During the most difficult times of the State of Israel, when darkness reigned, the leadership on the ground was always on the ground from the right and the left. Golda, who wanted to kill herself in 1973 when she realized the magnitude of the disaster, did not think left or right and went down to the field, to the soldiers. Dayan, who spoke of the destruction of the Temple, flew to the front and saw face to face the soldiers he had sent into battle. Prime ministers and ministers during the worst terror attacks arrived at the charred buses and saw the bodies lying there. They were cursed, cursed, with absolute justice. All the anger was directed at them, and they absorbed and contained. They knew they would be accepted that way – but they came, up close.
Because this is leadership - it is not tested in its choice in order to bask in the successes of goodness, the enjoyment of the chair, the position, the honor, but first and foremost and mainly in order to lead - "from me you will see and you will do" is taught to every IDF commander. To be there when it is difficult, when everything is black, to be part of the people and not cut off from it. Feel the public, accept all the anger and rage with love because these are your citizens. To go down to the Gaza envelope and see the destruction and massacre or to be in places where traumatized residents were evacuated, for which there is no word to describe it, and to hug and listen and absorb. Just be there. Be.
The 37th government was sworn in, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The extent of the destruction in the envelope is exposed to the world, Photo: AFP
Go to funerals, even when bereaved parents scream at you in the biggest break of their lives. Because you sent them, you were chosen to lead them, so you'll be there, looking straight into the eyes looking for somewhere to vent the nightmare, standing in front of clenched and aching lips and hands closed into a fist of pain and nerves.
Until a few days ago, they ran to the studios, asked to be interviewed about everything, were pushed into every studio, every website and every newspaper, in order to whine about ha and da. And now it's quiet. All the chatting, all the rattles, all the camera jumpers fell silent, except for a few recorded statements and messages to the public who don't buy it.
And no, it is not the studios that are where the people need their leaders, but the field - to go out to the meeting grounds with the reservists, visit the wounded (there are some righteous people who did), go to as many funerals as possible at any price, be with the people - together.
A moving convoy in Mitzpe Ramon supporting the family of Staff Sergeant Ido Harush during his funeral procession // Photo: Courtesy of the family
We will win despite the lack of leadership because we have an instinct for survival, fighting, justice and faith in our country, in who we are, for us and for our children. And we are beneath all the horror and everything that was here until a few days ago, a united people, a beautiful people, a home front that strengthens the front, families who envelop those who are in the ocean of bereavement and whose lives will never look like they were.
The State of Israel will also never be the same. It is impossible to even begin to digest what we as a nation are going through these days.
And after the land is quiet, and after we bury our dead and mourn, we will not forget the days when the current leaders of the State of Israel were not with their people, made up for them, and then they would emerge from the trenches, run back to the studios and look for the guilty but themselves. But Israel will remember how in October 2023 the leadership was not with the people.
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