MK Gadi Eisenkot spoke at the military cemetery in Herzliya on the first anniversary of his son Gal’s falling in the battle of Jabaliya.
Gal Meir Eisenkot, the son of former war cabinet minister and chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, fell a year ago in battle in the northern Gaza Strip. A day later, it was reported that Sergeant Maor Meir Cohen, the minister's nephew, had also fallen in battle. And about a month ago, Eisenkot lost another nephew, Captain Yogev Pazy, who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip.
"Fourteen months later, there are still 100 hostages being held in the Gaza Strip. This is a war goal that has not been realized. There is immediate danger to their lives. This number would have driven Gal crazy. I know how upset he was. Whenever we met, he always spoke about the children, the women, the hostages.
"One year after Eyal and Gal were killed, and only in the past five weeks, 30 soldiers have fallen in the same Jabaliya, which has already been conquered four times. This must cause us to think about the good things that were done, but also what went wrong. For what purpose are we endangering our soldiers and how can we achieve our goals; the inconceivable gap between the immense determination of the combat forces and the echelon making the decision. The 30 soldiers killed in Jabaliya included a beloved nephew, whom Gal regarded as his younger brother, only seven hundred meters from the spot where Gal was killed,” Eizenkot added
He said, “anyone who pays a price, and many families who do not have the same opinion have paid a price – we all want the heavy price to have meaning. I believe that the significance of the heavy price is a deep soul-searching that will lead in the future to a stronger, more just, more moral and more united society. Otherwise, this is a price paid in vain, and I sincerely hope that there will be a sufficient number of leaders in the country who are worthy of this.”
“This means winning and reaching the goals of the war, not the dreams and fantasies of a minority in the Israeli society. It is to make a brave and difficult decision – and to bring the hostages back home. We must not give in to a political minority. To be worthy is to establish a state commission of inquiry and to renew the people's trust in the leadership."
"Not a committee affiliated with any party, or the coalition or opposition. Not a committee that will be ‘amicable' and reach the decisions we want. We need a real committee that will investigate the truth, that will examine that terrible day – a month back, a year back – and that will also examine the conduct during this war. This is a just war, it had a lot of achievements, but it could have been conducted differently,” believes Eizenkot.
"To be worthy is to make decisions to improve the common future of Israeli society, not to return to the madness that gripped us in the year before October 7, 2023."
He concluded, "today is also an opportunity to express our appreciation for the hugs we have received and also for the love described here that Gal had in his childhood. Those who knew him know that he had many circles of friendship that he nurtured; childhood friends, scouts, the triathlon and the army. This is a huge loss to our family, but we are a strong family. We will continue to follow in Gal’s spirit and that is never to break, to keep moving forward. He believed that there's no such thing as difficult – one must cope with the situation and take action to make things better. Rest in peace, my beloved son."