On Tuesday morning, even the notoriously obnoxious, impatient Israeli drivers seemed to have lost their core of defiance. People commuted, walked on the streets that were threatening rain, and interacted with each other as if in a zombie-like trance.
It was a broken country that went through the motions of life as the horrendous news of death was released – 21 more beautiful young souls killed; 21 more families experiencing unbelievable grief.
As the names, locations, ages, professions, and details of the mostly reserve army soldiers killed in the Gaza building targeted by Hamas were revealed, it was a reminder that Israel is a kibbutz galuyot (ingathering of exiles) – Sergey Gontmaher, Yoav Levi, Daniel Kasau Zegeye, Yoval Lopez – not to mention a country of all its citizens – Ahmad Abu Latif.
Elkana Vizel was a rabbi; Lopez was a father of three who made aliyah from Peru; Matan Lazar was a nurse; and Nir Binyamin was planning to propose to his long-time girlfriend when the war ended.
A ripple effect of the reservists' deaths
All the dreams they had and all their hopes and aspirations died along with them in Gaza. And the ripple effect of their deaths will impact thousands of people who might not even be aware of it.
The worst one-day casualty count since the war began occurred after a brief relative lull in what had become a ghoulish daily ritual of waking up to the names of freshly slain soldiers and holding our breaths over whether we knew any of them personally.Whether that lull was due to the IDF’s touted ‘stage 3’ of lower intensity battle, which began a few weeks ago as we moved south in Gaza toward Khan Yunis, or an aberration of good luck, the hopes that Hamas’s capabilities were significantly weakening to the point that IDF casualties would trickle down were emphatically dashed.The question now is: Are we in this for the long haul? Both government and military officials said at the outset that the Gaza war could take months or a year to achieve the goal of crushing Hamas and retrieving the hostages languishing in captivity. There were illusions that the cost would be high and that the IDF would suffer considerable casualties.But now that we’re on the way to four months in, the death count among soldiers is almost double that of the number of hostages still being held; Hamas is still lethal, both in Gaza and in its ability to fire rockets at Israeli civilians; there’s no plan for ‘the day after’ to speak of; and voices in the Knesset, on the street, and in the government are questioning if the war can achieve its aims. Israel is at a crossroads.The Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas is still a raw wound that will never fully heal, and the natural conclusion that Israel cannot allow those terrorists to continue governing Gaza is still a consensus opinion. It’s a practical formula based on logic and emotion. The danger is when one of those begins to take over and dominate.Those saying that Israel can’t achieve the twin goals of eliminating Hamas and getting our family home from Gaza are growing in number, as are those who say eradicating Hamas is a pipe dream.The families’ frustration and alarm are also growing every day, and with that comes desperation. For now, the country has kept it together and is riding that fine line between logic and emotion.Will the immense tragedy that came to light on Tuesday prove to be a tipping point in the war? And if it doesn’t, how many more such days can we take until we crack? Let’s pray that we don’t have to find out.