A COUNTRY OF CIVILIAN HEROES AND COWARDLY LEADERS

If the higher political echelons in Eretz Yisroel had thus far been worried about authorizing a military operation due to public backlash or placing their Cabinet portfolios at risk, it now turns out that the opposite is true. The people are actually supporting the campaign, standing behind the nation’s leadership when it fights bravely and takes the proper steps.

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

1.

It was two weeks ago at the military cemetery in Yerushalayim. The funeral of IDF Sgt. Max Steinberg, may G-d avenge his blood, was due to begin in about an hour. He was a “lone soldier” who had been killed in action three days earlier in Gaza when Hamas terrorists shelled his Golani Brigade armored personnel carrier. Three years ago, Max arrived in Eretz Yisroel for the first time in his life. While his parents never came to visit, he and his sister chose to come to the Holy Land as part of the “Discovery” Project. Max decided to stay and make aliya, thereby becoming an active partner in the fate of his people. He enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and sacrificed his life on the glorious field of battle al Kiddush Hashem for the People of Israel. 

He spent three years in Eretz Yisroel virtually alone. He had no family here and he knew no one in the country prior to his enlistment. Now, however, the military cemetery was packed, as if people were coming to honor the most recognized personality in the Jewish state. It seemed that all of Yerushalayim was there to accompany Max Hy”d en route to his final resting place. Thousands were still heading toward the cemetery, blocking the small square, the plaza underneath, the parking lot, the highway – every possible corner. Every few minutes, another train stopped at the location, and hundreds of more people got off to give honor to the lone soldier they never met. Thirty minutes before the scheduled start of the levaya there were already more than twenty thousand people in attendance, and thousands more were continuing to stream in. They all felt the need to be there, as if this was a member of their own family.

At the official starting time, the master of ceremonies approached the microphone and announced that they were waiting for thousands of people still making their way to the burial site. It turns out that the arrival of these throngs was being delayed due to huge traffic jams. The levaya eventually started about half an hour later – with more than thirty thousand people participating! In his eulogy, the mayor of Yerushalayim, Mr. Nir Barkat, turned to Max’s father and said, “We met only yesterday, and you told me that you were worried that no one would come to the funeral because you don’t know anyone in Eretz Yisroel. You thought that you would be here all alone. Look around you and see: Thirty thousand people are accompanying your son; all of them have become a part of your family.”

2.

This doesn’t occur on an average day. This took place specifically during the unique period of “Bein HaMeitzarim” – the three weeks when we commemorate the need to correct any baseless hatred existing among the Jewish People. Two thousand years after the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, we are experiencing days of incomprehensible spiritual elevation and fortitude. Am Yisroel is coming back to itself. Israeli society is coming back to itself.

In recent years we’ve endured some serious menaces to our society. There have been some heavy cultural firestorms that have polarized divergent communities, fanning the flames of hatred. During the last two years, the talk has become far more radical and extreme. We’ve gone through the social uproar over “the exclusion of women,” the exclusion of the ultra-Orthodox, the exclusion of settlers, military conscription of yeshiva students, the “price tag” policy, etc. All of these media storms merely blast more holes into the wall of Jewish solidarity. Last year’s election campaign came and went, driving a serious wedge between the various sectors. Then, with the sudden outbreak of war, we have again become one people.

Something happened this time to change the whole dialogue. It started with the kidnapping of three yeshiva high school boys, an event that united the entire nation for eighteen amazing days with a revealed love and acts of charity on a level we haven’t known before. When Operation “Protective Edge” got underway, it was clear that we could not allow this atmosphere of resilience and courage to lose power. Thus, instead of dissipating, it has merely intensified.

Consequently, we see that the People of Israel are returning to their most basic foundations, the concepts of “All Jews are responsible for one another” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Jewish People are coming back to their eternal values of pure solidarity, supporting their fellow Jews and not the enemy. Indeed, we have started to become one family again.

3.

This is perhaps what is most strange about this war. On the one hand, the people are revealing their most inner strength. We don’t recall seeing such a display for quite some time, possibly not since the Six Day War. We see the determination of the bereaved families and the comforting embrace of the entire Jewish People toward the residents of southern Eretz Yisroel and the soldiers of the IDF, alongside the acts of charity and mutual assistance that have already crossed boundaries into the war zone itself. Needless to say, this also includes the great spiritual awakening, as exemplified by the long lines at Chabad t’fillin stands on Fridays during the past month.

In contrast, however, Eretz Yisroel also has a real bootlicking government, the likes of which we haven’t come across in many years. While the fervor among the public at-large can be compared to the times of the Six Day War, the cowardice in the country’s leadership is hauntingly reminiscent of the Yom Kippur War. Not since Tishrei 5734 has there been such a failure within the defense and intelligence community as the existence of tunnels dug by Arab terrorists under yishuvim along the southern perimeter over the past decade. If we hadn’t been dragged into the current armed conflict with Hamas, no one would have known that an underground terrorist city was under development beneath Eretz Yisroel’s cities.

Over the past seven weeks the government of Israel has received all the credit from its citizens for its handling of the current conflict. Furthermore, the people are essentially prepared to give their full backing to the government, if it responds with strong leadership. If the higher political echelons in Eretz Yisroel had thus far been worried about authorizing a military operation due to public backlash or placing their Cabinet portfolios at risk, it now turns out that the opposite is true. The people are actually supporting the campaign, standing behind the nation’s leadership when it fights bravely and takes the proper steps.

As a result, it’s unclear how no one ever thought about initiating military operations to remove the threat of terrorist missile attack. The miracle occurred when Hamas started firing rockets on Ashkelon, and Israeli policymakers were subsequently compelled to send IDF troops into action. If it weren’t for the kidnapping of three yeshiva high school boys near Alon Shvut, thereby resulting in the current situation, there never would have been the miracle of discovering the Hamas tunnels.

4.

In recent weeks we visited several times with the residents of Sderot. For the past fourteen years they have been dealing with constant rocket fire upon their small town: twelve thousand missiles on a city of only twenty-five thousand residents! This means an average of seven hundred missiles fired on Sderot every month for fourteen years.

Even before Operation “Protective Edge” commenced, the city of Sderot had endured constant missile barrages, yet not a single government minister considered using military force to put a halt to these attacks. What did Mr. Shimon Peres once say? “What are they whining about? Kassamim, Shmassamim…” The balance of power in the region changed when Kassam missiles started falling in Ashkelon, a city with a population of 150,000 people and home to a power plant essential to the lives of local residents. 

For the citizens of Sderot, this represented a tragic closing of the circle. The last time that Sderot played host to “war rooms” was exactly nine years ago, during the struggle against the Gush Katif expulsion. The Yesha Council created “war rooms” in the city in an effort to bring as many young people as possible into Gush Katif and establish certain “facts on the ground” before the implementation of the disengagement orders. Anti-expulsion demonstrations were also based in Sderot, serving as the starting point for the second stage of the struggle – the well-known “Shabbos demonstration.”

One of the threats that opponents of the expulsion plan persistently echoed was that Hamas would fire rockets on Ashkelon and endanger the city’s power plant. Although this warning appeared on huge signs criticizing the Gaza disengagement, no one took it seriously. Last week, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said that as a rank-and-file MK opposing the Gush Katif evacuation, he issued such a warning from the Knesset rostrum. However, there was one thought that kept gnawing away at him: Is it possible that such concerns are simply being blown totally out of proportion? Is it logical that the terrorists would fire missiles on Ashkelon from the ruins of Alei Sinai and Dugit, threatening a city of 150,000 people? Nine years later, Mr. Edelstein says, he has to apologize to his fellow anti-expulsion opponents for even entertaining such a thought. The truth is that it’s a bit exaggerated to talk today about missiles falling in Ashkelon – because now they’re falling in Tel Aviv.

However, there still remains one unanswered question: How is it that twelve thousand missiles against Sderot during fourteen years of attrition failed to move the political leadership in Eretz Yisroel, whereas only a few rockets fired on Ashkelon and Tel Aviv were enough to shake their foundations and convince them to give orders to the Israel Defense Forces for a comprehensive military operation with the objective of destroying the enemy’s power to make war?

5.

The arousal and re-awakening among the Jewish People has been felt at every level across the Israeli political spectrum. This is something that happens once in a generation.

During the Six Day War, the Rebbe spoke about how we should take advantage of this re-awakening and work with all our strength to utilize it in the spiritual realm. This is the objective that has been placed before us now. Since we cannot fight on the physical battlefield, there is no reason to invest our time in developing hypothetical proposals on the military or diplomatic front. We must devote all our efforts now toward greater spiritual strength among the People of Israel, encouragement, raising of their morale, etc., using the opportunity to channel this tremendous power for true service of Al-mighty G-d.