there is someone who comes out and says 'we...' - what is he broadcasting? 'We are a certain elite group, of pilots, of armorers, of champions and sub-champions - and we are opposed. Therefore, we are the right-wing marker of society, and hence - please Your attention, listen to us'. And I don't accept that."
They say that they refuse to volunteer for the reserves, and that only in an emergency, if they receive orders, will they show up.
"These groups, which differentiate themselves - I don't accept this thing. You want - go demonstrate, it's perfectly fine for me, but don't differentiate yourself. I heard that there was a call from Danny Yatom and Ehud Barak to refuse. I think they are irresponsible. What Do they want? 'My soul will die with the Philistines'? What is this thing anyway?".
What do you say to the reservists when they hear Barak Vitom's calls for refusal?
"I tell them - don't listen to these calls. You may have different opinions than this government, but on the day of the order - we all hold the state's flag. None of us has the right to come and say 'I'm going to destroy this country.'
"When you destroy the country, you also destroy those who are in the other camp, not only yourself. And in the name of what? In the name of democracy, which no one knows how to quantify. Is there some mathematical formula for when you are a democracy and when you are a dictatorship?"
The inscription on the tank that was taken from a monument in the north by the opponents of the legal reform, photo: police spokesmen
Regarding the context of the Yom Kippur War, which they are trying to appropriate for the benefit of the struggle, Kahalani says: "The Yom Kippur War is a trauma in the heart of the nation. There was a tectonic shift, the Syrian-African rift of Israeli society.
"I have respect for them, but you take a tank, why? Attack the Israeli Knesset with a tank with this symbolism? The Israeli Knesset, the bastion of democracy? Are you going to put a tank, set it up and aim the cannon at the Israeli Knesset?"
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us