After October 7, during what Israel now calls the War of Revival, one difficult question followed Israel everywhere — in the media, in the streets, and inside families:

Does the Israel Defense Forces need to be moral during war?

On that day, Hamas committed brutal crimes against Israeli civilians. Families were murdered in their homes. Children and elderly people were killed. Civilians were kidnapped. This was not accidental damage or the chaos of war. Terror was the goal.

As the war continued, the question became sharper and more painful: Should Israeli soldiers risk their lives in the name of morality? Should commanders send their soldiers into extreme danger in order to protect an enemy that clearly ignores every moral rule of war?

This was not a theoretical debate. It became a deep national argument.

War With No Moral Balance

Hamas is not a regular army. It fights from inside civilian areas. It fires rockets from schools, hides weapons in mosques, and operates from hospitals and residential neighborhoods.

Civilians are not caught by mistake. They are used on purpose.

This creates an almost impossible situation for Israeli soldiers. They are expected to defend their country, but they are also expected to protect civilians that the enemy itself places in danger. Hesitation can mean death. Delay can cost lives.

For months, Israelis asked themselves difficult questions: Can soldiers be asked to hesitate when hesitation might kill them? Can commanders be expected to send young soldiers into buildings full of explosives and tunnels simply because Hamas hides behind civilians?

Law, Morality, and One-Sided Rules

Israel is strongly influenced by international law and the rules of war promoted by the United Nations. Israeli courts, politicians, and military leaders take these rules seriously.

But in this war, only one side followed them.

Israel discussed proportionality and legality. Hamas ignored all of it. Israel warned civilians and opened humanitarian corridors. Hamas fired from those same civilian areas.

This created deep frustration. Morality seemed to apply only to those who respected it.

Two Voices Inside Israel

One part of Israeli society responded with anger and pain. Their message was simple: our soldiers are our children. They argued that Israeli soldiers should not die to protect an enemy that murder civilians and uses its own population as human shields.

From this point of view, if Hamas chooses to hide among civilians, that responsibility belongs to Hamas alone. Using full force was seen not as cruelty, but as self-defense. Restraint that leads to funerals was seen as moral failure.

The other side of Israeli society answered differently, with one sentence repeated again and again:

This camp did not deny the horror of October 7 or Israel’s right to defend itself. But they warned that abandoning moral limits could damage Israel itself. Morality, they argued, is not something given to a good enemy. It is something society keeps for itself.

They feared that if hatred and revenge guide military behavior, Israel could lose the values that make it different from its enemies.

Why Morality Still Matters

After hearing both sides, a deeper answer becomes clear.

Israeli families raise their children on values of responsibility, respect for life, and care for others. These values come from tradition, community, and education. Children are not raised to hate or to enjoy violence.

When Israel sends young people to the army through mandatory service, these are not mercenaries or professional killers. They are eighteen-year-olds at a critical stage of life. Parents do not send their children to the army so they will be taught cruelty or indifference to human life.

This is the key point.

Israel must remain moral not because Hamas deserves morality, but because Israeli society does. Military service between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one is not only about fighting. It is about these young soldiers being shaped into the future people they will become.

If a society teaches its young people that civilian life does not matter, or that cruelty is acceptable, those lessons do not disappear when the war ends.

Morality in war does not mean weakness. It does not mean refusing to fight or defend yourself. It means discipline, responsibility, and limits — even under extreme pressure.

Israel fights to survive. But it also fights to remain itself.

That is why the Israel Defense Forces must stay moral, even when it is painful and costly. Not because morality is easy, but because losing it would cost much more in the long run.

Victory is not measured only by defeating the enemy. It is also measured by who we are when the fighting is over.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)