Fighting for My Children

People often ask me why I am still serving in Milluim (IDF reserves) fourteen months after the October 7 massacre.  I answer that I, together with all the thousands of other men and women in the IDF, am fighting for my children, for all our children, for the Jewish people, the Jewish state and our collective Jewish future.  I sincerely believe that the future of the Jewish people will play out in Israel, and I very much want to be part of that in these historic times.

Me with soldiers of my Palmar combat medical extraction unit on the Gaza border. Photo (c) T. Book, 2024

There has been so much sacrifice in this war.  Innocent families, old and young, partygoers and soldiers who continue to pay the ultimate price for our freedom.   Then there is the sacrifice of the living, those brave IDF troops and terror victims who are physically and emotionally damaged and need an extended period for rehabilitation and healing.  There are the tens of thousands of evacuated civilians who had to flee at a moment’s notice and had to leave their houses, schools, businesses, communities and friends and relocate for an unknown period with scant physical possessions and no clear timetable for future return.  The countless spouses and children who do not see their loved ones for hundreds of days and must function without them whilst always hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. The war is also extracting a huge financial toll on the economy, with an estimated one billion shekels a day being spent.

This clearly is both a “war without a choice” that was forced on Israel, and a war for the very survival of our Jewish State.   In my IDF combat unit basic training, almost like a mantra, we had drilled into us over and over that when the “moment of truth” comes we must be the “someone” to step forward. If everybody said “let someone else do it” nothing would happen, and we most certainly would not have a country of our own.  This call to action is the raison d’etre of the Jewish religion. The first commandment the first Jews, Abraham and Sarah, received was “Lech Lecha (you go), a cry to action!

I have been inspired by generations of Zionists whose selfless choices are the stuff of legend and an integral part of my Zionist youth movement education.  One of them, Hannah Szenesh (1923-1944), who sacrificed her life in a failed attempt to save Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary, famously penned the words:

A voice called, and I went.
I went, for a voice called.

All the serving IDF troops, men and women, religious and secular, left and right wing, Jewish and non-Jewish, have put aside all their differences and heeded the call to go and defend our hearth and home.  The dark forces of evil have made no secret of their ultimate intention: to wipe the Jewish State of the map.  I am deeply grateful to be living in a period when we Jews can defend ourselves, our honour, our homeland and our children.

One thing we have learned from our long and storied history is that when people say they want to kill Jews, believe them. For so many centuries we have been defenseless, at the mercy of our host nations. That time is over!  We are no longer the hunted, but we have the capability and opportunity to do something that we dreamed of: “To be a free people in our land” (HaTikvah). With our own hands, we can shape the course for future generations in our own land.  That is what we are fighting for.  We are fighting for our children!

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