Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the Bnei David Mechina in Eli, where he met with Rabbis Eli Sadan and Yigal Levinstein, and head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Israel Gantz.
Gallant heard about the mechina graduates who fell in the war and spoke with the rabbis about the importance of enlisting in the IDF, and the ability to combine Torah study with meaningful military service.
Gallant told the mechina students: "I meet mechina students repeatedly in Gaza and Khan Yunis, in the north, in Judea and Samaria and other places in Israel's most secret operations. I think there is a special spirit here, but this spirit also involves paying a heavy price. On the one hand it makes us proud, and on the other hand, conveys an extraordinary dimension of pain and suffering for the families and students, and certainly for the rabbis."
Referring to the fighting itself, Gallant said that "Hamas cannot continue to exist as a governmental body, nor as a military body. We will pursue them everywhere, all over Judea and Samaria, in the Middle East – everywhere. It doesn't matter if they are terrorists wearing uniforms and carrying weapons, or they are wearing suits and pretending to be statesmen – everyone. This murderous body called Hamas will be persecuted by the State of Israel – its militants, everywhere, in every way. We are at the end of an era and the beginning of an era – the path we lay these days will be the one that will lead us many years ahead – and will define the way we will live in the Middle East."
"There is something else in this place – we are in the Beit Midrash, and I think that faith and Torah study are of the most important foundations of the Jewish People. When I see that they exist alongside similar excellence on the battlefield, I want to tell you that I, as defense minister, am proud that there are soldiers like you in the IDF, who hold a weapon in one hand and a book in the other. I think it reflects a very deep sense of connection, of faith and ability."
Learning and fighting are two areas that ensure our future, and there is mutual responsibility in both. The ability to continue learning while, on the other hand, to be able to defend our country and everything within it, is proof that without physical existence there is no spiritual existence, this is true both at an individual and a national level," Gallant concluded.
After the visit to Eli, Binyamin Regional Council Chairman, Israel Gantz, accompanied the Defense Minister by helicopter to the ceremony of expanding the Rantis crossing, and thanked Gallant for his important contribution to the region and for his dedication to the people of Israel during the war: "We have a mission to connect Jewish settlement to the heart of Israel. We will continue to consolidate our hold on our land and prosperously develop the heart of the country here in the Binyamin region."