I would like to open this column with heartfelt condolences to the family of the late, beloved Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham. His shocking, sudden death is a tragedy for all Americans and Israelis who love peace, justice, and righteousness. Senator Graham was a beloved friend to the Jewish nation whose loss will be deeply felt and hard to get over.

This is a sad ending to a week in which we were all celebrating President Donald Trump’s awakening from the strange, self-induced dream-state in which he imagined the Iranians were now his peace partners, ready to cooperate and do what was rational. It took the blatant bombing by the IRGC of a ship passing through the Straits of Hormuz, and the outright call from the Iranian thugs to murder not only America’s President, but Israel’s Prime Minister and a host of other good people, including Marco Rubio and the late Lindsey Graham, for this administration to rethink its delusions and separate itself from what was perhaps a J.D. Vance led kumbaya scenario in which Israel was to be tossed into the campfire.

Now that we are clear about the fact that Iran is demanding the takeover of the Straits, which it never owned, never asserted ownership over in the past, and never will be allowed to own in the future, we can get back to what’s important: regime change via a massive bombing campaign.

It has not gone unnoticed here in Israel that Iran has responded to American attacks by bombing all the countries around them save for Israel. I guess that means we have achieved a certain amount of deterrence. But I’m sure Israeli pilots would just love to complete the tasks Trump cut short for no apparent reason.

In the meantime, the IDF is continuing its blessed work in achieving justice one terrorist at a time in both Gaza and Lebanon. Every day we awaken to the news of another monster hiding in Gaza pretending to be a baker or an electrician, thinking that the fact he microwaved two Israeli infants and then raped and murdered their mother is going to go unpunished. That will not happen. As you are riding in your car, sitting down to eat dinner, shopping for pita bread, a big bomb will find you. No one will stop us. So hang out your big red flag of revenge, Khamenei junior, if you still have arms and legs to do it, that is, and we might just remember to finish the job we started on you when we sent your vicious, evil father to hell.

On a personal note, I spent this morning shopping for army supplies for my 18 year-old granddaughter, who is being drafted on August 1, just two months after she graduated high school. The malls are full of young recent girl grads already in uniform.

Like many of the new recruits, my granddaughter has also volunteered for combat duty. The IDF is short 10,500 combat soldiers. Because ultra-Orthodox men refuse to do their civic and religious duty to defend the land and the people of Israel, now our young girls have to do it. I have this to say to those who insist that “learning Torah” is more important than defending the country. The time has come to stop learning Torah, and start practicing it.

As we learned in this week’s Torah portion when the Tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half the Tribe of Menashe told Moses they wanted to inherit land they were already on rather than cross the Jordan to inherit with the rest of the Tribes, Moses answered them angrily: “Will your brothers go to war and you will sit here?!” Only when they promised to cross as the vanguard to conquer the land with their fellow Israelites was Moses’ and God’s fury assuaged. If only our ultra-Orthodox friends studied the Torah alongside the Talmud.

I’m proud of my granddaughter, but honestly, I don’t think we need to send our girls to the front lines as long as there are able-bodied men who can do it. Just this week in Lebanon a female combat soldier entered a house in Lebanon with an army dog in which a Hezbollah terrorist was hiding with his weapon. He killed the poor dog. But she killed the terrorist.

There is no question that all the soldiers the IDF trains, male and female, are combat ready and totally competent. My granddaughter will go through four months of intensive military training and another six months of training in what will be her specialty. But really, yeshiva boys, get off your backsides and do your part! You are tearing the country apart with your ugly demonstrations, traffic stoppages, and political intrigues.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’d like to talk about what cheered me up this week, and it is always the same thing: the wonderful people of Israel. Take Yair Agmon co-author of the bestselling book One Day in October: Forty Heroes, Forty Stories, together Oriya Mevorach (if you haven’t read it yet, my goodness what are you waiting for?!) Agmon writes a weekly column for Makor Rishon and this week he wrote about one of his relatives, who had a difficult childhood, being the son of his father’s mistress, which caused him some anxiety in situations where his father’s other family were present. He was at a wedding this week and met a cousin he calls “Cookie” who was always lovely to him. Cookie told him the following story: He was traveling to Eilat via Mizpah Ramon, which anyone who’s been there knows includes a long stretch through barren desert far from anything. And on the road he saw a young couple standing outside their car in the burning desert sun with a flat tire. He stopped his car and asked if he could help. They shook their heads, thanking him, but telling him it was no use: “A few people tried. But one of the screws is broken on the flat tire and no one could get it off.” Unperturbed, Cookie opened his trunk and took out a large bag filled with specialized instruments, because it just so happens that Cookie owned a garage in which he changed flat tires! Two minutes later, the tire was off and then changed. The young couple, who’d be out there for hours, were ecstatic. They wanted to pay him, but he said: Just give me a hug.

A week or so later, an elaborate fruit tray showed up at his garage with a grateful note. In addition, a social media post describing how Cookie saved them, and telling people to use his garage was also published.

I thought. Israelis!

And just as I was thinking that, I read another article. This one was about a young, religious mom of 5 from Sderot (that place near Gaza that Hamas bombed for 20 years, remember?) who was now the hitmaker of tunes for kindergartners. There is in Israel a profession I never heard of called a “rhythmic” music teacher, who goes around to different pre-school programs teaching little ones how to dance and sing. Well, this Mom, Batel Tzabari, has apparently written the song which is now topping the charts on the under-five hit parade all over the country. It’s called “You’re a Hero,” and it goes like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPiwQkelEiE

You’re a hero. You managed to get through

A super hero. You’re good. You’re strong.

Sounds much better in Hebrew sung by two year-olds who accompany it with hand gestures and dance moves. How did this song get written? Batel was home in Sderot on October 7 when the sirens started. Her husband, a volunteer with Magen David Adom, was called and he left. There she was with her five little kids, and the neighbor who came over with her six little kids and they’re all down in the basement, when all of a sudden they started to hear shooting, which was a different kettle of fish entirely to what these hardened veterans of Hamas bombings were used to. The older kids were terrified. And the adults were too because they had no way of defending themselves. But, Batel remembers, the little ones were laughing and dancing and singing.

“I had a choice,” she recalls,” was I going to join the older kids or the little ones? And I decided to behave like the two year olds. And that’s how the song was born, a song meant to give strength and courage to Israel’s youngest front-line soldiers.

I love this woman! And I love Cookie! And every single little one singing this brave song. And I love my granddaughter, the future IDF combat soldier.

May God bless Israel and all its wonderful people. May all of us be worthy to be part of the Israeli people.

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