The Israeli government voted on Sunday to change the official name of the war from "Swords of Iron" to "The War of Redemption." Minister Amichai Chikli abstained from the vote, and Minister Orit Strock voted against the move.
Before the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated: "Today, I am submitting for Government approval the proposal to give the war a permanent official name: 'The War of Redemption'. At the end of two years of continuous fighting, we remember how we started. We rose up from the terrible disaster of October 7."
According to Netanyahu, "We rose up dynamically on our feet and returned an intensive war to our enemies. We removed the existential threat of the Iranian axis from us. We established the national redemption project in the Land of Israel, in our strong and flourishing state. During 'Operation Rising Lion' against Iran, I emphasized the exalted destiny rooted in our heritage: 'The people will rise up like a lion.' [Numbers 23;24] This holds true for the entire campaign: This is the War of Redemption of our people, as a direct continuation of the War of Independence."
The Prime Minister added that Israel is "also about to award medals of valor and citations to our brave soldiers and commanders. As in previous military campaigns, the decorations for the current campaign will bear the official name of the War of Redemption."
Minister Chikli published a post on social media on Saturday explaining why he believes it would be a mistake to change the name of the war. "The name doesn't fit. Redemption is a weighted word that has significance in Jewish history as a transition from a 2,000-year exile, which ended with the terrible Holocaust, to the renewal of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel. We must leave the fighters of 1948, led by Ben Gurion, with the credit they deserve."
"So what should we do? First of all, the public will decide in the coming years - War of Genesis, The Shemini Atzeret War, Simchat Torah, or Swords of Iron. The last one, in my opinion, really does miss the gravity of the events. I personally would choose the War of Genesis, since the name expresses the intensity of the difficult and long war that we went through and the deep change that it caused to the reality surrounding us," the Minister wrote.
Minister Orit Strock explained her opposition: “At this stage, when it’s a matter of victory or defeat, it’s better to wait and see the results of the war before deciding on the name. It’s possible that we’ve merely replaced one threat with another.”