More than just a Memorial Day for the fallen, today is a day of reckoning for the entire political, military and intelligence establishment in Israel. The message seems to have been taken to heart, as the following remarkable mea culpas express. What other country in the world would you hear a Chief of Staff, a Defense Minister, and a politician, say these words?
As the commander of the Israel Defense Forces during the war, I bear responsibility for the fact that the IDF failed in its mission to protect the citizens of the State of Israel on the seventh of October. I feel its weight on my shoulders every day, and in my heart I fully understand its meaning.
Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Memorial Day, May 13, 2024
I am the commander who sent your sons and daughters to the battle from which they did not return and to the positions from which they were kidnapped. I carry with me every day the memory of the fallen, and I am responsible for answering the piercing questions that keep you awake.
In this war we are determined to complete the mission, although we understand the cost.
In Gaza, the northern border, Yehuda, Shomron and places further afield, even now on Memorial Day, IDF soldiers are fighting in the most just war that the State of Israel has ever known. It is a “no-choice” war. A war that will shape our lives for years and decades to come. It is a war that will last until we return the last of our hostages, destroy the rule of Hamas and its ability to make war, and return flourishing creativity to the State of Israel, and smiles to the faces of her citizens.
Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, Memorial Day, May 13, 2024
We will win the hard war.
We will return to Be’eri and Metula, sore and strong. We will return to quieter and better days. And with God’s help we will return to see our abductees, for whose safety we all pray, and for whom we are obliged to rescue even at very painful prices.
As the magnitude of the disaster before us, such is the magnitude of Israeli determination, something our enemies did not understand. The unusual courage that pervaded our ranks will be recorded in the annals of our nation’s history.
Victory will be achieved by removing the threat of Hamas, returning to the settlements and returning the kidnapped.
It is a day of remembrance with a very, very great sense of anguish – in the country, in the Shin Bet and once again for me personally.
Head of Shin Bet Security, Memorial Day, May 13, 2024
We all feel that the same security blanket we have always been proud of – we failed to provide to the people of Israel on October 7th. We all feel the loss, the feeling that we could have prevented it – and as the head of the organization and responsible for the organization’s activities, I feel it perhaps more than anyone.
We are investigating the role of the Shin Bet in the face of the Hamas attack on October 7th in depth. A painful and significant investigation. We will learn from this and correct what is required. This is our duty to the people of Israel and this is our duty to the fallen. Without the public’s trust in the state institutions and ours – we have no right to exist.
The Shin Bet’s part in the war is not over yet – we will not rest until we return all 128 abductees home and the four who were there before, all those among the living, and all those who are not. All of them. Because this is the real difference between us and them – we will sacrifice our lives for our citizens, while they will sacrifice the lives of their citizens for themselves.
We will reckon with everyone who had a part, directly or indirectly, with that terrible day – for the sake of the fallen, for the families and for a better future.
As I said right after the terrible massacre, I say again with bowed head and with immense pain before you sons and daughters of the bereaved families. The leadership of the state and the security system failed in the task of protecting the citizens of Israel, and I, as a member of the government, take responsibility for what has been and will be.
MK Bezalel Smotrich, Memorial Day, May 13, 2024
I remember all those who went out under my command and did not return, and there is no one to replace them or compare them to.
Commander of Division 36, General Dudu Bar Khalifa, Memorial Day, May 13, 2024
Even as we mourn, our enemies give us no respite. Two anti-tank missiles fell in the area of the north near Yiftach, lightly injuring three soldiers, and moderately injuring a fourth, who are all receiving medical care. An unmanned drone from Lebanon fell in Zarit. There were no injuries. Several explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, setting off numerous sirens in the Galilee Panhandle, the military says.
And a final word. Yesterday I wrote about a Hamas rocket that landed in a Beersheba playground. Later that day, a mother who had been there minutes earlier gave the following account: “It was Friday morning and the playground was filled with children. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a strong wind filled with dust and sand began blowing fiercely so that all the children and their mothers ran home. Ten minutes later, the rocket fell into an empty playground.” Except for those few minutes, there had been no wind at all.
And to those of you who don’t believe in miracles, I’ll tell you this. When I was in the Park Hotel, Passover 2001, some unexplainable urge pushed me to gather my family and leave the lobby to usher them upstairs, even though my elderly in-laws wanted to use the bathrooms first. “What’s your rush?” my husband said. But I insisted. “They’ll meet us upstairs,” I told him, determined, even rude.
That never happened. Three minutes after we sat down at the Seder table, a huge Hamas bomb went off in the dining room downstairs, rocking the building and killing 29 people. My in-laws, both Holocaust survivors, were safe in the bathrooms and afterwards made their way outside unharmed where we joined them.
Only if you close your eyes or practice blindness, can you be oblivious to the hand of G-d all around us.
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