Israeli President Herzog just pardoned a young man by the name of Elor Azaria, and everyone needs to remember his name.

Avi Abelow

This is not merely an old story finally reaching its conclusion. It is another wake-up call before the coming elections.

I have served in the IDF for more than 30 years. For decades, our soldiers have operated under rules of engagement so restrictive that many soldiers on duty fear the military prosecutor more than the jihadi terrorists standing in front of them.

This is not theoretical for me. My fellow IDF soldiers and I are patrolling every day, protecting Jewish communities and confronting threats that can become deadly in seconds. These rules of engagement affect every decision we make, every moment we are on duty and every time we may need to use our weapons to save lives. When soldiers are forced to hesitate because they fear prosecutors, investigations and hostile headlines, it is our lives, and the lives of the civilians we protect, that are placed in danger.

That is not morality. It is a dangerous moral inversion.

On Purim morning, March 24, 2016, two Arab terrorists attacked IDF soldiers with knives in Hebron. One terrorist was killed. The other, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, lay wounded on the ground.

Sgt. Elor Azaria, a 19-year-old combat medic, arrived as soldiers warned that the jihadi terrorist might be carrying an explosive device. Azaria saw movement and fired.

An anti-Israel activist from B’Tselem filmed the incident. Within hours, the video had become an international spectacle. Before a proper investigation could establish the facts, Israel’s political, military, legal and media establishments had already abandoned the soldier.

Immediately after the event, I made a video defending Azaria and calling out the immoral legal system and code of ethics that was already crucifying him, a soldier making a split-second decision to save lives.

Azaria was convicted of manslaughter and imprisoned.

People can debate whether he made the correct operational decision. But the message sent to every Israeli soldier was unmistakable:

Hesitate, and your friends may die. Fire, and the legal system, senior command and media may destroy your life.

President Herzog’s September 19 pardon finally lifted the legal stain from Azaria. But if the pardon merely closes one painful personal file, nothing fundamental has changed.

It must become a national turning point.

The Azaria case was not an isolated failure. It exposed an entire military culture that taught commanders to prioritize Western approval, hostile media coverage and concern for enemy civilians above victory and the lives of our soldiers.

Benny Gantz has boasted that he did not send Golani soldiers into a Gaza hospital to eliminate terrorists hiding there. Gadi Eisenkot, now running to be Prime Minister, represents the same senior-command worldview of restraint, containment and endless self-investigation, the mentality that helped bring Israel to October 7.

Yair Golan went even further.

For years, Golan has treated Israeli restraint and the investigation of our own fighters, including Azaria, as badges of honor for the IDF’s morality. In a 2006 teaching example to IDF enlistees, he placed concern for enemy civilians ahead of the safety of Israeli soldiers.

Then, in 2025, he accused Israel of “killing babies as a hobby.”

Think about the damage caused by those words. At a time when our soldiers were risking their lives fighting an enemy that embeds itself among civilians, uses their own mothers and babies as human shields, a former IDF deputy chief of staff handed Israel’s enemies one of their most poisonous propaganda lines.

He still called the IDF moral, but his rhetoric placed him squarely against those demanding that Israel back its fighters and pursue victory.

That worldview did not disappear after October 7.

We watched the military legal establishment pursue soldiers who heroically fought during the massacre and throughout the war. The military advocate general’s office chose suspicion and prosecution when our fighters deserved protection and gratitude.

The Force 100 Sde Teiman prison affair became the most outrageous example. Israeli reserve soldiers guarding captured terrorists were publicly accused in a case that generated a global blood libel against the IDF. A selectively presented video was leaked, admitteingly by the military advocate general, and broadcast worldwide. Israel’s enemies immediately used the allegations to portray our soldiers as criminals, leading to United Nation condemnations. This blood libel against our soldiers, pushed with the assistance of our own senior legal officials, will exist for all of eternity.

Once again, Israel’s own system helped place its fighters in the dock before the world.

The damage was not limited to the accused soldiers. It harmed every IDF fighter, Israel’s international standing and our ability to wage war. It strengthened the propaganda of Hamas while demoralizing the men defending our country.

That is the same institutional instinct we witnessed in the Azaria case: prove our supposed morality by publicly sacrificing our own soldiers.

Enough.

Backing our fighters is not permission to murder innocent people. Jewish morality does not celebrate unnecessary suffering. But our morality begins with protecting Jewish life, defeating evil and ensuring that our soldiers return home safely.

An army’s first responsibility is to defend its nation and win its wars.

For years, “purity of arms” was increasingly transformed from a demand for responsible force into a doctrine of hesitation. Military lawyers, hostile cameras and international headlines began sitting on every soldier’s shoulder.

Our enemies noticed.

They learned to approach our fences, hide among civilians, operate from hospitals and schools, wear civilian clothing, pretend to surrender and exploit every Israeli restraint.

October 7 exposed the unbearable cost.

Soldiers trained to wait for absolute certainty suddenly faced thousands of invaders crossing the Gaza border to murder, rape, burn and kidnap Jews. They didn’t shoot! A doctrine created to demonstrate Israeli morality contributed to fatal hesitation.

There is nothing moral about rules that help the enemy murder more Jews.

That is why the pardon of Elor Azaria must become part of the election conversation.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan and Rabbi Uri Sherki have proposed a revised IDF ethical code that places victory and the protection of Israeli lives where they belong: at the center of military doctrine. Around 30 Knesset members have called for the code to be rewritten so our soldiers understand clearly that their lives and the lives of Israeli civilians come first.

This election will determine whether that transformation takes place.

Will Israelis empower the same former generals, now as politician, who still celebrate restraint, containment and self-investigation as the highest expressions of military morality?

Will we return Israel to the worldview represented by Gantz, Eisenkot and Golan, the security establishment responsible for the failed assumptions that preceded October 7?

Or will we elect a government led by Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and, hopefully also, Winter that understands the overriding need to back our fighters, defeat our enemies and restore Jewish morality to the IDF?

This is bigger than Elor Azaria.

It is about whether the next 19-year-old soldier confronting a terrorist will know that his country trusts him, or fear that one decision made in seconds will destroy his entire life.

It is about whether military prosecutors exist to help our commanders fight lawfully or to hunt our soldiers after battle.

It is about whether victory is once again the goal of war.

Elor Azaria’s pardon closes one file. The election will determine whether Israel finally closes the era in which our soldiers were sacrificed to impress a hostile world.

Learn his story.

Remember what the security, legal and media establishment did to him.

Remember what it did to the Force 100 soldiers.

Remember the terrible price we paid for decades of hesitation and containment.

Then vote for leaders who will untie our soldiers’ hands, stand behind our fighters and allow the IDF to fulfill its most fundamental mission:

Protect the Jewish people.

Defeat our enemies.

And win.

The Jewish people in Israel are waking up. This is a process. We still have ups and downs, but the trajectory is positive.

We are winning and we will win.

Be part of the process; help me at the Pulse of Israel share these truths.

Am Yisrael Chai!!!