Rivlin: 1973 war shows leaders must be asked hard questions
At state memorial service for Yom Kippur War, president urges public not to let government or army rest on its laurels
At the state memorial ceremony for fallen soldiers at Mount Herzl on Sunday, Israeli leaders urged the public to heed the lessons of the Yom Kippur War.
Forty-one years after the outbreak of war on two fronts plunged Israel into what was seen as a battle for survival and set off decades of soul-searching and hand-wringing, President Reuven Rivlin said leaders don’t need to wait for a crisis for self-examination.
“The Israeli leadership must be constantly exposed to probing questions,” Rivlin said at an official ceremony at the Mount Herzl military ceremony. “We are not obligated to wait until a time of war or an operation. There is wisdom in constant investigation, the independence of officials in oversight entities, the media, the Knesset and the alertness of the general public.
“You have an obligation to ask us, the leaders of the state, hard questions, uncomfortable questions. Don’t let the leadership submit to the restraints of ‘the concept,'” he added, referring to the mistaken belief among the Israel Defense Forces leadership before the Yom Kippur War that Syrian and Egypt would not attack after their quick defeat in 1967’s Six Day War.
Syrian and Egyptian forces caught Israel off-guard on October 10, 1973 — the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur — with a surprise attack on two fronts. After initial gains by the Arab armies, Israel was able to fight off both advances, though it lost over 2,600 people.
The cessation of hostilities was followed by a high-ranking commission to examine why Israel did not see the war coming, blaming the surprise on faulty intelligence and an over-reliance on perceptions of the Arab countries’ willingness to fight.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, also speaking at Mount Herzl, called the war “a warning bell” for his generation.
“We saw in Protective Edge that this generation is getting better at understanding the magnitude of the responsibility, as David Ben-Gurion described and predicted — ‘the secret to victory is not in weaponry, but in the human spirit,'” he said.
“It is our responsibility to lead the State of Israel to security, and to do so responsibly and judiciously, and with wisdom and intelligence,” Ya’alon added.
Rivlin, Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Israel’s chief rabbis were among those from Israel’s top brass present at the state ceremony on Mount Herzl, which began late Sunday morning.
Earlier in the day, Rivlin also helped defuse a controversy after Yad Labanim, an NGO that represents bereaved families of fallen soldiers, charged that no government officials had accepted its invitations to attend non-state ceremonies across Israel.
Rivlin said that he would attend if no other government representatives would.
Following Rivlin’s assurance, opposition leader Isaac Herzog said he would attend the Yad Labanim ceremony at the Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery in Tel Aviv, and MK Omer Bar Lev said he would attend a service in Haifa.
Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev expressed surprise that government officials were declining invitations, saying that he would attend any memorial he was invited to.
Earlier, the chairman of Yad Labanim castigated leaders for ignoring its memorial services, according to Israel Radio.
The situation sends a painful message that “the moor has done his duty, the moor can go,” Eli Ben-Shem said to Israel Radio, quoting a play by German writer Friedrich Schiller.
This was not the first controversy to arise from a Yad Labanim Yom Kippur War memorial service. In October 2011, Ben-Shem railed against ministers who missed a ceremony after many said they could not make it due to a debate in the Knesset.
