We live in a parallel world. The people of Order 8, those who enlisted for the homeland, versus the people of yesterday. Soldiers and their families who remained in the house are worried. ZAKA personnel, the many thousands who donated their money, time and skills and came to prepare food, take care of the soldiers, or simply support and help. They face those who are now looking for the good old quarrels.
In my view, the people of Order 8 are devoid of cynicism, devoid of thought of personal good, those who came only because the state called upon them. Facing these is an old world trying to regain control of us. A world in which there is a polarized and divided country. A country where the poll determines the message and political survival dictates the vision.
I've been in reserve for more than 60 days. By this point, I should have gotten tired and moved on, abandoning my uniform and helmet. Take care of a knee that hurts from the weight, return to a family that is already quite fed up. I am here because I believe that this is a war of no choice. The destruction of Hamas and the threats to border residents, and no less important – the resetting of Israeli society.
The War of Independence ended with the building of a glorious state with a developed and prosperous society. It was a war after which, if we had lost, there would have been nothing but a destroyed desert, as Gaza looks today, 18 years after they received independent rule there.
Soldiers in the Gaza Strip, photo: Albert Sadikov / Ginny
Make sure you rebuild
We are not in the War of Independence, despite the terrible numbers of massacres in Jewish communities and the number of fallen. We are in the war of awakening. And in this war, too, there is no choice. Not now and not at the end of the war. The role of the Order 8 personnel is not only at the front, but also to make sure that we rebuild what is needed to build: trust, leadership, society, settlement, economy and defense of the homeland.
The people of the old world will not succeed. They're stuck. We miss the joining of forces for a common goal, the clarity of mind of understanding who our enemy is. You don't see how many Israelis suddenly understood the insignificance of the incessant preoccupation with care, honors, a cult of personality or a party. Gone are the days of innocence when it seemed that we were a calm country and we could hate each other.
We have clear goals. Weighty missions, the first of which is military, but immediately followed by social and economic healing after tremendous damage. Yesterday's people, those from the other dimension, are disconnected. They don't hear anything because the artillery shells haven't woken them up for the past two months at night. They don't see what happened, because the TV screen blinds them. They don't feel anything maybe (hopefully for them) - because they haven't yet known pain intimately.
They behave like mourning: denying, repressing, fighting reality. They had a good time in the midst of hatred. There are even those who didn't notice that we were at war. The reality has changed for them. Denial won't help, nor will provocation. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be.
Other leadership
The people of Order 8 will determine the future of the country. There is no other option. The reservists will be the ones who will not allow anything to remain as it was. No to threatening civilians from Hamas or any other enemy, not to threatening us as a society out of political cynicism, not to dismantling and escaping responsibility. That's the only way to win. In this way, we will destroy Hamas and there is no other choice. And so we will make sure that on the day after the war we will not repeat what was. An old world was destroyed.
Not the same leadership, not the same preoccupation. Not those foolish arguments when there are those around us who want to destroy us. I'm not talking about an imaginary utopian world, but a logical world. A country that invests most of its resources in building society and defense. Very simple. Still, it turns out to be terribly incomprehensible.
Living, breathing movement
Many of those who visited Kfar Gaza, Bari, Nir Oz and Nahal Oz decided to move there during the first week of the war. The horror in the western Negev provoked a healthy Zionist backlash. Most of them will decide again, some will talk to their families and discover that there is resistance. The national mission to make the place bloom will not change.
Pigeon breeding near Bari calling for the return of the hostages | Shmuel Buchris
The State of Israel established the Takuma Administration in order to rehabilitate the communities. Budgets and opening barriers are only a small part of the event. In the end, you need human beings. Some people lived in the area and will not return. I have no right to say anything to them. A woman who lost her husband and explains to me that she will never return there with her children, I have nothing to say to her. The price she paid is immeasurable.
The question is who are the people who will come. Settlement in the area was secular. It must not only become an attractive place for kippah wearers.
The secular kibbutz movement proved in this war that it lives, breathes and fights. It is she who will already have to bring more groups to settle in the area. There will also be religious people who want to live with secular people, but the character of the place must be preserved.
There are Israelis who lived near the Gaza Strip and will not return. I have no right to say anything to them. A woman who lost her husband and will never return with her children, I have nothing to say to her. The question is who will come. Settlement in the area was secular. The character of the place must be preserved.
Good corner
A woman married to a reservist recently came across Fancher and did not remember the Yedidim association, so she called for help from the garage. Whoever fixed her flat tire charged her 500 shekels. Ostensibly a small story of crookedness, but one that expresses great difficulty. There is a lot of help for reservists. There are countless good people helping, the "Ba-Salute" club and professional organizations, private individuals and local councils.
But there is no one to take care of the women of the reservists. Most of them have children at home and anxieties in their hearts. Lilach Dunshik, a social entrepreneur, is the mother of four little ones, evacuated from Kibbutz Dan and the wife of Major Elisha Dunshik, who serves as a commander in the Alexandroni Platoon. She chose to be their voice and picked up the Queen's Patrol podcast worth listening to. Now we need to set up a call center that addresses small problems of the families.
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