Israel is facing a variety of national security challenges – from Iran through the Palestinian arena to governance and homefront issues. Since the establishment of the state, the IDF has been the country's rock that supported it through every chapter: wars and military campaigns; the settlement of the Negev and the Galilee; the immigrant camps, and the coronavirus pandemic. 

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The IDF is the people's army, but it should not be taken for granted. And as a military that is made up of Israeli society, it must also change along with it. In recent years, as reported by Israel Hayom, we have seen a continuous decline in enlistment rates; in practice, the IDF has become the army of only half the people. This is not just a demographic issue – it is the result of leadership decisions.

In the past two years, I have tried to promote a new service model that would be suitable for the future, not the past. A model that would ensure the needs of the IDF and our security, encourage contribution to the state, boost dialogue between groups of society, and increase cohesion. 

We sought to introduce a plan that would have every citizen subject to a minimum period of mandatory national service, with those who join the IDF and its fighting force getting significantly higher compensation. We had already started promoting projects and talking with nonprofits, security groups, and charity organizations to increase and set more generous financial backing schemes for soldiers, but unfortunately, elements in the outgoing government blocked the moves due to political and personal agendas. This might turn out to be a missed opportunity of historic proportions. 

In the emerging government, it seems the plan is to just kick the can down the road. But we must keep in mind the following: Israel is not faced with a choice of "one half will study Torah and the other will serve in the IDF," but with the danger that over time we will have induction centers being left with scarce recruits. Mandatory service is a matter of values, not just about performing a legal duty. Israel is a small country with enormous challenges. Breaching the contract between the state and its citizens by kicking the can down the road could create the biggest timebomb when it comes to Israel's security and socioeconomic challenges. 

A professional military comprising only career officers is not a solution. Everyone familiar with the numbers, the operational reality, and the situation in the world understands this. Turning the IDF into an army of mercenaries is a security danger and a tremendous blow to national resilience because anyone who has served – even for a short time – feels a connection to the country and its values. 

When I was chief of staff, there was a decision to cut the defense budget, and we had to let go of career officers and carry out cutbacks. There was one area where I said we could not afford to cut back: the Havat Hashomer base. I said at the time that the IDF needed not only to fight but to make sure there was someone to fight for in the first place. 

Amid new data and political measures that could further weaken the IDF and society, we should stop and ask ourselves: Why and for what reason are we forfeiting our security and social resilience? 

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Following Operation Protective Edge in 2014, as IDF chief of staff, I visited over 70 bereaved families. Some embraced me, some cried, some asked for reassurance and some offered it.  I looked them all in the eye and embraced them.

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This is the most difficult mission commanders faces, and it is also the most worthy of them all. Unfortunately, in our tormented country, it is also part of the routine for field commanders. The moral debt we owe these families is one we can never repay.

The military requires following orders, some of which were written in blood. Alongside this is the spirit of the IDF, a moral compass and a code of ethics, as well as the inherent risk of the oath to spare no effort for the protection of the homeland, and sometimes to lay down one's life for it.

By the nature of war, the IDF is not free of operational errors. Those have a price and sometimes it is a heavy one. We are committed to investigate them and learn from them.

The death of Border Police St.-Sgt. Barel Hadaria Shmueli pains us all – from the chief of staff down to the troops on the ground and, of course, the family, who have lost its son.

However, Shmueli was not murdered. He was a brave Border Police officer who was killed in the line of duty by terrorist fire while defending the residents of southern Israel.

The inquest into this incident is still ongoing, but initial conclusions have already been discerned. Shmueli's death cannot be used as a tool in petty political bickering at the IDF's expense. We have the finest military commanders but they are people, not robots, and therefore they are not infallible. But they do know how to scrutinize their actions and learn the necessary lesson.

I remember well how the Israeli Air Force carried on after the 1997 helicopter disaster [in which two IAF transport helicopters collided in mid-air over northern Israel, killing all 73 military personnel on board]. The IAF investigated the incident, reached conclusions, and came out of the tragedy stronger than ever. The following night, pilots and soldiers were again flying, deployed on a mission far from home.

We have neither the ability nor the prerogative to stop and as the new Jewish year is upon us, I have no good news. The security reality in which we live can again spell operations, military campaigns, and even war, heaven forbid. The IDF is ready for all of them, and Israeli society must also brace itself.

Our need for social resilience, solidarity, and a supportive home front is a condition for success on the battlefield and without them, there can be no triumph and no security. We owe this to our soldiers and commanders – to Israeli fathers, mothers, and children – we owe them this simple thing – backing. We are committed to them and we will always stand by their side.

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, I wish to thank those lying in the trenches on the northern border or standing guard on the maritime border with Gaza, and those monitoring the airways, fueling planes, gathering intelligence and cooking for the troops, even on the holiday, so that they are ever-ready to go to battle. I promise you that we will stand by your side.

This is also my wish for the new year – that we become one cohesive society; that we safeguard IDF soldiers and commanders, and that we know how to support them, for better or for worse.

I call on my fellow politicians; I demand of you – leave bereavement out of politics. It is greater than any dispute. Leave the IDF to its natural sphere – long our borders and on the battlefield to protect us, to ward off war, and – if we must fight one – to win.

I wish all IDF soldiers, all Israelis, and all Jews in the dia

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Jabotinsky's famous essay about the "iron wall" was ahead of its time and shaped the Israeli defense ethos – a view that remains with us even today. Jabotinsky stated, rightly, that only an iron wall would cause our enemies to want to reach compromises with us: A living people, he wrote, agrees to concessions on enormous, fateful questions like these only when they have no hope left. When not even a crack can be seen in the iron wall. Only then to radical groups whose slogan is "absolutely not" lose their charm, and the influence moves to the moderate groups.

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This is the situation with the radical ayatollah regime in Iran, against which we must erect an international iron wall, and certainly an Israeli one. But Israel's situation today is not like it was for the Yishuv in the Land of Israel in the 1920s. The "iron wall" essay, written 98 years ago, expresses a situation of existential anxiety of a small community with big dreams.

• Netanyahu: Iran is racing toward a nuclear bomb and the government is silent

Israel's military might, which I am proud to have helped shape during my term as IDF chief of staff when I constructed an option for military action against Iran, and now as defense minister who is leading the battle with the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet, is massive, stable, and solid. The iron wall Jabotinsky dreamed of has been built and exists.

It was built by the defense and security systems that operate constantly, through a strong army that is capable of defending Israel, and by the complex diplomatic battle Israel has been waging for years

The nuclear deal that was signed in Vienna in 2015 over the vocal and crude objection of the Israeli government was a failure of that diplomatic battle. The lesson to be learned from it is an important one – that an iron wall is built by deeds, not with words.

A military option is vital

Actions are first and foremost our ability to defend ourselves and disrupt our enemies' activities. A credible Israeli military option will also be of service to international powers, and is vital to ensure that an iron wall remains in place against Iran, leading to compromise. There will be no good, strong, and broad agreement without a viable military option for Israel.

Actions also mean handing over intelligence and knowledge, and finding sympathetic ears with our partners in general and our best friend, the US, in particular. The most important thing is to inculcate the approach that Iran is first and foremost a global and regional problem, and only after that a problem for Israel.

At this time, Iran continues to build up its nuclear project, which could pose an existential threat to Israel, as well as accelerating the regional arms race. Our steps as a government are clear, and led with the fact that we will act to prevent Iran from nuclearizing.

We share intelligence with our partners. We speak up clearly, and take care that there is someone who will listen by doing so in the right places, with the right people. We are forming quiet alliance with many entities who share our interests. We are operating in ways that are best kept quiet, and we are expanding and developing our operational capabilities constantly.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did much for Israel's security, but his exaggerated tactics in dealing with the US hurt our ability to prevent Iran's nuclear progress. At the end of his term in office, Iran was able to step up its capabilities.

This conduct even put bilateral support for Israel at risk in the US.

So we should ask, what are words, if not silence? Words and piles of words are no solution. The iron wall is built through actions, by quiet, Sisyphean labor by leaders, commanders, and fighters.

Israel's security is not a subject for political controversy. It should be the focus of cooperation and responsibility. I expect former Prime Minister Netanyahu to contribute his experience in this field, and not damage Israel's efforts. Indeed, we have much to learn from him.

To you, the citizens of Israel, I promise that we are doing everything possible with our partners, protecting our independence and developing our powers. We believe in our ability to prevent any existential threat.

Whoever believes in themselves has no boundaries.

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I have always served this state and I'm not going to stop now. I appeal to you, the readers – you, who have been struggling for months against a man who is holding an entire country by the throat just so he can evade trail; you – who believed I can replace him and were left hanging not once, but three times.

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I have been able to block his path three times. I have been able to prevent the creation of a radical government – a dangerous government that would grant him immunity three times. Then came the coronavirus and we were fighting for our lives, literally; fighting for our health, our livelihood, and our unity.

I am a soldier of the State of Israel. I heeded the call and joined an emergency national unity government with Netanyahu. I did that because Israel was at war and I am first and foremost its soldier.

Yes – I took a bullet for the state during the COVID war. I have paid a heavy political and personal price but we wrestled half of the government away from Netanyahu and became the gatekeepers of Israeli democracy, security, and economy.

We involved the Home Front Command in the fight against the pandemic. We made sure that the economic grants were differential so that they serve those who needed them most, and that the economy would resume activity in a balanced manner.

We protected the justice system and prevented bills to pass an override clause that would disempower the High Court of Justice, this undermining the gatekeepers. We prevented legislation that would grant Netanyahu immunity from prosecution.

We marked a series of achievements in agriculture, culture, and tourism and we were able to maintain them despite the difficulties and limitations of the past year.

Now, we are racing toward the fifth election in two years and if – heaven forbid – that were to happen, then Netanyahu will try to accomplish his scheme of becoming a "permanent temporary ruler" by firing Blue and White's ministers, the attorney general and the state attorney.

Faces with this scheme, I'm your insurance policy. I vow to push for the formation of a government led by honest people. To safeguard our home from the inside, as well as against external threats.

Only a vote for Blue and White will protect Israel because Israel comes first.

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On Memorial Day, we go back to the foundations of our existence, to the Zionism in the name of which we established the country, and for whose sake many were killed in the War of Independence and after it. When we remember the nation's first dead, we realize what would have happened if there hadn't been a Jewish state, if there hadn't been a fairly small group of pioneers who fought for our right to be here only a few years after the horrors of the Holocaust.

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4The state of Israel's existence is ensured through its strength, and through our willingness to fight. On the battlefield, in the technological and logistics divisions, on the front and the homefront, IDF soldiers and the other branches of the security apparatus protect Israel and give their blood so we can have a Jewish, democratic state. If we are not stronger than our enemies, we will not survive.

On Memorial Day, we sanctify the resilience of Israeli society, which continues to send its sons to the front. If we do not look out for one another, or cannot live with each other, we won't be strong enough to survive. When I decided to enter politics, I called the party I led "Israel Resilience." Alongside our tanks and aircraft, Memorial Day is a reminder that our internal resilience is measured in our education, our defense of democracy, our tolerance of others, and love for our homeland.

All these are equally important to Israel's security. Memorial Day in the shadow of the corona pandemic will be one of the hardest we as a nation have experienced. For the sake of Zionism, for the sake of a strong Israel, and especially for the sake of unity in society, we will use the tools at our disposal to ensure that the day takes place without ceremonies attended by an audience and without visits to gravesites.

I will be holding Zoom meetings with the families with whom I meet every year as part of an important project founded by Eliasaf Peretz, the brother of fallen soldiers Uriel and Eliraz Peretz. I'll also be reaching out to many other families. I urge all of you to find a way of fulfilling that commandment. Call them, text them, meet with them outside on balconies or in parks, in accordance with social distancing rules. Do everything possible so that the bereaved families won't be on their own.

This Memorial Day is a test for Israeli society, its strength and its ability to uphold the legacy of the fallen. This time, too, Israeli unity will win -- with your help, and if we all pitch in.

May the memory of the fallen be a blessing. 

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First and foremost, for Israeli society – for what bonds us together. After serving Israel for four decades in the military, I decided to enlist again because I felt that we were separating into tribes and subgroups and that at this time, there is no leadership in Israel.

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I respect Benjamin Netanyahu as an individual and as the prime minister and a leader. He did much for this country. We spent many hours together when I served as chief of staff, and he even extended my term for another year.

Unfortunately, something has happened to him since. He became embroiled in cases that produced mounting allegations and eventually, serious indictments. Instead of looking out for Israel, he began looking out for himself. Starting on March 17, Netanyahu will have to spend all his time dealing with legal affairs in court and in countless meetings with his lawyers. Israel needs a full-time prime minister.

In the 72 years since Israel's inception, we have achieved great things. We have wonderful human capital, but we also have much to do as we move forward. Our doctors are some of the best in the world, but the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse, and now has to deal with an epidemic. It is expected to do so with the minister in charge of it facing criminal charges.

Our teachers, principals, and educators, in particular, are wonderful and ethical individuals, but our education system is stuck decades behind. With respect to ​​religion and state – a large number of Israelis cannot marry according to their beliefs, and our youth find that they have no way of getting anywhere on the weekends and holidays without a vehicle.

We have the strongest and most high-quality military in the Middle East, but even the role of defense minister has become a means to an end in the cynical political game. The residents of southern Israel come under fire with no long-term solution in sight.

I entered politics because I believe in Israel and in the Israeli public. I know how far we can go when we shake off the political stalemate. I'm here because I care. I care about you, your parents, your children – and I have the best Knesset slate to offer.

I may sail through interviews as eloquently as Netanyahu, but I settle for the truth: I will not lie to you, I will not resort to media spins, I will not undermine the military, the judiciary, and the media, even if there are things that need to be rectified. I will not concede to an extreme government just to pass legislation that would allow the evasion of justice. I will always respect my political rivals and the democratic rules of the game.

Blue and White must be the largest party for me to be the prime minister of all Israeli citizens. We must move forward.

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