With groups claiming to represent reservists holding protest after protest against the government's proposed judicial reforms, over a hundred pilots have formed a group called "Pilots Against Refusal" in order to push back against the media's portrayal of reserve officers.
Maj. Shai Kalach is a fighter pilot in the reserves and a member of the group which, he says with regret, has garnered virtually no media attention to date. "The media mostly focuses on marginal things," he told Israel National News. "Our group already has over 100 members, including senior and high-ranking officers such as [Yom Kippur War hero] Avigdor Kahalani. Our group aims to represent the general public, the vast majority of reservists who want to serve and contribute."
According to Kalach, "A significant group of pilots who called for refusal to report for duty are already regretting it, though they don't always openly admit it. This is something we know about, though the media is not portraying it."
He added that, "One thing that Avigdor Kahalani said is that the cemeteries are full of soldiers who gave their lives for the state, even though they disagreed with the government in power at the time."
In Kalach's opinion, however, the issue that needs to be urgently addressed is not refusal to report for duty. "The deputy commander of a flight squadron called me last week and said: 'You taught me that we will always remain brothers. Today I disagree with this concept of brotherhood. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are not my brothers.' This is a basic assumption that is being questioned. The divide is no longer based on opinion; it's based on emotions. We should be dealing with this as a matter of priority."
Asked to explain why he thinks this development has emerged, Kalach points to a "search for meaning. Herzl coined the concept of a 'safe haven for the Jews.' But if we think we came here to find a safe haven, then we don't understand the depth of the concept of returning to Zion. Although it is a very positive thing to be a free nation in our land and to create a sovereign state that will prevent us from being destroyed in another holocaust, ultimately that's a negative purpose. The nation of Israel has a positive purpose, as is written in the Declaration of Independence, 'According to the vision of the Prophets of Israel.'
"It's not that they [the protesters] don't have ideals," continues Kalach." They have their idealistic notion of ethics, which comes before the Torah; otherwise, they wouldn't have succeeded in completing the fighter pilot course. But the issues surrounding the Return to Zion are confusing. Our purpose as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who have returned to our land, is what needs to be clarified."
Kalach sees it as his mission to confront this matter. "For several years I have been dreaming of establishing an institution which will explain all these issues. If we do not succeed in passing on our nation's spiritual treasures, postmodernity, progressivism, and neo-Marxism will triumph -- and that's what's happening today."
Watch the full interview (in Hebrew):