The crisis of trust is a direct threat to national resilience
Instead of healing the wound, the leadership is promoting a political investigative committee that is not national and independent, in order to protect the personal legal standing of its leaders. These moves, alongside other actions that undermine the pillars of democracy, testify to a worldview that prefers power over integrity and collapses trust, the only resource that allows a citizen to feel part of a state that cares for them.
In recent days, the State of Israel has been occupied with the establishment of a "Peace Council" and the question of the future of the Gaza Strip. Discussions on the demilitarization of Hamas, international oversight mechanisms, political arrangements, and withdrawal phases fill the headlines. But at the same time, Hamas still holds significant military and governing capabilities, and the security reality has not yet changed. For those living 500 meters from the border, this is an existential question. The decisions made now will determine if a family will feel safe returning to the Gaza envelope, and if parents will believe that the state has done everything so that the most terrible disaster we have known will not happen again.
Precisely because these are fateful decisions, one cannot ignore the way they are made. Almost three years after October 7, the residents of the border are again being asked to trust mechanisms and promises, without showing that the real lesson has been learned. The residents of the border cannot build their children's future on the basis of promises. They need to know that the threat that destroyed their home will not be able to rise again beyond the fence. And that is the most important lesson. Trust is not a luxury. It is a condition for security.
The contract that collapsed more than 1,000 days ago, in the massacre of October 7, was the basic contract that allows for a shared life here. The State of Israel failed in its primary duty to protect its citizens, and since then the fracture has only deepened. Instead of healing the wound, the leadership is promoting a political investigative committee that is not national and independent, in order to protect the personal legal standing of its leaders, instead of investigating the failure. These moves, alongside other actions that undermine the pillars of democracy, such as dismantling legal advisory mechanisms, harming the media, and legislation that anchors draft evasion, testify to a worldview that prefers power over integrity and collapses trust, the only resource that allows a citizen to feel part of a state that cares for them.
When citizens feel that decisions are made without transparency, without accountability, and without a willingness to learn lessons, the most important strategic asset of any state is eroded — public trust. Trust is the component upon which a state's ability to defend itself rests. It is what allows a parent to send their son or daughter to combat service, a family to choose to return and build their home in the Gaza envelope, and a citizen to believe the state's instructions in an emergency. An army can defend a border, but no force in the world will be able to hold a border for long if its citizens do not believe in the state behind them.
The choice to continue living here is a moral imperative. And for it to continue to lead us, we need leadership that will know how to look the truth in the eye, build solid security certainty over time, and restore that precious trust without which no land can become a home. This crisis of trust is a direct threat to national resilience. When citizens lose the feeling that the state is acting transparently and responsibly, a process of disintegration of the settlement begins. Families who decide not to return, young couples building their future elsewhere, and border communities weaken. One settlement weakens, and after it all the settlements around it. The path from there to severe damage to the entire national resilience is short.
The future requires trust. In the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, we choose revival and growth every day. Families are returning, new neighborhoods are being populated, and fields are being cultivated again. The residents are returning out of love for their home and a sense of deep responsibility, out of a stubborn choice to continue living here. The state must not see the courage of the residents as confirmation that the fracture is behind us. Almost three years ago, we understood that the future is in our hands, and this action is the most real answer to those who try to undermine our hold here. But this choice requires partnership. And in partnership, there must be truth. Because truth builds trust, and trust builds security.
