Last week, as it became known what had happened over the holiday in southern Israel, there was a lot of energy and motivation, all around. After the horrifying attack and massacre on our brothers and sisters in the southern communities of Israel there was strong consensus that the army should go in to Gaza and do what it needs to do to dismantle and destroy Hamas. The soldiers were highly motivated, leading to 130-150% of soldiers coming for their reserve duty. I heard one captain comment that there is a shortage of equipment, only temporarily, because normally they call up 400 soldiers for reserve duty and of that only 250-300 show up, so they prepare for the percentage in the books, but this time of 400 soldiers called for reserve duty 500 or 600 showed up, so they weren’t prepared with enough supplies (but he said by now the logistics have been sorted out). And the families, the home front, the citizens were highly motivated in what we have to do.
Nobody wants war. There is nothing as horrible as war. As a parent with three children in the army, two sons called up to the reserves and one in his regular service, the last thing I want is for them to be in danger and have to go to war. As an Israeli I know it is necessary as our homeland was, and people were, attacked in the most vicious and barbaric manner. If we do not act now, it will be worse later. Israelis have been paying the price of this stress, and too frequently worse, for more than seven decades, and as Jews for thousands of years. Nobody wants war, at least not on our side, but it seems war wants us, war is what we get, whether we want it or not.
We are a resilient people. We have survived thousands of years with a lot of hatred and evil directed at us over the generations. All we can do is trust that as a nation we will get through this. By hook or by crook.
We made a wedding this past week. With all the stress of the war and kids in the army we also had to deal with the stress of moving a wedding at the last minute to a safer, and smaller, location, and coming up with new plans and organizing the logistics for it. Interestingly enough, my son the combat soldier near the Gaza border was able to get permission to leave base to go to the wedding, while my son the Air Force soldier who is a software engineer was not able to get off, as he had to make sure there would be no technical issues with the systems he works with. Anyway, my son said that in Israel a sister’s wedding is more important than an impending ground invasion – the invasion will have to wait until after the wedding. And it did. As of this writing, the invasion still has not yet happened.
And that leads me to the point that we are a nation of family. The soldiers are our children, our cousins, our neighbors, our classmates, our uncles, aunts, parents, nephews and nieces, our co-workers and our former co-workers. Everybody is, and feels, somehow connected to each other.
When my son was first called up and told to go to a base on the Gaza border, he arranged a ride with a friend in the same unit. We drove him to the meeting point and as we stood on the shoulder of the highway waiting for his ride, any and every car driving by us on that quiet road (which is a highway but was quiet that day because of the situation) stopped and asked if everything is ok, if they can take him somewhere, if he needs a ride, what can they do to help, etc.
There has been an outpouring of love this past week and a half. The soldiers went off with energy and motivation to defend the homeland and their families – the entire nation. And the families all around the country rallied to raise money for equipment and supplies, to deliver to bases all around no matter close or far, to bring food to the soldiers who only have MREs to eat, and the like. Musicians and comedians ran down to bases all around the country to raise the spirits, or to keep them high and entertain our troops. And when the government did not respond to the brutal attack immediately, it was private citizens who got in their cars and drove hours down south the rescue their fellow Israelis. And the displaced communities have been “adopted” by Israelis all over the country as goods are sent to help them, housing is offered to those in need of some respite, care and love is offered.
After Kayin killed Hevel and G-d came looking for him, G-d asked Kayin, “Hey Kayin, have you seen Hevel around? Any idea where he is? I have been looking for him!” Kayin responded, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The Israeli people all banded together over the past 10 days. Yes, we are our brother’s keeper. We might have differences in lifestyle and outlook, in politics and perspective, but when the going gets tough, we take care of each other, we watch over each other, we rally to each other’s cause.
I am my brother’s keeper.
This is a nation worth defending.
