Our war of survival
Last night, our unit’s commander spoke to a packed room of 300 combat fighters. I want to share his words:
“Now is not the time to mourn
Now is not the time to cry
We have lost our friends
We lost our brothers in arms
Some of you have lost your families
Once this war is over we will cry
Once this war is over we will mourn
Once this war is over we can analyze and deliberate over our actions
Ask ourselves if we could have done better
But not today
Today we hold our heads up high
We look forward
We plan and prepare
Because now is the time to take the fight to the enemy
Now is the time to give it our all
Now is the time to win”
The heat and energy in the room was palpable
300 pairs of eyes, mesmerized
The breathing, the sweat
Electrifying
A nonchalant semi-circle: some sitting, some lying, some crouching, some leaning
Everybody in a different pose
A sea of army green
The stuff memorialized by iconic photos
Palestinian propaganda outlets posted videos of a packed Ben Gurion Airport filled with people supposedly racing to get out of the country (from my experience it’s always that packed, sometimes even more so)
“The Jews are fleeing. Run away while you still can” read the caption in Hebrew
It was designed to demoralize Israelis while giving Palestinians the impression that we’re depopulating and “returning to our native countries”
Nothing could be further from the truth
To quote former Israeli PM Golda Meir: “Our secret weapon is that we have no other country”
Want proof that the delegitimization campaign that claims “Jews aren’t indigenous to Israel” holds no water?
Look no further than this:
Motivation is through the roof
Our guys from abroad are scrambling to get tickets *into* Israel and arriving on base in droves
I’m hearing stories of incoming planes filled to capacity
Everyone on board is young: 20s, 30s
All former IDF
One of my friends from the other team is a native of Kibbutz Nir Oz, which suffered some of the worst atrocities at the hands of Gazans
His sister is missing, presumably captured, along with 7 childhood friends
He was due to get married next week
Now he’s here alongside us, ready to bring the enemy hell
I’m getting phone calls all week from folks that weren’t called up yet
They’re pleading to get to base and to find a position – even if means peeling potatoes or cleaning the bathrooms
Other don’t ask, they just arrive and join
I want to illustrate the Jewish fighting spirit with story of one of our unit’s fallen soldiers:
Lieutenant Shiloh Cohen 24, may his memory be a blessing, a native of Sderot and commander of a team of new recruits
He was at home with his family on Shabbat morning when awoken by gunfire
Without hesitation he grabbed his brother’s M-16 rifle and headed downstairs onto the street to defend his town from the infiltrators
At a certain point, he flagged down an incoming van of Sayaret Matkal fighters racing to Kibbutz Be’eri
Still wearing civilian clothes, he jumped aboard and fought alongside them, engaging waves of between 80 – 150 heavily armed terrorists that stormed the village
Despite being severely outnumbered and outgunned, they fought to the last bullet
Like lions
Until empty cartridges
Lt. Cohen Z”L, died a heroes death protecting the Jewish people and our homeland, the State of Israel
His story is but one of dozens that I have encountered: of Israeli fighters that refused to cower and bunker in
Cowering and hiding – our grandparents told us those stories
We grew up on them and promised “Never again”
When we say “Never again” we mean it
Jewish memory runs deep
I don’t want to write the about the atrocities that Hamas committed to our people
I’m telling you though as somebody on the inside – it’s *much*, *much* worse than what the media is reporting
And it wasn’t just Hamas
Alongside the approximately 1,500+ militants that breached the fence and attacked our villages, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of Palestinian civilians from Gaza that stormed across the border
They took part in these cruelties
Some of these Palestinian civilians were adolescent or teenage boys, others older men
They weren’t uniformed fighters
And they had their way with us
Hamas is nervous that it overplayed it’s hand by releasing those ISIS-style glorification videos of their actions in Kfar Aza, Kissufim, Netiv Ha’asarah and Reim
Now, as part of their charm offensive to gain sympathy from liberals and human rights activists in the West, they’re publicly making the claim that those ordinary Gazans were solely responsible for the pogroms
It’s only partly true because in most cases Hamas fighters led and initiated them
But it’s a significant admission that shows the extent to which many Gazans support this ideology
Even if a Hamas is surgically removed, the underlying population isn’t changed
Remember that Hamas was democratically elected. In Judea & Samaria support for them runs high, and it’s only thanks to IDF cooperation that Mahmoud Abbas’ PA is still standing there
Remove Hamas, and a different, bolder terror group will arise in it’s place
A resentful populace still grieving about 1948, that has been raised to view Jews as Satan and subhuman – will not live side-by-side peacefully
We’ve been warning for years that if you brainwash an entire people from childhood with eliminationist antisemitism, it will eventually explode to the surface
Intellectuals tried to ignore this aspect of Palestinian society by arguing it away in terms of “an oppressed people fighting an occupation”
This Shabbat, we bore witness to exactly what “fighting the occupation” looks like in the minds of many Palestinians
Hamas is not interested in a two state solution
They want to replace us
Each generation has its struggles
Our grandparents survived the Holocaust and fought in the 1948 War of Independence
This generation – millennials, folks born in the 80s, 90s and 2000s – are having our moment
October 2023 is a our war of survival, our second war of independence
This isn’t an exaggeration
As we speak, Iran has ordered 15,000+ Shiite militia under it’s control to redeploy from Iraq into southern Lebanon, along our northern border fence
Hezbollah is readying it’s arsenal of nearly 200,000 precision guided missiles, aimed at our major cities
Houthis in Yemen are preparing their long range bombs for Eilat
Palestinians in Judea & Samaria, as well as some Arabs that are citizens of Israel, have taken inspiration from this week’s attacks
(I must caveat: they do not represent all Israeli Arabs, many of whom are very integrated into Israeli society and choose the path of peace)
This isn’t meant to alarm
Just illustrate the point that this isn’t an ordinary war
That we are fighting for our survival
It’s hard for the Western mind to grasp this because no Western country has been seriously threatened in the last 80 years
And most conventional wars between countries are not wars of survival
You may not understanding this feeling if you don’t live it
As Jews and as Israelis, we live it
You should know that we will win this war
I know it so deeply
It will come at a cost – it already has
But we are determined, we hold the high moral ground, we are united and we feel the warm embrace of our supporters in the free world along with the entire Jewish people
Our roots are firmly planted in the soil of this Holy Land
We will dig our boots in
Deep into the soil
And we will prevail
Because we have no other choice
Just like we had no other choice in 1948, ’56, ’67, ’73, ’82, during the first and second intifadas in the 90s and 00s, in 2006 or 2014
It’s now 2023 and once again we have no other choice but to defend ourselves
After this war is over we will mourn and we will cry
But today we hold our heads up high, with pride
We stand firm
“Because now is the time to take the fight to the enemy
Now is the time to give it our all
Now is the time to win”