Our sons and Our Daughters

OUR SONS AND OUR DAUGHTERS

By Asher Keren

When I was a youth growing up in the States, my synagogue’s Rabbi heard that I was about to take my first trip to Israel. He told me that he too would be there for a visit and that if I wanted, he would take me to see his good friend, Teddy Kolek, then mayor of Jerusalem. I told him thanks, but no thanks. It was nothing against my Rabbi or against Teddy Kolek; actually, I had never heard of Teddy Kolek until my Rabbi told me who he was, but still something inside told me that the Israelis in the fields, at the bus stops and in the cities were the ones that I wanted to seek out. I had grown up meeting U.S. senators, NASA astronauts and other public personalities but somehow always found more authenticity in those that had not achieved some level of stardom. I sensed that meeting Kolek, while perhaps providing some kind of important future connection, would be much less informative and essential than meeting Menachem from the kibbutz or Moshe from Kiryat Malachi.

When I made aliyah a few years later I had the same feeling, although I at one time had worked as a ghost writer for a Minister that had his office near that of the Prime Minister. During that stint, I met many a public personality, even once presiding over a meeting of foreign VIPs and Israeli power brokers during an event at the President’s home. Today, some of those that I met hold key positions in Israeli society but I think little of them or of my conversations with them. Rather, I hold dearer to my heart every Israeli I have met at the university, the army, regular day in and day out work, on the bus or in the local market, or even at the ‘makolet’.

The reason for writing this is that our dear, dear country will in the next few days begin a robust and exceedingly important debate as to how our leaders performed during this current war, who was at fault and who should be replaced. It is therefore vastly important to take a few minutes to completely forget about them before this debate breaks out countrywide into every street or home conversation. It is proper and fitting to remember first and foremost those that have given their lives for our leaders’ mistakes and false assumptions; the little people that are indeed an Israeli asset almost infinitely more profound and worthy of praise than any of our current leaders.

Our soldiers were thrown into battle without proper training, equipment and sometimes without food and water. The army’s top brass and the nation’s political echelon wasted at least two years of money and preparation on evicting Jews from their homes. As such, the miracles of what our soldiers achieved during this war are even greater than seems apparent. Hizbollah was badly damaged under the most difficult of military contexts and no thanks to our military or political leaders. Of course, victory was not conclusive and still seems elusive to some degree, but the mere fact that our soldiers dealt such a harsh blow to the enemy under the most trying of circumstances is testimony to the greatness of the Israelis, all Israelis, who put their shoulder to the gun and gave it their all for their homeland.

Our soldiers went into enemy territory while the enemy sat below them in bunkers that they constructed for years for just such a war setting, without any intervention from our leaders. This, it must be said, is a war crime that our leaders are fully guilty of and this must be stated with no reluctance. One soldier that spoke to a friend of mine described the sheer horror of walking through fields without knowing when or from where the enemy would suddenly appear from his underground hideout. Yet he and his comrades continued on, often without necessary combat gear. Thousands of protective jackets and other essential accouterments were purchased by the soldiers themselves at great costs and often after already having gone through battle, as our army’s leaders had wasted their budget on training soldiers to evict Jews a year earlier. The battle gear needed for evicting Jews is, of course, far cheaper than that needed to fend off terrorists deep in enemy territory.

Not withstanding our national leadership crisis, we can take heart and inspiration from our soldiers, ones like Yossi Abitbul, a young Torah scholar who chose to serve before continuing on with his studies. He had the option of not enlisting in order to continue his studies, but he desired to serve in the Golani brigade, where he met his death on Lebanese soil. Ro’i Klein was buried on his thirty first birthday, after having jumped on a hand grenade to protect his fellow soldiers. Ro’i was a gifted musician, philosopher and a devoted husband and father. Nineteen year old Tomer Amar was released from active duty for 28 days after injuring his foot, but insisted on joining his brigade when he heard that eight of his friends were killed in the battle of Bint Jabel. Despite the fact that he could have taken his leave of absence, he rejoined his squad along with his hampering injury only to find his death at Shaqif a Nimal. These three Jewish heroes represent our finest and bravest. They are representative of a people that knows self sacrifice and kinship. They and their many fallen comrades have bestowed upon us a gift of life. Not only them but indeed all those that donned their uniforms instead of their business suits for our collective sake are deserving of our most sincere gratitude. We must somehow find the way to help their families get through the tragic loss.

I never did meet Teddy Kollek, but I did meet 27 year old B’naya Rein, who fell yesterday in Lebanon. May his memory and the memory of all our soldiers be a blessing to us all and a reminder to our leaders that they are not Israel’s best. In order for them to meet our best, to lead such a fine and worthy nation of selfless fighters, they should start shopping again at the local market or taking buses again from Jerusalem to Ashdod, as they did in their youth, before they sold their soul to politics. They should remember from ground level our people that go about their daily lives willing to don a uniform and rifle at their leaders’ call. It is critical to know what our people is really made of and what a privilege and responsibility it is to create the destiny of our sons and our daughters.