"When the Ark was to set out, Moshe would say: Advance, O Lord! May Your enemies be scattered, And may Your foes flee before You!" (Bamidbar 10: 35)
My wife's friend had a meeting with one of Israel's top defense officials (don't ask, she has a cool job, which requires a doctorate). In this meeting he described the current state of the Israeli army, which in his opinion, was extremely poor (he is in the perfect position to know … though as a note, there are those she met with who disagree). He explained to her that if/when Hezbollah decides to open up in the north, it will basically make the recent clashes in Gaza look like child's play. He went into detail on what will most likely happen (several hundred rockets/missiles a day) and how exactly the army will be unable to cope nor evacuate its citizens from the danger. He explained that unfortunately, they have not updated their doctrine enough and commanders are too busy covering up their own failures instead of learning from them. In her words to my wife, "We're dead."
I was recently in contact with a friend of mine living in the center of the country. He moved here several years before me, joined the army, got married, built a family, etc. He once told me that "the best way one can divest themselves of being a Zionist is to join the army." Believe it or not, I've heard that from several former die-hard Zionists. In our communications, he was telling me how sick he has become with the current government and doesn't trust anybody to run this country anymore. I believe that's probably the general feeling right now throughout the nation.
The recent "victory" over Hamas this past week proved that Israel is simply unable to roundly defeat their enemies who have publicly sworn to destroy the Jews time and time again.
This is not necessarily a fault with the government. As we see, the government of Israel, frankly, does not control Israel. The United States controls Israel. The United Nations controls Israel. Hamas controls Israel. Hezbollah controls Israel. University campuses control Israel. The Israeli government and army commanders THINK they control themselves, but we see over and over, that Israel, in the end, is not allowed to take control of its own destiny.
Which basically buries Theodore Herzl's dream.
I'm not saying that the army should just lay down it's arms, of course. When a person comes and attacks you, you have an obligation to defend yourself.
However, we see a worldwide rise in anti-Semitism. Not only in the streets, but also in the US Congress and within the governments of other nations. And it's acceptable, normal, and growing. The news media, well, we know where they stand.
We’re living in a no-win situation.
It's a clear reminder, that no matter where we live, we are still in exile and still under the control of the other nations.
No matter how loud we chant "Never Again!," no matter how much money we pour into Holocaust education, or the Israeli army, or how many other ways we try to take control over our destiny, in the end, history can, and I fear will, repeat itself. Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Up until a few years ago, and maybe even today, people think that such a thing cannot happen again. But, we're seeing more and more, that it could. And not only that, we can see exactly how such a thing can easily happen.
So, we can continue to proudly bang on our chests and show our defiance to the world, and put our faith in the Iron Dome, the army, humanity, or what not. Or, we can start to realize that really only Hashem Himself can end this exile once and for all.
Each person must find what they can do spiritually to help the situation. Usually, this involves improving davening, since only our tefillos (and mitzvos) have true control over what happens in this world. And in the end, any improvement in our davening, ultimately improves ourselves as well.
What can we do about this practically speaking? Good question.
We put a program on the computer that sounded an alert and told us where sirens were going off in real-time. So, every time it went off, everybody was "forced" to stop what they were doing, knowing that thousands of Jews were currently under attack. Sometimes we said Tehillim or simply asked Hashem to watch over them. I admit, it resulted in my youngest having some sleeping problems, but, it drove home the point on what people are experiencing and to where we must turn our energies.