In my view, the Israeli government is doing damage to the Zionist and national interests, and it must be replaced and criticized. The government, not the state.
It's hard to be responsible and critical in the same breath. Statehood is a commodity for which there is no demand. Provocations sound better. Moreover, whoever now forms the government behaved irresponsibly and stately only last year: Netanyahu released videos in English calling Israel a dictatorship, Ben-Gvir interrupted the security forces at every corner with endless babble, Distel promised that the country would burn, Smotrich organized hilltop boys to curse Yamina members and their families, Karai called the government traitors with stupid umbrellas.
Cabinet meeting (archive), photo: Jonathan Zindel/Flash90
And when it was necessary to vote on staffing regulations, they chose to cooperate with the joint venture against the state. All the arguments and excuses for "paying them back" or shaking up the country make sense, the point is that there is something more important here.
You can't keep ignoring it
When you burn tires near his house a government minister (which in my view is a malfunction), it's a cross-line event. When organizing a mass release from volunteering for the reserves, it is a dramatic event, with serious consequences for our security.
At the end of the protest in Tel Aviv: Demonstrators descend on Ayalon Highway - blocked to traffic // Credit: Gil Levin
The brothers in arms are truly my brothers, they are the ones who serve alongside me in the defense of the homeland. I have good friends who are demonstrating and activists and I don't underestimate their concerns, but it is impossible to get out of such an event of stopping the reserves safely.
Burning tires: Brothers in arms protests outside Levin's home // Credit: Jonathan Shaul
We are a nation in state distress, a severe lack of statehood in government and on the street. IDF officers are attacked by fanatics on the right with the encouragement of members of the Jewish Weakness Party, ultra-Orthodox society does not enlist because of a distorted historical exemption, and in the end only one percent of Israelis serve in the reserves.
There is no way to continue ignoring – in the Zionist government that will one day be established – we will have to deal with this. But dismantling the minority that serves in the reserves is a double-edged sword that cannot be accepted.
Change the government, not the state
The government will eventually be replaced, but the state must not be replaced. I held demonstrations from the right calling for freezing the legislation and reaching agreements. Demonstrations in a democracy matter. This is legal and correct as long as you don't spill over into violence.
Reserve volunteers have the legal right to stop volunteering. In general, every reservist knows that the reserve system is voluntary – the spearhead of Israeli society that forcibly preserves an island of sanity. It is not a matter of breaking the law, and certainly those who do not serve are not allowed to preach morality to those who have served for years.
The discussion is about how to fight ideologically and still maintain a shared future here. Whoever really wants to shape the face of Israel must create bridges and accept responsibility. Strangely, but the government doesn't, the commenters on social media fan the flames, so again we reservists are required to volunteer. Don't stop - on the contrary: arrive, get into it, reserve duty and citizenship.
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