Brigadier General Ofer Winter spoke on Monday at a conference at the Jabotinsky Institute on, "From 1929 to the Swords of Iron" war.
His speech dealt with the events of the infiltration of Hamas terrorists to the Gaza Envelope on October 7th (Simchat Torah), the fighting of the combat soldiers and the conduct of the command ranks.
"On that day, those who saved the country were citizens, soldiers, policemen, volunteers – people who picked up weapons and went out to limit the damage," said Winter about the morning of October 7th.
Winter's criticized the accusations against the combat soldiers: "The attempt to castigate those in the field is a serious leadership problem, this is my opinion as a commander. I would not have succeeded in the mission. Do you know how many points of infiltration there were? Sixty! Not six, sixty! The attempt to castigate them is the same as was done after the Yom Kippur War, when they attacked the military strongholds."
In addition, Winter called on the investigators to proceed in their investigations carefully and professionally: "I call on those conducting the investigations – slow down. An honest and responsible investigation is the only way to draw real conclusions."
In addition to criticizing what happened on the ground, Winter also emphasized the basic values of the State of Israel, and the historical and Jewish connection to the Land of Israel: "We are the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We were expelled from our land, and we returned home. We need to hold on to the Bible, because it is our property deed as Jews, not as religious people."
In conclusion, he spoke about his hope for peace and mentioned the complexity of the situation in the Middle East: " We strive for peace all our lives, but to survive, we have to be lions. I promise not to bite – but being a sheep in the Middle East is a serious breach of conduct."