By Omer Barak: writer, screenwriter, and lecturer
During the Second Intifada I was a military correspondent, and what is today called an extreme leftist. Israel is committing genocide, the Palestinians are the victims, Meretz youth to power - that sort of thing.
Fate would have it that three months after I enlisted, the Second Intifada broke out, and I was sent as a military correspondent straight into the line of fire.
And I mean straight: the line of fire passed right over my head.
That is how my rifleman 03 and I ended up in a great many places we should never have been, and saw a great many things we should never have seen.
That is also how my political views changed.
Because before every operation I saw good commanders standing and ordering that no harm be done to the innocent.
Because during every operation I saw soldiers risking their lives and endangering themselves so as not to harm the innocent.
With my own eyes I saw children throwing stones and firebombs, and adults doing the same and then hiding behind the children as if they were nothing more than human shields — and soldiers biting their lips and restraining themselves.
I saw soldiers preserving their humanity even at eight-eight-eight-eight at the checkpoint.
I saw soldiers searching for body parts of their friends all over Gaza and still reminding themselves that the difference between us and them is that we are human beings.
I saw soldiers dying and giving their lives in the name of the values of the IDF, because it was possible, and you know what? Maybe it was even necessary, to blow up the house in which terrorists were hiding, but on the second floor there was a family that had nothing to do with the incident.
So they didn’t.
Because we truly and sincerely are the most moral army in the world.
Since October 7 I have met hundreds, perhaps even more, of reservists in lectures and meetings. I have read them. I have listened to them. I have hurt with them.
I can promise you one thing: none of them is committing genocide.
Not even close.
And anyone who thinks otherwise, anyone who believes this vicious blood libel, has not the slightest idea of the reality in Gaza. Not even the faintest edge of an idea.
Do bad things also happen? Of course. Anyone who has never been in a war zone will never understand the pressure.
What percentage of the fighting are they? 0.1 percent. Maybe.
A year and a half ago, in the framework of some article, I was offered the chance to enter Gaza with IDF forces, and I could not. The previous round there was enough for me. I take my hat off to the people whose mental strength allows them to do it, both as soldiers and as journalists — and let me tell you, in war the boundaries between the roles become very blurred.
I know there is a film circulating.
The purpose of that film is not “criticism,” but wholesale defamation and the spreading of baseless lies.
How do I know if I haven’t seen it? Ah, that is very simple. Because I have seen our army in action. Up close, and for many, many years.
And I know this because in my youth and stupidity I was one of those people who divide the world into black and white and understand nothing about the Middle East or about war.
The only ones who committed genocide on 7/10 were Hamas. Any attempt to distort history is, well, a distortion of history.
And even if in Venice they stood and applauded for 25 minutes, the truth will win in the end.
We will win in the end.
Because we have the best soldiers in the world.
Because we have the most moral soldiers in the world.
And because we have an army made up of excellent and upright people who labor day and night to protect us, and the only thing they deserve is applause.
And I suggest that everyone whose heart is in the right place do exactly that.
We have an army to be proud of.
And that is all I wanted to say.
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