1. If it wasn’t sad, depressing and in tragic and fatal circumstances for the life of the people and the country, I would joke and write to you that the protest march from IDF units looks like a general rehearsal for our 75th Independence Day parade, where IDF units from the various forces pass by us, marching All in all, then to the call of “Leimin Shur” they salute the podium to honor the President of the country and the Chief of Staff and demand democracy. But this is no joke, and the situation we have reached is alarming and dangerous.
I am not surprised that the commanders and fighters of our reserve army, led by the pilots, are joining the protest with all their boldness, courage and dedication. They are the most Israelis there are, the most caring, the most donating, the most sacrificing, the most involved, the most killed, the most injured and the most scarred. They are every year in memorials in the military cemeteries. They see how the ranks of the servants crowd, and how there are few left who, with dozens of reserve days a year, endanger their jobs and livelihood, studies and family.
For years they have seen how the burden is not distributed equally, how the governments back the almost blanket exemption for the ultra-Orthodox and escape from legislation and regulation. They see the tension between the politicians and the court in this matter, and despite everything they stand up and are ready to risk their lives for the sake of the people – and they cry out. Just before it’s too late, none of them have refused so far.
They watch their former commanders, chiefs of staff and generals in the reserves, the heads of the Shin Bet and the Mossad, commissioners, university directors and economists – warning and alerting in the streets and on the bridges, and they cannot stand by. Explain that they will serve a democracy and not a dictatorship, that they will have difficulty deciding between the government’s directive and the ruling of the Supreme Court.
For years I had the great honor of having them here. I know them well, love and appreciate them very much – and none of them have refused so far. I strongly oppose refusals. Even then, in the pre-secession days, I knew there would be more headlines threatening refusals than actual refusals. Religious Zionism then stood the test in an impressive and admirable way. However, we should not compare the disengagement, which was a political and political move – controversial, however much – that was approved by the government, the Knesset and the Supreme Court, and what is happening now before our eyes. For the pilots, commanders and fighters in the reserves, “God” is the commander of the corps and the chief of staff. Not politicians. Therefore the challenge of the chief of staff and the commander of the air force is enormous. They must stand guard, conduct a continuous dialogue, bring the word of the fighters to the government and do everything in their power to stop the madness.
2. It is difficult to see how a prime minister in Israel was taken prisoner by some of his ministers, who took the keys from him and promised him that they would give him what he asked for, in exchange for the realization of their ideological ambitions.
It is hard to see a Prime Minister, who has also done great and important things here, behave in such a way – who does not call out and reprimand a senior minister who wants to erase Hvara and causes us to quarrel with half the world, who cannot fire a minister or minister who abuses and insults our Air Force pilots. It is hard to see a Prime Minister being whisked away from his country in helicopters, bypassing the mass protest. It is difficult to see the Prime Minister who puts himself and his goals before the state, before its citizens, who distances himself internationally from the Nobel Peace Prize, from a bright record in the history pages of the State of Israel and the region, in order to escape the horror of judgment. And believe me it’s hard and painful, even if I didn’t choose Netanyahu.
Israeli society, at its 75th birthday, is conducting itself these days a difficult and painful but apparently necessary action, likened to “shedding the snake” – that periodic action in which the snake sheds its skin in excruciating agony, in order to regenerate and survive. I pray that we will come out of this crisis for growth. I don’t want to think about another possibility.
Quite a few of my friends and family members are very afraid. They see the arrogance and forcefulness, the warnings of the economists, the harm to national security, and are afraid. Me too a little, I admit. We were accustomed to full democracy, not in the style of Hungary.
It is no coincidence that, unlike the Balfour protests, today’s protest is led by the younger, the high-tech, the fighters. They fill the streets and trains, the squares and bridges. This is the “Israeli spring”. These days we are fighting for the home, for our identity card, for the next generation, for the future, the hope and the dream. And don’t jump at me. This is a personal column, not a committed classical press.
3. While he informed us a long time ago that he has no ability to control his son Yair’s mouth and keyboard, being an adult and independent, Netanyahu can control the ministers of his government. Minister Shlomo Karai sent the Air Force pilots “to hell” this week, and the Prime Minister was silent or uttered something weak. Instead of calling the minister and firing him (even if Yair would be very angry), or warning him publicly – he uttered a weak statement.
Unlike Krai, the Air Force pilots were already in “Azazel”. Some of them are still there, many hundreds, under the flowers, they were in “Azazel” and even above that – in hell itself, in the infamous al-Maza prison in Damascus – under excruciating torture, and some did not last – in a prison in Cairo. Some of them are in “Hell” and it is not clear exactly where, in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea or at the mouth of the Nile. One of them in “Azazel” is unknown – Ron Arad. They were in “Azazel” or Hell when they saw their friends being dropped from burning planes and crashing to the ground. They were in “Azazel” when they separated from the woman and did not know if they would return – and some of them did not.
Who the hell are you sending, minister Shlomo Karai, and why the hell don’t you apologize and bow your head? Ilan Ramon “went to hell” and also his late son Asaf – they are already there and you are here, a member of the government. This week I thought about who you wanted to send to hell, and I thought about Roni Zuckerman, our first fighter pilot, who finished the course with honors after the High Court the government. Zuckerman is the daughter of ghetto fighters from the Western Galilee, the granddaughter of the leaders and fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Antak Zuckerman and the late Zvia Lovatkin. Roni, who crossed the lines for an attack in airspace even when she was a mother of children – did you send her and her friends to hell? You go and be a vanguard there, and be ashamed .
4. It was not by chance that American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army called themselves to Israel, who landed here unexpectedly. The Americans are very disturbed by what is happening in Israel, the legislative process and the regime change. They are worried about Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, and fear Netanyahu’s lack of power, the situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the change in the status quo on the Temple Mount. The American security establishment wants to label Minister Yoav Galant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi as “responsible adults”, and harness them to stop the predation.
Meanwhile, the Americans know how to convey a message in a way that also eats away at Israel’s security interests. In the meantime, a “soft step”: the US embassy, and like it other embassies in the NATO alliance, recently informed the Navy headquarters of a freeze “until further notice” of exercises, visits and docking of the ships of their military fleets in the port of Haifa and probably also in Eilat, where they arrive from For maintenance purposes the ships of the Seventh Fleet operating in the Gulf. The reason was of course not given in the military channel so as not to involve politics and uniforms, but in parallel channels it was definitely hinted at.
For example, in the last few days, four Spanish warships were supposed to anchor in Haifa, but in practice only two arrived, which were asked to move immediately to Turkey the next day. The docking of a Canadian battleship was canceled, and even for a naval exercise with the Americans that was held here, only half of the planned force showed up, following the vanguard that preceded it. This is a coordinated and unprecedented step by the military naval fleets, which may be a prelude to further steps that will clarify the position and concern of the US and its partners.
5. My sister-in-law Limor works at Union Motors, a Toyota importer, and she told me that for Purim all the employees received an envelope with 400 shekels in cash inside. “Go and donate to the poor, Holocaust survivors, lone soldiers, the homeless, beggars, or anyone else.” Some of them donated individually, and some of the departments organized a group donation, and I thought it would be worthwhile to share with you, and that you might adopt, or at least dedicate your thoughts on Shabbat to the life of this people and how good it is.
Shabbat Shalom.