The distress that has accompanied the nights in recent months, the one that brings with it at six in the morning the publication that was permitted, the names and the faces, was added on Wednesday night another sense of anxiety. But in contrast, it is not anxiety about who will be, but rather about what has been.
The 33rd Week of the Protest: The Demonstration Against the Legal Reform in Tel Aviv | Uncredited
We remember what happened here. It's hard to forget. We must not forget. Even three months of war and bereavement in every neighborhood cannot dim the memory of how we behaved before October 7. How the most democratic debate over the balance of powers has turned into a national brawl from which there is no way out. How, as the political and legal relationship became more complicated, the price of controversy rose in all Israeli fields: in the Knesset, in the army, in the economy, in the street, in the family.
The Black Sabbath massacre was an awakening: from a bad dream into a realistic nightmare. On the one hand, we were all swept up in a war to eradicate darkness, out of unity of mission and purpose. On the other side, we tried to convince ourselves that the bad dream had been left behind. We washed our faces, and against our will we sobered up. A rift? Ripped? Division? Together we will win.
The Israeli flag next to a burnt house in Bari, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
But also during sobriety; Even at a time when tens of thousands of soldiers are taking their lives in Gaza; Even while 129 Israelis are still held captive by Hamas; Even in months when masses of reservists lose their business to defend the homeland; Even when tens of thousands of Israelis live in hotels and temporary residences; And even after weeks in which civil society mobilized without a warrant to help and save lives, even in these fateful times, we have cultivated illusions for ourselves.
We have said that from now on no legal ground will divert our gaze from the existential threat facing us from all sides of the Middle East. We were sure that no nominating committee would forget from us how failure and indifference allowed a foothold in the atrocities of Hamas. We convinced ourselves that we had learned a lesson, that we had turned over a new leaf. But actually, we just tucked a bookmark into the scariest page of the book.
The Supreme Court, photo: Dudi Vaknin
The leak from within the walls of the Supreme Court, which hints that the High Court of Justice is supposed to cancel the amendment to the Cause of Reasonableness Law, is exactly what the State of Israel does not need now. Not the leak, not the ruling – and it doesn't matter if it's active or passive. The State of Israel does not need the commentators and editors of the enthusiastic editions now, it does not need the MKs who tweet, and it does not need and does not want streets of protest and horses with horsemen.
The image of the state is reflected in the fighters
And what is the state? Its image is currently reflected only through its fighters on the front. This is evident in every aspect - from the peaks of combat recruitment rates to hundreds of stories of heroism, from the cohesion of the ranks in units to the lists of the fallen, from every locality, from every sector. One people, one army.
And when the landscape of the state is its fighters, it is forbidden to harm even a fraction of their ability to win this battle. The company commander in Givati should not be bothered if his soldiers are updated on the results of the vote among the High Court justices; The pilot in "Adir" is not interested in tweets about "civil war"; And the D-9 operator isn't waiting for the TV break-ins from Kaplan. They just don't.
IDF Chief of Staff Halevy dialogue with the fighters in Gaza, Photo: IDF Spokesperson
These fighters are busy 24/7 ensuring that Israeli families can return and live their lives in their homes, without fear. This is an inner feeling that every citizen has been fighting for in his heart in recent months – including Esther Hayut, Yariv Levin and Shikma Bressler. The IDF is implementing this war on the front. Soldiers are killed every day for her.
Our fighters in Gaza are only a numerical minority of the population of the State of Israel, but today they are the main thing. Only they feel the existential urgency that is beginning to dissipate in many of us. Don't disturb them forever.
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