War diary. Fourth week. The essence of the war took place far away from me this week, at one of the funerals of an IDF soldier. In the video they sent me, people with flags stand by the side of the road, escorting the coffin. Silent, painful, but determined with Israeli flags. I couldn't figure out which funeral and who the fallen hero was, but this sight brought something out of me. The spirit was perfectly clear to me.
The mobile phone is the most available means when there is reception. This is how I write now, this is how I conduct myself with those under me. Photographs, transfers, sets schedules. Sometimes it is difficult to imagine wars in which there was only military contact. And when there is no reception, or when the phone is turned off, the connection to the pre-war world is also turned off.
Commander of the 36th Division assessing the situation in the Gaza Strip // IDF Spokesperson
The problem with the phone is that it is also the means to the infinite pain of this war. One of my personal insights is not to look, to ignore horrific images from that terrible Shabbat, to stay away from pain as much as possible. I've seen enough here in the last month, more than I've seen in my whole life. Others abroad should know how to see.
Here we must focus only on defeating the enemy. Time is always limited, and what we don't do now is not certain that we will succeed in the future. We must fundamentally reverse the reality we have known in Israel-Gaza relations. Not to go back there anymore, to establish facts on the ground. It requires clutter-free thinking of emotions. This is true for the army and true for the political echelon (provided, of course, that it understands that it has no political future, but only a present in which it is supposed to worry only about making the right decisions). Act without internal noise.
Limited control
I got the video of people standing with flags from a friend. Guess it wasn't real-time. Not a name, not a place, just a video. One of the things you learn quickly in war is that the time clock on the front is different from the clock on the home front. These are two different time zones, even if the distance in kilometers is not great.
While here they are happy about the rescue of a female soldier, the home front still does not know that it happened and the massacre is pained. Later they will celebrate the good news. And while they will rejoice at the release of the soldier, on the ground the fallen fighters are already in pain. Time will reset at the end of the war. Our control over this finish line is limited. We fight to live, we have no other choice. Fighting to be sovereign and safe in our country. We are fighting to make the communities in the western Negev flourish.
Documentation of the forces' activity inside the Gaza Strip, photo: IDF Spokesperson
Hamas and the millions of Gazans it tramples are dying because they wanted and want to bring destruction. They are willing to die so that destruction will come upon the other side. Something is broken with them. It's not human nature, not all cultures are like that. Something in their apparatus has undergone self-destruction.
We had some tough days this week. The numbers add up. It's a tough war, and still the most important thing we have is spirit and determination. Yes, in normal times these are words that make clichés out of them: "faith in the righteousness of the way", "battle spirit", "determination". In these days of war, spirit and words are the most powerful engine to propel tanks, planes and soldiers.
Everything else is still not important enough to me. It's not that I'm disconnected from what's happening, but that the debates that began predictably in the political sphere don't penetrate. There is a strong armor here and a coat of spirit of a common ideology, because otherwise we will not win and defeat the enemy. The task of the day after, planning and thinking, must be taken by civil society. The people who organized the thousands of volunteers, the endless amounts of equipment.
Repair required
After a month of war, it is clear that we will need a national effort here that we have hardly known since the establishment of the state. The flourishing of the envelope and the settlement movement. Excluding articles that have been reset because they are no longer needed. Reorganizing Israeli politics.
and the continuation of the war to defend the home. The threats against us will not disappear at the end of this war. What can be changed is our reactions. No more seeking quiet, but searching for fear on the other side. Deterrence called it in our security concept that no one wrote, but that word was eroded until it became empty. Fear of attacking Israeli citizens. There is no other choice, no other language, no other way out.
Raise the flag, raise your head, we will come out of this stronger and better in everything that required correction here.
We paid, and we are paying, a heavy price. Now reality is being reshaped. This is thanks to the uniformed people here, but no less so thanks to civil society, the flag-wavers who stand in the way of a funeral or assistance to a farmer in distress or to a citizen like them. Together we will win.
Best chance
I have no idea how a person copes with the loss of a child, brother or sister to such murderers, but in the past month I have met people of this kind again and again. They come to the kibbutz for a few hours, do what needs to be done, peek at the battlefield and talk to the forces on the ground. Here and there I had a few such conversations. It's complicated for them, it's hard mentally, but I haven't heard anyone give up. They talk about repetition and flowering. Rebuilding a community, they say there is no choice but to do, and talk a lot about the future.
I don't mention names on purpose. I didn't ask anyone's permission to tell about him. They talked to me as someone who came to protect them and had a connection to decision-making. I wish that after the war their voice would be loud enough. They are the best chance.
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