As I write this, a young man in Golani, the brother of a good friend of mine, is on his way up North. I’ll call him Eidan.

I remember when Eidan’s family made Aliya. He couldn’t have been more than 6 years old turning cartwheels in his new living room. I’d see him every now and then over the years, in town, at protests, just growing up.

Eidan is the kind of young man that would make any parent proud. A platoon leader. A good Jew. An example to follow.


And Eidan’s parents don’t yet know he is on his way up North.


During my various stints In Lebanon it was dangerous and we met our Arab terrorists head on and (thank G/d) won.

But things are different now. After abandoning our safety net, our control, our intelligence, our allies, and our security, Hizbollah has been given 6 years to build up their forces, weapons, and traps. (And after hitting Haifa today, we see they made good use of our gift.)

Eidan is going into a new situation. When I served, we mostly controlled the ground and everything around us, and when we didn’t, we made sure we did fast enough.

But Eidan is going in with no safety net, with no allies, with no intelligence, against an enemy that has studied this capitulating regime and can manipulate it like nobody’s business.

Ehud Barak should be charging the line up North. Not Eidan. Eidan should be at home, while those responsible for putting us in this situation should be up front putting their lives on the line with everyone else safely far behind them.

Please G/d let Eidan come home safe.