Menahem Ami Kalmanson who went out with his late brother Elhanan and nephew Itiel to Kibbutz Be'eri on the seventh of October and together they managed to save more than a hundred elders, women, children and babies. Today, in light of the news that thirteen fighters were killed in Gaza, he writes a post in which he explains that the losses point to healthier conduct in the State of Israel.
"The state preferred to protect the soldiers and let the citizens be the front"
And so he opens: "This is what a healthy society looks like."
A short and difficult sentence on a morning like this, where every name echoes your loved ones, but this is what we must say one to another.
For years the State of Israel preferred to protect the soldiers and let the citizens be the front. The State of Israel agreed to build such and such systems that guarded the soldiers, and let the citizens run to the protected areas. The various cabinets preferred to avoid difficult decisions and let mothers lie down on the road and shield their children with their bodies. The preference was to let small children and mothers sing red alert sirens in order not to endanger our fighters from the fear of demonstrations. The state preferred to build more and more shelters, and once a year impose a forced holiday on the residents of the Gaza Strip envelope. We even came up with a cute name for it - 'round'. How many of our lives revolved around the rounds. The price was a sick society in which the children are at the forefront."
"In a healthy society, the soldier fights at the front and the citizen sits at home"
Kalmanson describes the fighting on the Seventh of October that made a change in the thinking "since we went out to fight in this terrible war, we have paid a heavy price, and for every bereaved family the price is heavy and the pain is enormous. But as a country, we have already been paying an unbearable price for 18 years, the peak of which was on 07/10. The price of a massacre in the streets of the moshavim, children who were slaughtered in front of their parents and women who were raped.
"I will never forget the sights from Be'eri and the road to it. On the evening of that Saturday at 10:30 p.m. while I was running between the houses in Be'eri, my wife Ayelet called me and in a broken voice said to me 'Menahem! In the media they are talking about 250 dead!' I answered her while looking at the bodies in the streets and houses: 'They have not yet started counting.' This is what a sick society looks like.
"Last week I met hundreds of students from Ashkelon. There has never been a quieter round for these boys and girls. In a healthy society, a soldier fights on the front and the citizen sits at home."
"In this war I have already lost a close and beloved brother and cousin"
Kalmanson sharpens the message: "On that Sabbath we woke up as a country and decided to recognize the disease. We chose to send to the front the soldiers who are able to protect themselves and their families from rape and fire. For the treatment of the disease we pay a heavy price of the best of our children, but we have no other choice. The unbearable price - we have already paid.
"Now is the time to heal, but it won't happen overnight. In this war, I have already lost two family members, Elhanan my brother and my beloved and very close cousin, Lt. Pdaya Mark, hy"d. During the mourning for Elhanan and before he entered Gaza, Pdaya sent us a letter in which he expresses this message faithfully. The role of society on such a morning is not only to grieve and cry as much as possible, but also to remember and remind each other more strongly, why our soldiers fell and why this is our hope."
Kalmanson concludes "this is what a healthy society looks like. It fights for its life and protects its children even at the heavy cost of blood. On the weekend, 13 precious and wonderful warriors fell, we must shout "1,200 a day - never again!"
