Israel’s Second War of Independence

During the summer of 2024—because I could no longer bear the thought of not taking an active part in our ongoing war, and thanks also to my stubborn refusal to acknowledge my advancing years—I volunteered for the IDF reserves. For the first time in decades, I put on a uniform, donned a helmet, and picked up a gun; the uniform still fit me, more or less, while the latter two items were far heavier than I’d remembered.

My assignment was to help guard a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee near the source of the Jordan River: an area that was then under constant rocket fire from Hizballah terrorists based in neighboring Lebanon. Among my fellow reservists were women and men who’d been on duty, without a break, since the attacks of October 7, 2023. On that day they had faced the very real possibility of a Hizballah assault many times larger and deadlier than Hamas’s in Gaza—and yet their kibbutz’s emergency squad was armed with but a single automatic rifle. By the time I joined them in the following August, they still lacked the heavy weapons needed to repel any serious Hizballah infiltration.

In off-duty hours during my ensuing weeks of service, I interacted with the members of the kibbutz: extraordinary people who, despite the daily shelling, refused to leave their homes. Many were veterans, or the descendants of veterans, who’d defended the kibbutz through successive wars in the past.