In Israel, two crises – national and global – have intertwined. Israel is mired in a severe democratic crisis, which is also unprecedented. Elections that have failed to produce a clear winner have created a leadership crisis. The thought that only the executive branch is functioning is both chilling and terrifying. But the main priority is the personal safety of every man, woman and child. 

If I have any advice to give from my experiences in the First Gulf War, which appears vaguely similar to the situation today, it's that we first and foremost protect ourselves. It's in our hands. We are all obligated to this effort as social solidarity has taken on new meaning. I am closely following the actions of the government and the prime minister. They are doing good work. Before anything else, I am judging them on one question: Will we all be able to overcome these frightening times?

The directives being given to the public are correct. Nothing is overblown when lives are being saved, and they are. We now have examples from other countries who are proving this well. Please listen to today's national spokespeople, believe them, heed their advice.The discomfort is temporary, but worth every ounce of effort. Our lives are at stake, as are the lives of our friends and loved ones. Different days will follow. They will be better. We will breathe fresh air, we will go outside. We'll go back to the squabbling we love to do. We will scrutinize the government and its leaders. In the meantime, remember, it's in our hands.

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Information about military action is generally not shared, even among friendly nations, but the US did notify Israel, not only because of its physical proximity to the area but because that is the current protocol – we tell each other things. All in all, when it comes to the Persian Gulf and Iran, Israel and the US have begun coordinating particularly closely. According to foreign reports, the US has been receiving intelligence from Israel since the crisis began, including about the attack on oil tankers.

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If we compare Israel-US ties to a safe, it appears as if we have four the golden digits needed to open it. There are three: mutual interests, shared values, and personal ties. When these three numbers were dialed in, the US and Israel launched a new stage in their diplomatic history. Their interests have overlapped for some time, and rest on the democratic government and democratic values that exist in both countries. Only a few countries are true democracies, and Israel – despite the concerns and battles at home – is still one of them.

The mutual interests change from time to time and with each US president. Barack Obama and George W. Bush, a Democrat and a Republican, never saw Israel as a partner in any regional or international actions, and there were disputes that affected bilateral relations. Under other presidents, Israel was considered an ally. It's not automatic, and every president has his own foreign policy.

Finally, personal ties are a key element. The trust between the leaders of the two countries, the ability to talk at any given time, and the knowledge that even if one of them errs, the other will support him, is a vital asset. This is something that depends on the two figures' personalities. This time, it works.

But – and there will always be a but – there are underlying threats that could upset this ideal situation. First of all, what will we do about the Democratic Party's attitude toward Israel? The Democrats are already gearing up to be the majority in the House of Representatives. A Pew survey two weeks ago revealed the drop in Democratic support for Israel: two-thirds of respondents expressed negative opinions about Israel. The Democrats could also retake the White House, and what will happen then? The same survey confirmed what we already know – that the younger the respondents are, the less supportive they are of Israel, both among Democrats and Republicans. This is bad news indeed.

And then there is the Jewish community. The closeness between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump and therefore to the strong and influential Evangelical community is affecting how the Jewish community sees Israel, its government, and its prime minister. Issues such as egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall and non-Orthodox conversion – which led US Jewry to feel marginalized and rejected – also come into play here. The American Jewish community was and still is Israel's main source of strength in the US. Its support, then and now, is crucial and of strategic worth. Israel has to foster relations with the community and listen to what it is saying.

Israel can be thankful for the moments of grace it is enjoying, but it must never ignore the gathering storm clouds.

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To increase the number of doctors who train here, the Health Ministry changed its policy and now allows only graduates of academic institutions in OECD nations or schools accredited by the World Federation for Medical Education to take the Israeli medical boards. The ministry is also working to reduce the number of Israeli medical students abroad and wants to bring them back to Israel.

A report prepared by a team charged with increasing the number of students studying medicine in Israel (appointed by the Health Ministry and the Council for Higher Education) lists a number of immediate solutions that will increase the number of doctors training in Israel. The main one is to open a medical school at Ariel University, which would initially add 70 new doctors to the health system every year. The report was signed by Dr. Eran Halpern, director of Rabin Medical Center and chairman of the Hospital Directors Association, and Professor Shimon Marom, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion-Institute of Technology.

It would be natural to think that everyone would now pitch in to help open the new medical faculty and ensure its success, for the sake of the citizens of Israel. But instead, certain people in academia and the medical establishment are working to torpedo the new medical school. Some objected to the new medical school even before a vote on establishing it was held out of concern that it would adversely affect the existing medical schools – and therefore were in a conflict of interest from the outset – and found it difficult to welcome the news that a new faculty of medicine would be opening at Ariel.

Those who are part of the national effort to increase the number of Israelis studying medicine realize that the Ariel University medical school should open its doors this October, a move that will have an effect four years later. But irrelevant concerns, which were background noise when the country's other medical schools opened, are making it difficult to fulfill the vision in which those who hold them believe.

I personally encountered similar resistance a decade ago when, as the IDF's chief medical officer, I was working to launch the military medical school track at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Despite the fact that the shortage of physicians in the IDF was at its height and we were having a hard time attracting candidates to the program which pays for medication training directly after students finish high school in exchange for them serving a few extra years as IDF doctors, there were people who still vigorously objected to the idea. Happily, we overcame their protests and established an excellent program, which is now yielding fruit and adding a few dozen more doctors who received high-level training in Israel.

When taking the Hippocratic Oath, a doctor pledges to try to save lives, do no harm, and behave ethically. I want to believe that everyone involved in the Israeli health system understands that providing a speedy answer to the shortage of good doctors means saving lives and refraining from finding an immediate solution means harming patients. It is time to cooperate, not to splinter and obstruct, which only perpetuates the problem.

I am calling on my colleagues to put aside any consideration that does not put patients first, rethink their approach, and join the effort to help a new medical school at Ariel succeed. It will strengthen the Israeli health care system by adding more outstanding doctors who studied and trained in Israel.

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The news from down south is also discouraging. Israel has waged numerous military campaigns but now finds itself fighting a "battle between battles" in the hope of preventing a broad war. This present campaign consists of a series of actions against terrorist organizations and countries in our region to avoid an irreversible quagmire. It is not clear whether this script can work between us and Iran.

Recently, Israeli TV aired "The Leaders," a series of reports exposing how in the 1990s a series of "battle days" in the north, coupled with the customary Middle Eastern rhetoric, directly led us into war. Today we face a similar situation. On Monday morning, Israelis awoke to the news of another late-night attack in Syria. Later they learned that the prime minister was preparing to deliver a speech at 8 p.m. Considering the current atmosphere, the conclusions were obvious: Something happened; we're headed to war.

But the public learned that the speech was actually about Iran's nuclear program. The prime minister gave a wonderful performance. The content, the presentation, the dramatization; it all clicked.

The issue is those who were watching their screens, the citizens of Israel, the immediate targets of our enemies. In 1991, the Iraqis were the first to successfully penetrate Israel's air defenses on a large scale, hitting us with 39 Scud missiles. Since then, in every military confrontation we have had, the enemy has targeted the homefront. Israel is a congested, vulnerable country, and understandably is highly sensitive to civilian casualties. The prime minister spoke in English because public relations are important. The Hebrew was put on hold. But it should have been the other way around. The Israeli public needs to be the focus; it has to be prepared.

The social media networks are working in high gear, spreading the word. The government cannot wage any military campaign without the complete backing of a homefront that understands what is happening and is supportive. If the public is ignored or taken for granted, it will react accordingly. The public will determine, through its behavior, the length of the next war and the ability to withstand it. Our political and military leaders would do well to realize this.

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It is important we continue to tell ourselves that Israel is not a corrupt country. Among our leadership, however, corruption has spread, and more and more of our leaders, whether at the municipal or national level, are committing this great sin. Alongside the harsh feelings we all felt Tuesday night, when police investigators announced they had sufficient evidence to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges in two separate cases, I would also like to note a certain sense of pride: pride in this country and its institutions' ability to deal with this ugly phenomenon and generate the enterprise and moral forces necessary for its exposure despite the immense pressure and heavy attacks they face. Israel was and remains a country governed by civil laws. We must defend our law enforcement system, without which Israel would lose its vital, democratic foundation.

The attacks on these systems and the attempts to undermine their credibility in recent days are severe. One doesn't have to accept the recommendations of the police or its positions, as in any democratic state, they can be criticized. But one must take care not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The police may be right and they may be wrong. I reject the claim investigators were particularly motivated to reach an indictment in the case, and I trust the attorney general, who has the last word in this process, to make the right decision.

Netanyahu is now very busy pushing back against the police recommendations, so busy that doing so is taking up the majority of his time. He must decide on a defense strategy. His entire public life now rests with Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit.

But what of the day-to-day management of state affairs? The State of Israel, the least calm state in the world, needs a full-time leader. If this all stops in the near future, then things can go back to normal. But if the process is drawn out, Netanyahu will need to focus his attention on the case. In such circumstances, he should suspend himself from the position of prime minister, a move that while reversible, would serve to separate his legal battle from the management of the state.

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