Third week of the war. The spirit is still great, but time also has meaning. The days mix here, there are no Saturdays and no events except routine fighting and the next stage.
This week I popped home for a few hours. The separation from family is part of the price that reservists pay. I have four children. The second is named Barry. When you have children, the time that mixes takes on a different meaning. In preparation for Barry's bar mitzvah, we traveled around the country together. Every month in a different place for a joint day and night tour. Among the first places we stayed were Kibbutz Be'eri and Kerem Shalom. We ate there, visited old Bari and the fields and then the founders hut.
Documentation of the assassination of Hamas terrorists in Gaza // IDF Spokesperson
Suddenly, now that old Bari has become a battle zone that requires field analysis, significant force and orders before getting there, everything takes on a different meaning for me. The fact that they claim that there are no time limits does not indicate anything. Wars always end. We must reach the finish line after burning into the consciousness of the Middle East that never again.
What happens in the Gaza Strip will determine Israel's fate for the next 100 years. In fact, it influences what will happen to Diaspora Jewry as well. The whole Zionist story is strong Jewish sovereignty. We decide our fate in our own hands. We defend ourselves, defeat the enemy. I see here and there attacks against Jews around the world. Jewish boys hiding in the library of a New York university because there is an anti-Semitic demonstration outside. It will be reduced if we end the war with a clear line. If we charge an unparalleled price from the other side.
No one assesses weakness. Not indoors and not outdoors. I'm not blood-hungry, I never have been. I am life-hungry. That's the difference between us and them. A despicable Hamas terrorist boasts that he murdered ten women and children, and we pride ourselves on saving ten people.
Kingfisher forces at Kibbutz Be'eri and rescue of kibbutz residents // Credit: IDF Spokesperson
It is not bloodlust that leads me to write these words, but rather the lust for life. It is logic that obliges us to destroy large parts of the Gaza Strip. To crush from the air every neighborhood from which they are currently firing (and there are quite a few of them), to destroy entry routes to the maneuver phase, and then to enter in order to destroy Hamas.
Pragmatism obliges us to completely deny electricity, water and aid. Whoever wants to, let him move south. This is not revenge but pragmatism. This is the most effective pressure to release the abductees and it is the only language that lasts for years. If any member of the cabinet considers otherwise, let him go down to the young neighborhood in Kfar Gaza. The question we always asked – what will happen the day after – is no longer relevant, it is of the old world. The day after, when the destruction in the Gaza Strip is revealed, our kibbutzim should flourish. Is. Simple, uncomplicated, not convoluted.
Reboot
We must reboot everything, return to the Zionist base. To a Negbi lullaby in which "there is no deep plowing without weapons." Immigration, security, settlement. We've been embroiled in so many unimportant arguments in recent years. We were led like sheep to deal with care over the main thing. It can't go on any longer. There's so much good in this mud here. So much wind amidst terrible scenes that there's no way the people here and I will let it go away. Take the kibbutzim as an example: the very unnecessary debate about the kibbutzim is over. All hate-mongers should also disappear.
Since the beginning of the war, these kibbutzim have become my home. The gap between the lawns and animal corners and the destruction became a fait accompli in my mind. These kibbutzim, which have become a punching bag in Israeli society, are our most important test the day after. There is no first or second Israel in this future, there is only one Israel that enlists in the reserves en masse from every direction and place in the country. There are volunteers who come every evening to help the soldiers, thousands of volunteers for everything that is needed and needed.
Demolitions in the Gaza Strip after an IDF attack // Photo: Social Networks
On the last evening, some of them came to grill in one of the communities. The loudspeakers played Shlomo Artzi, Hasidic songs and Kobi Peretz for morale. It all went together. Even the reservists are a mixture of everything.
There are a lot of conversations here on the go about the future. I deliberately haven't written about politics here since the war began. I have a military mission, which I am focused on, and responsibility for the soldiers. That's more important than anything else, right now.
The time will come for that, too. A reboot is intended to preserve the State of Israel, a vision of two thousand years. Not just to talk about the strongest army in the Middle East, but to be like that. Not only to talk about security for the citizens of Israel, but to provide one. Generate leadership. Exemplary company. Blossom.
Anyone who meets the people walking around here – lawyers, CEOs, workers, carpenters – sees that they are all in uniform, the same uniform and the same flag. Those who walk around here have somewhere to draw optimism that it is possible. The people of Israel are very strong.
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