Coming together again: What D-day teaches about Israel, Iran, and unity - opinion

June 6 marks 82 years since D-Day, when the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, during World War II, launched a massive air, land, and sea attack on German-occupied France. It proved to be the beginning of the end of a war that, ultimately, lasted six years.

World War II was won by the Allies because they were together. Initially, it took someone like Winston Churchill to recognize the evil of Hitler and all he represented.

It is little short of tragic that the countries that came together to confront yesterday’s evil have not found a way of coming together to face today’s common enemy. The United States and Israel stand alone in confronting Iran, the “Nazi Germany” of today.

There can be little doubt that these countries, by their desire to remain “neutral,” have become party to the projection of a dangerous negativity toward Israel and the Jewish people.

A most disturbing question is why those who came together to confront Hitler fail to see the Iranian leader’s plan to emulate him. It was Hitler’s Germany that barbarically killed six million Jews, and today it is Iran that openly states its desire to eliminate Israel, home to the world’s largest number of Jews.

The ultimate observation is that the Jew was the whipping boy of the past and is the whipping boy of today; the only difference is who holds the whip.

And what of the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic alliance embracing Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, all of which have been attacked by Iran?

While Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has compared Iran’s proxy network and regional expansion in the Middle East to Hitler’s pre-World War II annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, neither Saudi Arabia nor the others respond militarily to Iran’s assault on their respective countries.

The coming together of Israel and the US in their fight against Iran – which began on February 28 – epitomized the meaning of togetherness. Yet does it follow that this union has the support of America’s man in the street?

Yaakov Katz’s excellent article in last week’s Magazine highlights the increasing lack of support for Israel from the US public, embracing a high proportion of its younger generation, which will be voting for a new president in just over two years. It is the public that ultimately decides the policy of a country; and, observing which way the wind is blowing in the US, it does not look good for Israel.

The increasing possibility that Israel cannot rely indefinitely on support from the US brings us to the question of how we in Israel – possibly alone – will be successful in confronting those who wish to eliminate us.

For sure, we urgently need to find a way of coming together. October 7’s attack came at a time when we were divided – we recall the demonstrations throughout the country by those (including the writer) who opposed the attempt to remove the power of the Supreme Court (and lower courts) to cancel government decisions deemed unreasonable.

As a country without a constitution or a second house, whose electoral system allows the minority to rule the majority, it is vital that the legal input remains intact until such a time when Israel will have a constitution and our electoral system changes.

Today Israel faces an even more daunting division, relating to who carries the responsibility of defending this one Jewish land.

Currently, the draft situation is becoming catastrophic. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir states that the responsibility of protecting Israel against those committed to its annihilation weighs heavily on too few. Recently, defense officials raised a red flag, stating that, by the end of the year, units could face a severe manpower shortage, with the lack of thousands of regular combat soldiers.

Zamir considers it a matter of urgency that the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector – some 66,000 of draft age (between the ages of 18 and 26) currently legally exempt from IDF service – should be conscripted immediately.

For too long, too few have borne the burden of ensuring our tomorrow. The time is long overdue for the 66,000 haredim to come together with those who are giving of themselves to the point of experiencing excessive physical and mental trauma.

Israel is confronting Iran and its proxies on many fronts. Our citizens, mostly in the North, are bombarded day and night by Hezbollah, and the cost, in terms of the death of our brave soldiers fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, is becoming more excruciating by the hour.

How painful, far too frequently, to pick up the newspaper and be confronted with yet another handsome young face whose life has been ended.

One such soldier was Capt. Maoz Israel Recanati, aged 24, a platoon commander who led his unit against Hezbollah. Recanati was killed in combat in southern Lebanon.

He was due to marry his fiancée, Rani, in the coming weeks. At his funeral Rani expressed her heartbreak at losing their planned future together and went on, movingly, to express her confidence in Maoz’s potential to being a wonderful father.

For those of us privileged to witness how the young men in our families enjoy, care, and play with their children, Rani’s words are particularly poignant. They emphasize the reality that Maoz and too many others who have fallen in battle will be deprived of the joy of fatherhood.

For too long, too few have shouldered the challenge of defending this country. The time to come together is now. This country deserves a government that recognizes the significance of shared responsibility.

To quote the late Moshe Dayan, Israel’s military leader, “Our heritage is our strength, and our unity is our power.” Am Yisrael hai.