A time for introspection, and a time for action

Taking part in a national United Jewish Communities fact-finding visit to Israel with particular emphasis on touring the devastated North, I witnessed an Israel going through the most traumatic self-examination since the Yom Kippur War. Despite the Israel Defense Forces’ destruction of 25 percent of Hizbullah’s fighting force and all of its long-range and most of its medium-range missiles, Israel was perceived as losing, particularly in the political realm, because Hizbullah merely survived. Israelis do not have great faith in the ability of the United Nations or international forces to provide security for Israel’s northern border. The future will tell if they are correct.

This self-examination directly related to the heightened expectations, raised by the prime minister, defense minister, and IDF chief of staff, about what the war would accomplish and the disappointing resulting “scorecard.” Accordingly, there is intensive questioning being undertaken by all elements of Israeli society in terms of how the war was waged and why Hizbullah was allowed to build up its forces over the past six years. Israel won the second Intifada, but this victory was, many Israelis believe, at the expense of being properly prepared for a different kind of war that needed to be fought against Hizbullah. The IDF paid dearly for cuts in defense budgets, particularly in training against this guerrilla army and properly defending against its antitank missile capabilities.

Regarding the war, a commander with whom we met felt that the IDF was forced to wage this war with one “hand tied behind its back” in order to prevent civilian casualties. “First, we leafleted the villages, and then we conducted house-to-house operations. The only thing we didn’t do was hoist a banner proclaiming that we were there,” he frustratingly concluded. Yet civilians, either willingly or not, were part of the “fabric” of the Hizbullah infrastructure of terrorism throughout southern Lebanon, with each village serving as a platform for sophisticated tunnels and storing weapons and food supplies for weeks at a time.

This was an unprecedented war in that 4,000 Katyusha rockets hit Israeli towns and settlements, rivaling the number of Nazi missiles launched against Britain during all of World War II. Dozens of civilians were killed, hundreds were injured, thousands of buildings were hit, and tens of thousands of businesses were disrupted or destroyed. But the falling missiles also exposed the exploding social gap in Israel between the haves and have-nots. The haves were able to leave the North and move down to the central or southern sections of the country. The have-nots, by the tens of thousands, had to weather the war living in shelters for more than 30 days — shelters not geared for long-term use.

The impact of this war on the young people of the North is incalculable. They will be undergoing significant postwar trauma, requiring interventions by mental health professionals. Most disturbing was the breakdown on the part of home-front municipal and federal governmental services to deal effectively with the crisis. Most policy-makers and bureaucrats felt the war would be brief. When they were proven wrong, the responses in many quarters were chaotic or even nonexistent.

Another casualty of the war, particularly as viewed by returning reservists, was the prospect of “peace in their time.” The older generation had the hope that at least their children might have peace. But this hope is becoming increasingly remote.

I believe that this sense of introspection and self-examination will allow Israel to improve and be much more effective during the next round of hostilities. This is Israeli democracy at its best, where political and military leaders are reminded daily that they are accountable to the people.

While Israel is undergoing this catharsis, we should be heartened by the enormous social capital that Israel galvanized during this war. Tens of thousands from the North were hosted by families, communities, and municipalities during the crisis. Thousands of volunteers stepped up to assist in cleaning up the North, delivering food packages to those in shelters, and manning hot lines to supplement municipal efforts. The city of Haifa and others showed how government, working together with nongovernmental organizations, could react in a proactive way to deal with the crisis.

Our overseas partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel and Joint Distribution Committee, led efforts to remove 50,000 youngsters to camps and the elderly and handicapped to safe harbor. Mayors from our partnership communities, such as Rishon Letzion and Ra’anana, are among 15 mayors who have been asked by the prime minister to mentor mayors of communities up in the North so that they can provide expertise and mechanisms to better respond to future threats and challenges.

The Israeli government has committed billions of shekels to help reconstruct the North. But its resources are limited by the enormous social costs of the war and future military investments required. The State of Israel is asking the Diaspora to provide at least $500 million in extraordinary funding to supplement efforts in social services, education, and economic restoration.

Despite the tumbled world of politics and public debate, Israel is like an extended family. This is most manifested by the Herculean efforts to rehabilitate injured Israeli soldiers. We visited several families of injured soldiers. Their spirits are high because they know how much they are respected by Israeli society. They were visited by a parade of friends, family, members of their units, and Jews from the Diaspora. They recognize the extraordinary efforts the IDF takes to save them, even sometimes at the expense of other IDF soldiers. This contrasts with Hizbullah, whose followers worship death. Israel is in the front lines of civilization against Islamo-fascism, and these young soldiers know that there is no alternative and that she is not alone.

I will address what we in the Diaspora can do to help Israel in these difficult times in my next op-ed.