Two weeks ago, Jewish Agency Chairman Major General (Res.) Doron Almog stood just a few yards from the Syrian border fence, directly below Kibbutz Ein Zivan and facing the silent Syrian Quneitra, chatting with soldiers from Company Chetz of the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade. Most soldiers in the company are new Olim, orthodox Jews wearing kippas, guys who, after October 7, felt obligated to board a plane, get uniforms and weapons, and contribute to the war effort. Some of them landed in Israel less than a year ago.
"You know what I'd want most?" Almog asked those present without waiting for an answer. "For at least a million Jews to come here, a real ingathering of exiles. Send WhatsApp messages to friends and families, and tell them there's a country at war here and that we need as many as possible, to be big and strong. If any of you need help with Aliya issues with authorities and the Ministry of Interior – contact me, don't be shy."
M, a soldier who came to Israel from Miami, asked Almog why a decorated warrior like him chooses to deal specifically with Aliya issues. "Almost everything that happens with me is thanks to my son Eran, who was born disabled and never spoke or called me 'dad,'" Almog quickly answered. "Eran, who was completely dependent on the mercy of others, taught me what love, kindness, and Judaism are. Weak Eran, who was called 'retarded,' is the Jewish people during 2,000 years. With him, we discovered what racism and discrimination are: a child nobody wants. I once went with him to a country club in Nes Ziona, and someone shouted, 'Take him out of here.' My son taught me what it means to be weak and what tikkun olam is. Fighting in battle is important and existential, but tikkun olam is the most important thing."
Almog asked those present why they chose to come to Israel in the midst of war. M from Miami volunteered to answer, "On October 7, I was living in New York, and there were lots of demonstrations against the war and against the hostages. Every day, I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, and sometimes they hung a huge Palestinian flag there. I felt helpless, and that pushed me to enlist."
S from New York also left his 14 brothers and sisters to come to Israel. "October 7 was the final push for me. Because of it, I got the courage to leave everything behind. There you can't contribute, here you feel you have a purpose."
P from Paris told Almog that for him, enlisting was always the goal. "I came to Israel for vacations, and when I saw soldiers, I wanted to be like them. From age 12, I started nagging at home about enlisting, until at 18 I studied for a year at a yeshiva in Israel and said, 'it's time.' After October 7, my mom was really worried, but I explained to her that if I don't do it now, I'll regret it all my life."
Asher from Sydney, "I'm 20, and I thought I'd come to Israel for a year at a yeshiva and then return to university in Australia. But here I felt I belonged. After I saw antisemitic videos from the university where I was supposed to study, I said, 'there's no way I'm going back.' My two sisters also immigrated, and after that my parents, who didn't want to stay alone."
Speaking of which, Almog recalled a visit he made to Australia recently with his wife, Didi. "Because of things I did as Southern Command General, 20 years ago, they issued three arrest warrants against me in England. When we arrived in Australia, someone caught on to this and asked the Minister of Justice there not to give me a visa. Fortunately, the minister didn't respond, but there were still protests against me. We met with the Jewish community in the major cities, and protesters followed our vehicle. Since October 7, more than 40,000 Olim have arrived in Israel, with assistance from the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Aliya and Absorption, including 15,000 young people aged 18. Many enlisted, and unfortunately, some were also killed."
Who was Judah Maccabee?
D from Bnei Brak suddenly asked for permission to speak. "My family opposed my enlistment," he said. "I have brothers who protest against the army, and when I go home, I sleep at my sister's. My father doesn't like the idea, and my mother is also afraid, she doesn't think I should serve."
Almog: "If you get married, will your parents come to the wedding?" D: "Yes, even though I don't talk much with my father, because the conversation always ends with 'how bad the army is.'" Almog: "I'm sure your father loves you and is proud. Maybe not now, but one day he'll tell you that."
Later, when we parted from the soldiers, Almog explained, "Some of the stories are painful. Look at this, a child goes to fight, and maybe give his life to defend the country, and the parent sees him as a traitor to the faith."
Is this a problem that can be solved?
"Tears within the nation have existed throughout history. We must slowly persuade them, too, that for the only Jewish state, one must enlist, each in a different way. Take, for example, Judah Maccabee. Is he a yeshiva head? No, he's a warrior. Whose calls were 'Whoever is for God, to me'?" We need to hurry, because the army currently lacks manpower."
"We need to talk to them. David Ben-Gurion decided to give them exemptions: 'Torah study is their occupation.' He probably thought these would be few, maybe a few hundred, but didn't imagine the number would reach hundreds of thousands and that this would be a disaster for generations. It cannot be that an American Orthodox Jew works for a living, because he understands he lives according to US laws, and here there's a group that enjoys the benefits of government and doesn't serve. Why did I ask D if his parents would come to the wedding? Because this rift is in the deepest place."
Major E, commander of Company Chetz, gave a glimmer of optimism when he recounted that the company celebrated the last Passover together, despite all the limitations. "Every commander here understands that he has a professional and national responsibility to show that it's possible to recruit orthodox Jews," he explained. "As a secular person, I learned and understood new things, such as the differences between types of kosher certifications. We were used to sending the Chabad followers home, because of food restrictions, but this year everyone celebrated the holiday at the base in a great atmosphere. I learn from them what spirit is."
When Almog asked soldiers what was most difficult for them, besides being away from home, H from Raanana replied that the greatest difficulty actually lay in the fact that they "aren't fighting enough" on the northern border, which is currently considered calm.
Almog, the veteran warrior, immediately reassured him, "Don't worry, war doesn't run away, and it doesn't come by invitation. You can sit at an outpost, and suddenly they'll ambush you at 2:00 at night, when you're least prepared. I enlisted in 1969, two years after the Six-Day War, and I was angry because I thought the battles were over. You are a generation that unfortunately has many wars."
"This place is more precious than we are"
Almog, who next month will celebrate his 74th birthday, was born in Rishon LeZion and enlisted in the IDF in 1969. He was a company commander in Battalion 202 during the Yom Kippur War, and in the midst of the battles was informed that his younger brother, tank corps Lieutenant Eran Avrutsky, was killed in the Golan Heights, about 18 miles from where he now met with the soldiers of Company Chetz.
In Operation Entebbe, 1976, Almog led the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit. In the First Lebanon War, 1982, he commanded the spearhead force of the brigade that first reached Beirut. Among other roles, he commanded the Shaldag Unit, the Paratroopers Brigade, and the Southern Command. He admits it's a "great miracle" that he now stands in one piece and on two healthy legs.
Before joining the Jewish Agency in 2022, Almog was known for founding in the south in 2006 "ADI Negev – Nahalat Eran," a rehabilitation village for children and adults with disabilities, an idea that took shape inspired by his son, Eran, who was born with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities and passed away in 2007, at age 23. For his contribution to society and the state, Almog received the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement in 2016.
Almog, who spent 34 years in uniform, shared with the soldiers the personal and family pain he experienced in the military. "My brother Eran was a platoon commander 2 in Company D, Battalion 82 in Brigade 7. In the Yom Kippur War, he fought in the southern Golan Heights and was hit by a Syrian tank. He was thrown out, lay for a week next to his tank, begging for help, and no one came. My brother Eran was the reason for my long service, and to this day, I'm hurt that I wasn't with him. I always had the feeling I could have saved him. Until my last day, I'll live with guilt for not being beside my brother when he bled to death."
After the meeting with the soldiers, Almog suggested we conduct the interview near the memorial he built at the end of that war in memory of his brother, exactly where Eran's tank was hit. A few weeks after the Yom Kippur War, Almog took steel plates from the damaged tank, along with a mortar barrel he found among the charred armored vehicle skeletons, and brought them to Alex the welder from Moshav Ramat Magshimim. Alex created a modest memorial that stands intact to this day, not far from Tel Saki.
We sat on a rock by the memorial, in minimal shade, and Almog read a poem he wrote a few years ago in memory of his brother, "On Yom Kippur I am wrapped in a tallit of deafening silence / On Yom Kippur I lie with you next to the burning tank, wrapped in torn tanker overalls / And your screams cut through me, and your dying pleas are swallowed in the roar of war / I try to rescue you with all my might, clinging with my nails to basalt rocks, pulling you from the fire / And your voice grows weaker, growing cracked / And we are embraced together and your heart beats in my body / And our body is wrapped in a blood-soaked tallit, and around is deafening silence."
"Guilt isn't rational," he admitted after finishing the reading. "Eran was two years younger than me. I'm the eldest, the experienced fighter. He lay wounded, injured in his left leg, and could have been saved if someone had applied a tourniquet. This is a feeling I'll take with me to my last day."
Despite the 51 and a half years that have passed since?
"My brother Eran would say, 'you're right, but there's no one to justify you.' Yesterday, David Hodak called me, a prominent attorney. In a photo from the officers' course, my brother stands next to him. Eran remains a young man of 20, and Hodak is now 72. He has achieved great economic prosperity, and still tells me, 'We must influence democracy here, connect me to Jewish communities worldwide, I want to help, I want a liberal, progressive society here.'"
"You see, I'm bleeding from the Yom Kippur War, but the question is what do we do with the pain? Do we find formulas that will keep us together despite our differences – or do we want to highlight the differences and create rifts?"
We need to assure the soldiers we met a bright horizon.
"You can't promise anything. Do you know what will happen tomorrow? Everything is connected to something internal that drives, like salmon swimming upstream against the current. My family, Avrutsky, came from Ukraine in 1910 because of the pogroms there. Did someone promise them? They decided to buy land under Turkish rule. My parents were born here during the British period, and I grew up in a home where there was an understanding that this place is precious, even more than we are. That we need to be ready to give our lives to protect the only Jewish state."
That many feel is now being destroyed from within.
"The greatest danger is from within, and I hope we'll come to our senses and find what unites. That we'll understand diversity can be a promoter of hatred and division, as in the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The great danger is not from the Iranians or Hamas, but from the perception that the truth is only mine and only I am right. We are in a terrible place in terms of internal atmosphere. We must find a way to bring hearts closer."
We are closer, God forbid, to civil war.
"I'll do everything so it doesn't happen, but we must enter a period of healing and rehabilitation, so we need to act differently and calm things down. I hear terrible statements toward the hostages' families and toward kibbutz members who live near Gaza. What happened in the kibbutzim was their fault? I would expect them to embrace the hostages' families, and if they want to speak in the Knesset for 48 consecutive hours, then let them, because you don't judge a person in their grief. The children were kidnapped, raped, and murdered because the state failed."
You raise and educate about values and ideals. Does anything of them remain today?
"The reality is concerning. It's concerning that there's erosion and lashing out at state institutions, the Supreme Court, the army, and the Shin Bet. In the end, with all due respect to leadership, security comes from those willing to risk their lives. On October 7, there was a terrible failure, from the prime minister down, but who took responsibility without saying 'I am responsible'? The fighters.
"People were willing to give their lives, and showed heroism. Many other countries would have collapsed in the same situation. France in World War II, and Poland, which fell, because they didn't have a fighting spirit. We are in a terrible crisis – but it's not the only one we've gone through, and not the first time trust has collapsed."
You mean the Yom Kippur War in 1973?
"And also the First Lebanon War. I led the paratroopers then from the landing on the Awali River to Beirut. We were there for years. Friends were killed, and there were demonstrations in Jerusalem against the government. And what did we go to fight for? For a new order, like in Gaza. We thought we'd let the Christians rule and they would manage, but when we arrived, we discovered they were driving Mercedes and not fighting. They wanted us to fight for them. There aren't many countries that have successfully appointed a government in another country."
We need a radical change in Gaza for us to continue living here.
"I spent ten years of my life in Gaza. Hamas is a strong force. There's talk of implementing a civil administration that will bring civilian companies into the Strip, but what will they do? They'll take locals who will distribute bread and build houses. Who are the locals? Hamas."
"We can talk about continuing the military move. We can hit Hamas a bit more. But I was the commander of the Gaza Division, and there was always terrorism there. Today, there are more than 2 million residents in the Strip. I guarantee you that even if we kill another 200,000, there will still be 100,000 Kalashnikovs left, and we won't get to the last rifle. The question is whether we act wisely. I've long said we should have built a strong defense system, made a deal to return all the hostages, and stopped the war when the right of defense is on our side. Whenever we want, we'll enter based on intelligence. If we stay inside, we'll pay a heavy price. The main threat comes from Iran anyway."
Oath on the graves
The Almog family has known quite a few tragedies over the years. In the attack at Maxim restaurant in Haifa in October 2003, five family members were killed, Doron's uncle Zeev Almog, his wife Ruth, their son Moshe, and their grandchildren Tomer Almog and Assaf Shtayer. Two decades later, in the October 7 massacre, the family suffered another blow when Nadav Goldstein-Almog and his daughter Yam were murdered in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Chen, Nadav's wife (and daughter of Doron's cousin), was kidnapped with their three children, Agam, Gal, and Tal, and all four were released in the first hostage deal.
"When they were released from captivity, I cried," says Almog. "I was very worried they would kill them because of me. For 51 nights, I didn't sleep. I was constantly in touch with Major General (Res.) Nitzan Alon (commander of the intelligence effort in the area of prisoners and missing persons), and he used to tell me, 'Don't worry, they're fine.' I collapsed.
"Before the funeral of Yam and Nadav, I called the head of IDF Field Security and the then-IDF spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, and consulted with them about whether to eulogize, because I knew it would reach the networks. In the end, I eulogized."
At the open grave of his family members, Almog said, "We are not people of revenge and punishment. Here, in the Shefayim cemetery, next to the bleeding graves of Nadav and Yam, here I swear with you to rebuild Kfar Aza, together with all the communities near Gaza."
"What Golda did"
Next to the memorial for his brother, Almog continued, "In January, when they returned Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher, and Romi Gonen from captivity, they published the list of terrorists being released in the deal. Number 9 on the list was Sami Jardat, the terrorist who planned the attack at Maxim. I sent the news to Oren Almog, who was blinded in the attack and lost his father, Moshik, his brother, Tomer, and his grandparents. He was then 10, today he's 32. Oren wrote to me 'I saw, thanks. It's difficult, but the hostages can be returned, and the dead cannot. Let's hope they'll hold the terrorists accountable in the future, and that the released hostages will have happy lives.' I replied, 'I think exactly like you. A big hug, I love you very much.'"
As someone who fought in the Yom Kippur War, what's the situation today, in your opinion?
"Much more difficult, because the failure is greater. Then communities weren't captured. It's true that in the first 24 hours, the Syrians conquered the Golan Heights and reached the Sea of Galilee – but on October 9, we already went on the offensive, and very quickly, we reached 25 miles from Damascus. There were soldiers taken prisoner, but there weren't women who were raped. The failure of October 7 was much, much greater. Some of the components of pride are similar, including the feeling that the other side was deterred."
You didn't believe in the concept?
"I studied Gaza for ten years. In the First Lebanon War, we wanted a new order, and what? The Iranians and Hezbollah entered there. After the Oslo Accords, we met Arafat's seven brigades. One was called 'al-Quds,' the second 'al-Aqsa,' the third 'Kastel.' I asked what the names meant, and they answered, 'Until we get there, we won't stop fighting.' When I asked General Nasser Youssef why their families remained in Yemen and Iraq, he answered, 'Until you return Ashdod and Sheikh Munis to us – we won't bring them.' They said clear things, and we were somewhere else."
"I was there when the political echelon decided on joint patrols and offices, and they killed us. In 1994, IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak was with me when one of our policemen was killed by a Palestinian policeman's fire near the Erez checkpoint. Barak was the prime minister when I presented him with the investigation into the death of an officer killed in Khan Younis by a bomb planted by a Palestinian policeman. Yitzhak Rabin was the one who told Arafat 'fight Hamas' – and nothing happened."
"There's a common denominator of not understanding the Middle East. We stopped listening to what happens beyond the fence and what they talk about in mosques. Yahya Sinwar said 'destruction of the State of Israel,' and they continue to talk about it even today. Who strengthened Hamas? The IDF Chief of Staff? The Attorney General? It's a decision of the Israeli government. You can't boast and say 'the security echelons are subordinate to us' only when convenient."
This issue of taking responsibility pains you?
"It's a terrible breach, the ABC of leadership. I have quite a bit of criticism of Golda Meir, but a month and a half after the Yom Kippur War, she appointed Judge Agranat, and on April 1, 1974, the first report of the state commission of inquiry was already issued. IDF Chief of Staff Dado resigned, and Golda resigned.
"What the current government should have done, two months after October 7, was to announce 'we have failed the greatest failure of the state since its establishment, and therefore, 1 – we are appointing a state commission of inquiry, and 2 – we will soon go to elections and do everything to continue hitting Hamas and returning the hostages and achieving the objectives.' There should have been a different leadership statement."
Some have already taken the heat.
"I look at the IDF Chief of Staff who retired, Hertzi Halevi, who gave all his years, and at Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, who, despite all the failure,s brought successes and targeted eliminations. Did he betray all these years? He fought for the state. Is he free from mistakes? Of course not. There is no one who hasn't sinned. People made mistakes and said, 'I failed.'"
"Let's not forget that a leader's job isn't just to take credit for successes. And it hurts, because who brought intelligence for the targets? Who are the pilots? Those who care, and therefore there's no truth that belongs only to one side. Take Ben-Gurion. In the Declaration of Independence, he didn't want to write the word 'God,' so instead he wrote 'Rock of Israel,' which is supposed to satisfy everyone. We need to find formulas in the style of 'Rock of Israel' about how to continue living here together."
"We haven't missed the train"
Why didn't you go into politics?
"I don't want to be there. I thought I'd dedicate my life to the wounded and disabled, like my son, until I received a phone call asking me to be chairman of the Jewish Agency. I come from a connecting place, trying to fix things. You see, my son Eran had no place in a prayer quorum. Someone in his condition isn't included in the count of ten for a minyan."
"In contrast, in the synagogue we built in the 'ADI Negev - Nahalat Eran' village there can be nine people with severe disabilities, like Eran, and one more who will pray. Is this a religious ruling? No. But that's how it is with me, and I'll also give a moral rationale for it. Who are you praying for – for the strong and healthy? And you are ephemeral, who in a split second could be confined to a wheelchair. And then what? For me, the minyan is for the sick and the weak and the hostages."
And you call on people to come and immigrate to this conflicted place.
"We are in a great crisis, but we'll emerge from it, first of all, thanks to the excellent youth, and thanks to the fighting spirit and unconditional love that Jews who immigrate to Israel have, and millions who live here have. I hear the Religious Zionist people, how much they're pained by the heavy price they paid, and how much it hurts that others aren't willing to share the burden. Where does this come from? From love. Eventually, there will be a coming to senses here. When? I don't know, but I'm convinced we haven't missed the train."
