As awful as the last two weeks have been since Israel attacked Iran – casualties mounted on both sides, and the people were forced to live under emergency guidelines – perhaps one silver lining was the quiet from the regular noise that usually blares in everyone’s ears.
The quiet that comes with clarity, belief in the mission, and a sense of unity that was felt both on the ground, by citizens, and in the realm of public figures, as the coalition and the opposition rallied together, put all their issues aside, and acted as a united front for a short amount of time.
The tricky part now, as the flimsy ceasefire between Israel and Iran seems to be holding and the focus can shift back to the war in Gaza and the remaining 50 hostages, is not to fall onto either side of the relative sense of calm we now find ourselves in. We must not call for a blanket, empty unity that doesn’t address the issues still plaguing and hurting Israeli society, nor fall right back into where we were right before the Iranian strikes and on the fateful day of October 7, 2023.
At the time, Israel was on the brink of a societal split surrounding the government’s aggressive judicial reform legislation push. As the war dragged on, this continued to be pushed by elected officials, even as the death toll rose and the destruction in the Gaza Strip worsened.
What is required now is clarity – for our public leaders to focus on the things that are at the core of suffering and discomfort: the remaining hostages, the war in Gaza, the damages from the war, the still-rising cost of living, settler violence – on Wednesday night, a group stormed the town of Kafr Malik near Ramallah, and by Thursday morning, three Palestinians had been killed – and so many more issues.
These types of issues are not temporary; they will not go away, and they cannot be continuously diverted from the public’s attention by a perpetual state of emergency. The goal of Israel’s leaders must be to secure a better, more whole future on this land for the next generations. Anything else is a distraction from that.
Remembering fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza
On Thursday, Ofra Keidar from Kibbutz Be’eri, who was killed on October 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists while on a walk, was buried in the kibbutz, surrounded by her family.
The slain hostages still being held in Hamas captivity deserve the same dignified farewell, and the living deserve to come home to their families and heal. Seven soldiers were killed in one incident this week, news that has sadly become all too familiar as Israel’s stated goals in Gaza become increasingly murky.
Remembering the faces behind the headlines, we cannot let the urgency of our challenges eclipse the human stories at the heart of them. Each name, each life taken in this conflict, demands not only our solemn reflection but a recalibration of our collective priorities.
As we map the next strategic moves in Gaza and ensure the fragile ceasefire with Iran holds, we must first chart a moral course that honors those who have fallen. That means embedding victim-support networks at the center of policy discussions, guaranteeing mental health services for bereaved families and soldiers alike, and preserving public memorials as living testimonies of our shared losses.
Administrative reforms and security briefings are essential, but they ring hollow if they fail to memorialize the human toll or don’t place the immediate well-being of survivors above bureaucratic expediency.
Prioritizing such measures will forge a social contract rooted in empathy, ensuring that when future generations look back, they remember a nation that faced profound trials without forsaking its compassion.
Furthermore, commanding officers and elected officials must routinely engage with civilian councils, ensuring that policy decisions resonate with the needs of communities most severely affected by the war’s aftermath.
Only by weaving remembrance into the fabric of governance can we guarantee that every child, every parent, and every neighbor who sacrificed will remain at the forefront of our national consciousness.
Extremism exists on many sides of the political spectrum and is always dangerous. Globally, over the past few years, it has gotten more drastic, as in Israel, where it has, in many aspects, been legitimized by authority figures.
It’s time to walk this back. Everyone living here deserves peace and quiet time to heal – an opportunity that can’t come until the war ends and the hostages come home.
The break that the war with Iran provided was a shot of clarity. Let’s not lose sight of what the goal is – securing the future of the next generations in a democratic state – and not fall back on old patterns; it is possible to do things differently, and the people deserve it.