At several military funerals across Israel, bereaved families and fellow soldiers struggled through eulogies for men killed since October 7. In Kfar Saba, Lt. Col. Or Yul, the former battalion commander of Liyav Kababia, spoke from a wheelchair and said, “Only two months ago you were among the fighters who saved my life in Bint Jbeil. You were like a little brother to me.” Nearby in Herzliya, Yoav Klein, Kababia’s teammate and a standout basketball player, was laid to rest. In Haifa, Alexander Filin’s widow lost her voice from grief, and a friend read her eulogy while she stood silently beside him. Filin had immigrated alone from Ukraine. At Mount Herzl, grandfather Yehuda buried his grandson, Naveh Habsush, saying, “In what world does a grandfather have to bury his grandson, instead of the other way around?” In Karmiel Mahral, Nir Ben Ari’s family said goodbye to a man who had been planning a big trip to Thailand.
The article frames these funerals as a shattered mirror of Israeli society, reflecting both sacrifice and unbearable loss. It describes the fallen as the best of their generation, young people who answered duty not because of law, but because of upbringing, friendship and love of the country. They took on grueling, near-impossible missions, even though they should have been building lives, families and careers.
The piece quotes from Naveh Habsush’s notebooks, where he rejected the idea that a “freerider” is foolish, writing, “I am not doing anyone a favor. One needs to be a meaningful person, no matter where.” It says this spirit, a refusal to stand by, is what the current moment demands. The article warns that renewed calls for refusal, first among reservists and now among parents of regular soldiers, are dangerous, because Israel depends on a deep culture of service.
It argues that the civilian struggle must be fought through politics, not by weakening the army, and says the country cannot afford leaders who lack courage, responsibility and reverence for the stakes. Against the backdrop of the war since October 7 and a fragile ceasefire, the piece ends by urging this generation to rise to the scale of the moment.
