Even after all these years, Israel’s ability to meet danger with courage, intelligence, and resolve still inspire awe.

This week offered two striking examples. In Gaza, Israeli forces captured Mu’in al-Arabid, whom Israeli officials identify as a senior figure in Hamas’s internal-security apparatus—a man they say helped conceal hostages, protect senior Hamas operatives, and sustain the terrorist organization’s ability to operate. In southern Lebanon, the IDF reported that its forces had established operational control of the strategic Ali al-Taher Ridge, above and below ground, after clearing Hezbollah operatives from an underground network built over decades with Iranian support. The military says it is continuing to neutralize that infrastructure.jpost 1

These were not routine achievements. They required intelligence, meticulous planning, technological skill, courage, and the resolve of soldiers and commanders who shoulder responsibilities that few democracies place on their young people. They reflect a quality Israel has displayed repeatedly, often at unbearable cost: when danger closes in, Israelis adapt, invent, endure, and fight back.

But operational success is not strategic control.

Israel can capture terrorists, uncover tunnels, seize commanding terrain, disrupt weapons networks, and improve its intelligence picture. It cannot control the intentions of enemies committed to its destruction. It cannot foresee every danger, stop every attack, or know every consequence of every decision. No fence, weapon system, diplomatic assurance, intelligence estimate, or technological breakthrough can offer perfect security.

That is not an argument for fear. It is an argument for responsibility.

The most painful lesson of October 7 is not that Israel lacked talented people, sophisticated technology, or formidable military power. Israel had all of those things. The failure was, in part, a failure of judgment: a failure to keep testing long-held assumptions against a changing and dangerous reality. Warnings were discounted. Threats were minimized. Capabilities Israel possessed were not always translated into the alertness and readiness required when it mattered most.

A nation that lives in a dangerous neighborhood cannot allow past success to become a substitute for vigilance. It must test its assumptions, hear warnings that are inconvenient, and prepare not only for the threats it expects, but also for those it would rather believe are impossible.

This is difficult work. It is also holy work, because it is work undertaken to protect life.

This Rosh Hashanah, the tension between determined action and human limitation takes us back to Moses.

In Parashat Nitzavim, Moses tells the Jewish people that God’s commandment is neither remote nor impossible:

“It is not in heaven, that you should say: ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say: ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it. (Deuteronomy 30:12–14)

“It is not in heaven, that you should say: ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say:........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)