These days, I find myself belonging to the NDF, the non-drafted fighters. People in their late 30s or 40s, either recently discharged from reserve duty or for some other reason not called up. Perhaps you’ve noticed us: wallowing in feelings of guilt and shame, climbing up the walls or scurrying around in an attempt to find some form of contributing to the national effort. The keen-eyed among you might have glimpsed a twitchy hand, nervously groping for a phantom firearm, and the simple assurance it brings of what my role is and what I should be doing. But the more hours I spend on the home front as an NDF, the more I realize that I not only lack knowledge of what to do, but I don’t know how it ought to be done or what must not be done. Every soldier knows there are ethics of combat shaping the way we answer these questions. We, who are mobilizing for the national effort on the home front, require a war ethics of our own. 

In what follows, I’d like to provide a preliminary effort at such an ethics. It is not meant as a catalog of dos and don’ts—though I will give some specific examples—rather, it’s an initial list of virtues and values that we need to learn and embrace during these challenging times, and that we must hold onto during the difficult weeks ahead. 

Courage 

Courage is required on the home front. Not the kind of courage needed to face physical danger, but something akin to what Aristotle discussed when he spoke of the golden mean, the right balance between the extremes of complacency and panic. Both of these are the enemy’s allies.  

We must not be complacent. We need to follow proper safety procedures and obey the instructions of the home front command, and refrain from unnecessary risks. The circumstances under which this war began make recklessness the lesser concern for us at the moment. But panic is a different story. We must be careful, but we must not succumb to fear. We must adhere to the routine we can maintain. We must take only what we need from stores and suppliers, without depleting the shelves of necessities that others also require. Each of us must embody – inwardly and outwardly – a balance of diligence and confidence, grief and determination, sorrow and strength. We must have courage. 

The Torah, when discussing the laws of war instructs the person who is fearful and fainthearted to abstain from going into battle. Not out of fear for his life, but for fear that he will melt the hearts of his fellow soldiers like his own (Deuteronomy 20:8). In our reality, the horrors of war, the beating war-drums, and the cries of battle echo not only on the battlefield but also in the palm of our hand, in our pockets, and on our desktops. Torrents of information constantly flood and threaten to drown our hearts and the hearts of our fellow citizens.  

On the battlefield, courage means staring peril in the eye and bellowing at danger. On the home front, courage means diverting our gaze, closing our eyes and ears to the psychological terror attacks, both intentional and unwitting, that penetrate our digital space. We must not amplify or echo them by any means. 

Generosity 

Immediately upon learning of the heinous attacks carried out against us, Israeli civil society erupted in a spirit of volunteerism that is beyond words. The number of initiatives, activities, and assistance offered is overwhelming, and we must ensure that this spirit is maintained in the long term, and not Heaven forbid, quelled by prolonged war and fatigue. However, generosity is also a virtue nestled between two extremes: stinginess and wastefulness. In times of emergency and tragedy, the urge to give might be driven more by a need to give than by any actual needs that require our help. Over-eagerness can also lead to downfall. We are facing difficult times ahead. We may not feel it yet, but the economic and budgetary implications of this war are looming. Already now, there are reasons to fear that significant donations have been directed to the purchase of military supplies that won’t be needed, and that a lack of coordination means that needs that have arisen from the field have been answered more than once. Conversely, it is reasonable to assume that there are needs that civil society could address that have not yet received adequate attention or support.  

In battle we do not charge ahead blindly; so too on the home front, we must volunteer with open eyes. We must take pains to coordinate our efforts, to identify unmet needs, invest money where it will be most effective, and save for the future. We must not neglect our homes and our families, our local communities, and all those who are dependent on us. We must strive to contribute with generosity. 

Purity of Posts 

The home front and the frontlines are more intertwined today than ever in the history of warfare. Information and analyses of the war, as well as the state of society, government systems, the military, and more, fly at us relentlessly. They beckon us, lure us, demand we pay attention only to them. Some of the information we receive is true, and some is false or misleading. Some of it comes from well-intentioned people who do not understand the implications of their actions, while a noticeable share comes from the enemy and its allies as a deliberate means to harm us.  

Likewise, we, as much as we are consumers of information, are also creators and broadcasters of information. We fight against an enemy who has no satellites, no advanced intelligence capabilities, nor any form of espionage capabilities that come close to those of a modern military or state intelligence agency. The enemy has sources a great deal of its information from us: information passed innocently in messages, photos and videos on social networks, and data published in the media. 

Furthermore, in the age of social networks and digital media, each of us is a combatant on the psychological battlefield. We are all spokespersons, we are all orators, we all give addresses to the nation. It is within our power to contribute to boosting morale, strengthening solidarity, and fortifying the courage and generosity of the home front. It is however also in our power to do the ruinous opposite. In this war, we are all armed: every smartphone is a rifle, every computer a tank, every media outlet a gunship. There is no greater tragedy in war than friendly fire. We must abstain from fearmongering, enflaming internal conflicts, or spreading panic. We must not share images of horror, and we must not distribute them to those who do not need to see them—that is, to anyone who does not need such images to be convinced to fight the evil that is Hamas—that is, to any of us. These are all war crimes of the home front. We are all digital soldiers, and it is our duty to maintain the purity of posts. 

This is an initial inexhaustive list. It is not a document authored meticulously by a committee of experts and scholars but rather a call to action written by an individual as part of his personal effort to do something for his suffering people, who are fighting for their lives. As a starting point, these are things that I believe we can and must adopt – men, woman, and children of the home front – for the sake of our people and our country. 

Original in Hebrew