The war should be referred to as the “Genesis War”<\/strong><\/h3>\nTherefore, back when the war was in its second week, I proposed in these very pages that it be called the\u00a0Genesis War. This choice harkens back to the day the war broke out \u2013 Simchat Torah, when we restart the yearly Torah cycle and read from the book of Genesis \u2013 \u201cIn the beginning God created.\u201d But more importantly, it signifies that this war is not just another point on the Israeli timeline, but a crossroads: an event that differentiates between what came before the war and what will come after it. A watershed that distinguishes between the divided and torn Israel, on the brink of civil war, as it was on October 6, and the Israel that mobilized under the banner of \u201ctogetherness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two previous Israeli kingdoms \u2013 the Kingdom of David and Solomon and the Hasmonean Dynasty \u2013 did not survive their eighth decade, and over the past year there was a creeping sense that a similar fate was in store for the State of Israel. The amazing\u00a0Zionist success story\u00a0of building a national home for the Jewish people was beginning to show signs of decline: an identity crisis that turned into a political crisis, and then a struggle for control embodied in an attempt at regime change that led us to the brink of civil war. The ancient curse \u201cBrothers will snatch each other by the hand and attack one another\u201d became a real and chilling possibility.<\/p>\n
Basic assumptions \u2013 that we are a democracy committed to the rule of law, that we share a covenant of fate, that in the spirit of statehood Israel was built and grew as a common framework for all identity groups \u2013 were called into question. Ugly idols desecrated the Zionist temple.<\/p>\n
The war came and forced us to rethink our collective self. It does not camouflage the ideological disagreements between us; Israeli identity groups will continue their wrestling after the fighting stops. But this cursed war may be a wake-up call. It may propel Israelis to commit to a process that sets the limits for our internal disputes.<\/p>\n
The spectacular mobilization of all segments of society, the unity of action in every corner of Israel, was indeed forced upon us by those who rose up to kill us. But this unity of mission and deed must once again become \u2013 as it was in Israel\u2019s first 50 years \u2013 an irreducible element of our national identity. This is how we will test ourselves. This is how our leaders will be tested. Our future depends on this.<\/p>\n
The Genesis War will be worthy of its name if the sacrifice of the fallen, the pain of the wounded, the terror of the abducted, the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of families of the soldiers and the evacuees are translated into a new beginning. It will be a social movement that changes our consciousness \u2013 we are one nation \u2013 and therefore also changes reality.<\/p>\n
The Israeli restart must be supported by a series of measures that will stabilize the covenant of fate between all of us. These include: the anchoring of democracy in a broad consensus over the rules of the game for managing disputes between brothers in future generations (a \u201cthin constitution\u201d); striving to design a renewed social contract; stabilizing the political system in a way that grants the Israeli majority its rightful place at the forefront while reducing its dependence on the ideological extremes; revitalizing the centrality and importance of Israeli public service while freeing it from mediocrity and corruption; enlisting new forces, the good sons and daughters of Israel from all its tribes, to all the avenues of national leadership.<\/p>\n
The war for the Israeli homeland will not end with the conquest of Gaza. It will only commence \u2013 from the beginning, from Genesis \u2013 when we return to everyday civilian life. Those who are today bravely risking their lives on the battlefield must bring home with them, at the end of the war, the spirit pulsating within them in Gaza. The Golani determination, the camaraderie among the tank crews, the precision of the air crews, were set in motion by the powerful and chaotic action of the morning of Simchat Torah, by the military emergency call-up order. When it expires, Israel\u2019s future will depend on whether we also issue a civilian emergency call-up for ourselves. Will we know how to translate the Israeli unity in defending the borders into Israeli \u201ctogetherness\u201d in defending what is within them \u2013 our home?<\/p>\n
Civil society\u2019s commitment to a renewed beginning of the Zionist enterprise will be carved on the tombstones of the hundreds who made the ultimate sacrifice in battle and will read: \u201cFell in the Genesis War.\u201d<\/p>\n
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