The Israeli Spirit Awakened After October 7

In the aftermath of October 7, the Israeli spirit was jolted back to life. The surge in volunteerism, the power of mutual aid; we all felt as though we’d returned to the 1960s, a time of pioneering energy and resilience. In the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem where I was living at the time, children were handing out Israeli flags, a sight that would have once seemed unimaginable.

The entire country became a front, and the entire people, an army. The massacre awakened the nation. Many who, until recently, were calling for Netanyahu to resign, suddenly urged patience, at least until he “finished the job” in Gaza. As we now know, that didn’t happen.

Amos Harel, the military analyst for Haaretz, said in a recent panel I took part in that Israel did a good job in Lebanon, delivered a strong blow to Iran, and—though he didn’t elaborate, clearly achieved success in Syria as well. According to Harel, Gaza is the only place where we failed to complete the mission.

In my view, there are two reasons for this:

Since then, we are stuck.

We’ve returned to small-time politics: the attorney general, the Shin Bet, military conscription, religion and state. The immense energy of this nation, which had come alive, was at least in part squandered. The immense energy of the army, which was meant to decisively resolve this war, was diluted as well. As Naftali Bennett has noted, the emergency reserve call-ups (Tzav 8), which once served as a tool of decisive national response, have become routine.

This is the stark reality, beyond left and right, beyond tactics, sociology, or politics. It is the reality beyond headlines, beyond the fleeting media spin of mobilized journalists, beyond the narrow interests of politicians and judges.

For some reason, I feel that no one is truly writing this reality as it is, beyond the factions, beyond the layers, beyond the false dichotomies.