"We are a nation of superheroes," says Omri Glikman. And as if to prove him right, middle age moms are getting drafted.
More from Israel at the six month "anniversary" of this war. A leading Israeli musician took a post and put it to music, giving expression to a sentiment pervading Israeli life today.
It’s impossible, at this writing, to know where the negotiations in Cairo are headed. The Israeli Hebrew news reported on Sunday that Biden has taken off the gloves, that the Israelis, Egyptians, Qataris, Americans and Hamas were all gathered in Cairo, and that Biden was demanding a deal, NOW.
The deal, as you may well have seen, was said to include the following elements:
An immediate cease fire
Return of all the hostages
Negotiated settlement with Hezbollah to avert war in the north
Normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia
Now, this would be one heck of a rabbit to pull out of a hat, and given that Hamas would not be destroyed, it will be more difficult for Bibi to continue to assert, as he did again on Sunday, that Israel “is one step away from victory.” That sounds a bit … well ….
But the Saudi part might resurrect Bibi. Israel’s caving might restore some sense of relationship with the US. Getting the hostages back would be the absolute right thing to do. And averting war in the north may not be a long term solution, but right now, in a way that you can’t pick up outside the country, Israelis are very, very tired. We know we need to go to war with Hezbollah, but I don’t know how many Israelis have the stomach for it right now. Gallant might well have been right on October 8 when he said that Israel should leave Hamas for later and take out Hezbollah first.
Too late for that now.
Six months into this war, Hamas is still firing rockets, we still don’t have the hostages back, Hezbollah has not been hurt nearly as badly as we need, the relationship with the US is in the toilet, and Israel is once again tearing itself to shreds internally.
So something has to give. Might a deal that would make Biden look like a real international statesman save Biden, save Bibi and save Israel? Maybe. The only (ahem) “small” thing is that we won’t have won the war.
Given that this is all brewing, and that Israelis could soon find themselves both relieved that the war is (temporarily?) over and deeply frustrated that we didn’t win it, it’s worth remembering, no matter how this plays out, the extraordinary heroism that Israelis of all sorts showed on October 7th and every day thereafter.
If on Sunday, six months in, we shared Daniel Weiss’ song at his parents’ destroyed home to remind us of how and why this all started, and if yesterday, we saw the video of the orphaned Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids AND the Ehud Banai song to remind ourselves of what’s been lost but also what may have been born, today we honor Israel’s being six months in by reminding ourselves of the almost indescribable devotion of Israelis to their nation and the Jewish people.
What’s with the cartoon of the woman in uniform? “Private Mom,” the article is called. It’s about a group of women, decades post the usual draft age, who dropped everything in the middle of life to join the army. We’ll share a new snippets of the long article below.
WEDNESDAY (04/10): Esty Shushan is a Haredi woman, a film maker, and the founder of an organization that seeks to get Haredi women into politics. She is clearly not your “average” Haredi woman. She is fascinating, and we will hear her on the issue of drafting Haredim.
THURSDAY (04/11): Holiday celebrations, at their best, are things that we plan for. Jerusalem, as we’ll see, has already announced much subdued celebrations for this year’s Independence Day. But long before Independence Day, we have Passover. I’ll share some thoughts about how to make this year’s Seder tied to today’s events, but filled with meaning and even optimism.
AND Since Purim is now in the rear-view mirror, Passover cannot be far away. We’ll provide more details as the holiday grows closer, but for now, a quick note that we’ll be taking most of Passover off.
The man singing in the video below is Omri Glikman. Glikman is an Israeli singer and co-founder, along with his sister, Shelly, of the band Hatikva 6, a popular Israeli reggae and pop group. The band was formed in 2003 and took its name from Omri and Shelly’s address growing up in Ramat Hasharon on Hatikva Street.
The band members are Omri Glikman, Shelly Glikman, Amit Sagi, Michael Avgil, Ilan Edri, and Barak Hener.
Many of the groups’ songs talk about the mosaic that is Israeli life and society. The newest song, ‘Superheroes’, released in February 2024, salutes the soldiers in the reserves who are fighting this war. The song was born out of a Facebook post written by Assaf Perry on his private account. He said the entire country was full of superheroes. The post went viral and received more than 10,000 shares. Glikman was moved by the post and decided to turn it into a song.
Glikman is from Ramat Hasharon, a city in the center of Israel, near Tel Aviv. He is married to Amit and they have two kids.
Some days after the October 7 attacks, Glikman wrote, “I hate these days so much, but I love this nation so much in days like these, and I ask myself: what will happen the day after? What will we look like?… If you ask me, the days of disagreement between us are over. Simply because we don't have that privilege anymore.”
We share the video as a glimpse into some of the pulse of Israeli life today.
Incidentally, the song also mentions Idan Amedi. Amedi is a singer, songwriter and actor. He’s best known for his role in “Fauda.” On January 8, Amedi was seriously injured by an explosion in Gaza while he was serving as a reservist. The entire country was incredibly moved when they heard him speak before being discharged from Sheba hospital.
He was recently asked to light a torch during the upcoming Yom Haatzmaut state ceremony, an offer which he declined, saying he prefers to stay home and remember those killed on October 7 and in the war. The theme of this year’s ceremony is Israeli heroism.
And now, back to “Private Mom.” The portions of the article from the past week’s Makor Rishon newspaper.
The yellow headline on the front cover of the Magazine Section:
“Mom goes off to basic training.”
And the white sub-header:
“The religious women who felt compelled to enlist in the IDF in the middle of their lives.”
The white sub-headline above reads as follows:
“Private Meirav explained to her patients that all their appointments would be delayed. Private Tamar left her small children with her parents, who could still manage to take care of them. Private Hadassah had to hide her surprising step from her siblings. A decades—or two, or three—late, they’re wearing uniforms and carrying weapons in order to contribute their abilities to the state, which have much to do with pulling, crawling, aiming, shooting, etc., and much more to do with their academic degrees. As the first cohort of mid-life religious women concludes its training, these new inductees speak about the astonished reactions, and hope that the criticism they’re hear won’t get in the way of there being a next cohort.
Here are the opening paragraphs of the article:
Many mouths hung wide open when Meirav Bedichi showed up at the draft office in Tel HaShomer. Bedichi, 48 year and a social worker by profession, walked the paths of the Bakum (a well-known Israeli institution, the Induction Center) wearing a large backpack. By her side was her soldier-daughter, but this time it wasn’t the parent accompanying the child, but the other way around. “She said to me, ‘mom, there’s no way you’re going to the Induction Center alone,’” Bedichi relates. “Somehow she got permission to leave her base and to accompany me. People were in shock when they saw her and she told them that her mother was getting drafted. They thought she had lost it.”
Bedichi is one of 45 women who completed the basic training program last month. For the first time in the IDF’s history, the option has been opened for women who did not get drafted after they finished 12th grade and who now want to serve in a field related to their profession. All of them left behind families who miss them and friends who are simply stunned, and set out for three weeks of basic training at Base 80, in the middle of their lives.
Bedichi, the oldest of the women, donned a uniform in the hopes of eventually serving as a mental health officer. She’s married to Asaf, who himself just did 124 days of reserve duty. One of her sons was also called up to reserves for four months, and her daughter joined the army for her regular service during the war. What causes a woman like her to put everything aside and to set out on such a demanding path? “Something in me was awakened,” she tried to explain. “Maybe in a different period it wouldn’t have happened, but somehow, since the beginning of this war, a devotion to my country and a desire to contribute swelled up. A friend of mine, out of the blue, donated a kidney. It seems that something’s happened to people in this period. When I saw an ad for the opening of this program, which is for women ages 25-50, I said, ‘that’s it, I’m going for it.’ I’m not going to be a truck driver, obviously, but as a social worker, there’s a lot I can contribute. The truth? I didn’t really think it would happen, but then they called and asked if I could show up for basic training within a couple of days. I told my husband, I told my boss, and off I went.”
And what were the reactions?
My husband said, “go for your dreams.” Our kids are pretty grown up. Two are already drafted, and the two who are at home can take care of themselves. Our neighbors helped out. Some of the time my husband was also drafted, but in recent weeks, he had to sit shiva for his father. By the way, they didn’t let me out of the army to go sit shiva for my father-in-law.”
Suddenly, back in bunk beds
[SUMMARY] The project got started when two young-ish women formed a WhatsApp group to test the waters. One of them had stopped at the gas station of a young man who had been drafted, and his friend were all there speaking about their service. “I realized the huge price they were paying,” she says, and decided to explore an option for herself.
A few days after they opened their WhatsApp group, 600 women had expressed interest.
The read headline on the left:
Meirav Bedichi: We had absolutely pouring rain. We got to the base at 10 pm, me and 44 women I’d never met. They piled us up with a ton of equipment; it was tough. You’re sleeping in a leaking barrack with 19 other girls in the room, and share showers, and at four or five in the morning you have to get up, and you have an 18-year old commander on whom you depend for everything, including permission to go to the bathroom. It’s an insane situation, but there was a also a lot of laughter and humor.”
The read headline on the right:
Hadas Elimelekh: I think that the Haredim don’t understand the army well enough. And therefore they don’t understand that the army can accommodate their religious needs. They met our needs completely. They gave us time to pray three times each day, even though by Jewish law we’re not really required to do that.
Hadas Elimelech, 27 from Holon, also comes from a Haredi home, but todays, she identifies as “traditional.” She’s studying accounting, working at an accounting firm. And this week she was assigned to the Air Force. “I was educated in Haredi institutions that don’t even support National Service,” she says. “I got my exemption from service without even thinking about it very much. I did want to contribute to the country, but it simply wasn’t accepted. I never thought about getting drafted, until this war, when I saw how everyone was doing their share. I wanted to do something more than distribute food to soldiers. And I said to myself, ‘If everyone is halting their lives and going to reserve duty, I also want to be part of that. I live here, it’s my country, and I also have what to contribute.”
The final paragraph:
What would you say to the critics who claim that what is behind your getting drafted if a feeling of missing out, or being excited about being in a uniform?”
I didn’t do this because of those kinds of considerations. If someone’s coming just because she feels she missed out on something, she’d be better off dropping it. Because she’d have ahead of her three grueling weeks at Base 80. At the end of the day, this is the army, basic training is basic training, not everything glitters. Whoever signs up for this should be sure she’d doing it for the right reasons.”
Impossible Takes Longer is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and at other booksellers.
Israelis are amazing... and I can't wait to see what the rabbanut is going to say about dati women enlisting...
There are so many amazing Israelis, both organized and individually, doing incredible things. There is an organization that I became aware of since October 7 that some of you might want to know about. It is called Brothers for Life. https://www.brothersforlife.com/ They work with injured (usually severely) IDF soldiers. Talk about your heroes! If you have a chance, I encourage you to watch this short video about just some of the work they do. (I am not connected to this organization) https://www.brothersforlife.com/videos/