1.
So now the young women of national service are apparently not good enough. After all, they are not serving as fighter pilots in the Israeli Air Force. On Friday night, Israeli television anchor Danny Kushmaro sharply criticized Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for encouraging his daughters to volunteer for national service instead of enlisting in the military. He even invoked the memory of a fallen Israeli war hero in a cynical attempt to disparage those who send their daughters to national service.
He was followed by a misinformed reporter who confidently claimed that the minister's sons "are not fighting in the war at the moment," when in fact two of his sons are serving, one of them in Gaza. Nearly any slander appears permissible when it comes to vilifying the government, even falsehoods.
2.
My own daughter is in her second year of national service. She cares for elderly women, both at a day center and in their homes. Some are Holocaust survivors; others have endured lives of hardship. Together with her fellow volunteers, she quite literally revives them. Angels without uniforms.
I once drove her to make home visits. Outside the last house, she urged me to come upstairs. A petite woman of about 90 opened the door. At the sight of my daughter, she became emotional, hugging and blessing her, gently stroking her face. "You should know," she told me, "your daughter is an angel."
More than once I have overheard my daughter speaking with the elderly women outside of working hours, chatting with them as though they were her young friends. They respond to her with enthusiasm. Tears welled up in my eyes. "Do not cast me off in my old age" becomes a living reality. It is heroic service without fanfare, embodying the profound Jewish commandments to honor the elderly and to rise before the aged.
In the name of what lofty idea are these angels being smeared?
3.
A "people's army" is not only those who carry weapons, but those who care for every segment of the people, from toddlers in kindergarten to elderly patients in hospital wards. National service volunteers are fighting on Israel's social front. Their contribution keeps entire systems from collapsing. In many places they are not merely auxiliary staff but the core of the service itself. Without their presence, essential services would close or become mechanical and devoid of compassion.
In special education schools for children with severe autism or complex disabilities, a national service volunteer is often the most stable figure in a child's day. In hospitals, doctors and nurses focus on saving lives physically, while the volunteers are responsible for quality of life. At times they accompany lonely patients in their final moments so that they will not die alone.
In boarding schools and youth centers for at-risk teens, these young women serve as big sisters. Their age allows them to build bridges with teenagers who have lost faith in adults and to restore their hope. Others serve in schools and youth movements, making an immeasurable contribution to educating the next generation. And of course, there is the extraordinary care they provide to the elderly.
This service is no less important than that of a fighter pilot or an intelligence officer. It is certainly far more significant than service behind a microphone at Army Radio. I mention this because a well-known Knesset member lashed out at Smotrich's remarks while proudly citing her own service at Army Radio. Ten years at the station cannot compare to a single year of service in the vital institutions that few are willing to enter, aside from these angels of national service.
4.
The outrage grows when one considers that these volunteers largely come from a sector of society that contributes disproportionately to combat service, including in the number of fallen soldiers. It is tragic that this even needs to be said. What would happen in Israel if national service volunteers were to abandon their posts? No military division could resolve the resulting humanitarian crisis. The religious Zionist community sends its children both to the military front and to the front lines of social compassion.
A state does not endure by bayonets alone, but through social and educational idealism that generates national resilience. While the military operates on orders and discipline, national service is rooted in voluntary commitment born of deep idealism. These are pioneers without uniforms, many of whom choose to serve for two years out of a sense of moral obligation to their people. They do so for meager pay and without the prestige associated with military service, now compounded by irresponsible defamation.
The vast majority of Israeli society, whose spirit has not been corroded by politicization, salutes you. Blessed is the people whose daughters you are.
