{"id":13778,"date":"2024-02-06T13:57:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T11:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/?p=13778"},"modified":"2024-03-24T22:17:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T20:17:14","slug":"%d7%9e%d7%91%d7%97%d7%9f-%d7%94%d7%94%d7%a0%d7%94%d7%92%d7%94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/%d7%9e%d7%91%d7%97%d7%9f-%d7%94%d7%94%d7%a0%d7%94%d7%92%d7%94\/","title":{"rendered":"Do we deserve our IDF soldiers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before we call them up for further combat service, we must act to restore Israelis\u2019 trust in the state\u2019s leadership.<\/h3>\n

About half of the hostages have not yet been released; two-thirds of the territory of the Gaza Strip has been occupied, but Hamas has not yet been defeated; the evacuees of the South and the North have not returned to their homes; and the head of the Hezbollah snake has not yet been severed.<\/p>\n

Those pulling the strings in Tehran continue their plotting. How should we proceed?<\/p>\n

For us to succeed in meeting the military, social, and political challenges piled up on the national table, urgent civic action must be taken: the restoration of the Israeli society\u2019s trust in the country\u2019s leadership. As of today, only 35% of the public trusts the government (while some 75% trust the IDF commanders).<\/p>\n

This is a narrow and shaky support base that will make it difficult to take the consequential, Ben-Gurion type of decisions required at this time. The entire political system \u2013 both coalition and opposition \u2013 must come to their senses and close the trust gap through concrete action.<\/p>\n

First and most important: national decision-making on existential issues should be entrusted to those who represent the Israeli majority, in contrast to the current situation in which ideological extremists hold a practical and effective veto power over the prime minister. The proper way to realize this change is by going to general elections, but this would sabotage Israeli unity.<\/p>\n

Confidence in the leadership can be restored, even without elections, in a number of ways: a decision by the prime minister to change the composition of the coalition; a decision by coalition-party Knesset members to force this on him; a decision by opposition parties to join the coalition under conditions that would dilute the power of its extreme elements.<\/p>\n

Each of these options requires elected officials to act despite the risk of harming their own personal interests. But this is not an excessive demand: this \u2013 and much more than this \u2013 is how tens of thousands of Israelis, reservists, who are now returning to their homes, have acted.<\/p>\n

Each and every one of the reservists could have turned away and consigned their share of the national burden to the backs of others, but they chose to step up \u2013 and paid the personal price. It is not \u201conly\u201d about the courage revealed in battle when the adrenaline is flowing and their lives are actually on the line, but also about their readiness, over time, to place the common good over their personal comfort, the well-being of their family, and their own financial interests.<\/p>\n

The grueling day-to-day grind inside the cramped confines of tanks, in heavy wind-blown protective gear and wet socks, out of communication with home \u2013 wife, husband, children, parents \u2013 and fearing for their livelihood, this is the enemy of heroism. And yet, these reservists turned out to be true heroes over the 120 days that have passed since Simhat Torah.<\/p>\n

The pioneering \u201cPalmah Generation,\u201d who founded the state, worried that the hedonistic \u201cEspresso Generation\u201d of the 1960s would not know how to maintain it. The Six Day War came, and later the Yom Kippur War, and proved the resilience of the generation.<\/p>\n

The same is true now, twofold: anyone who had a doubt as to whether our young people \u2013 seekers of self-fulfillment and mindfulness, individualistic careerists, success and proud in a hi-tech country, liberals for whom the whole world is home \u2013 would anoint themselves with tank grease, hunker down in the sands of Shejaia, work their way through booby-trapped tunnels, make do with a weekly shower and battle rations, has received their answer. The \u201cTikTok generation\u201d is here \u2013 powerful, determined, ready for any national mission. Israeli society is proving its collective resilience, to itself and to its enemies.<\/p>\n

Those who return from the battlefield, including some of my children and my son-in-law, have returned home more inward-looking and serious than they were before, and with a uniform, heart-warming report: \u201cThe army is perfectly fine.\u201d \u201cThe importance of the mission is clear to everyone.\u201d \u201cWe left our ideological differences at home.\u201d \u201cWe understand that we will be redeployed to continue the fighting, and we will all show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>
Netanyahu, Gallant, and Gantz are in a press conference. Photo by TPS<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is how all our fighters are. Do we \u2013 Israeli society, and especially the leadership \u2013 deserve them?<\/p>\n

Before we call them up for further combat service, we must act to restore Israelis\u2019 trust in the state\u2019s leadership. There must be a change in the current coalition, and the burden falls to the serving Knesset members \u2013 from the coalition and the opposition.<\/p>\n

Each and every one of them must rise to the occasion and act in the national interest, in accordance with their oath: \u201cto faithfully fulfill my mission in the Knesset.\u201d The spirit of the IDF, in Gaza and on the Lebanon border, should also fill the Knesset in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Published by Jerusalem Post<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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