Five years after the start of the Second Lebanon War, the families of 125 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers who were killed in the conflict gathered on Adir Mountain in northern Israel, and looked out over the areas in which their loved ones fought and fell. "Words cannot diminish the pain, but perhaps there is some consolation in the fact that children in northern Israel are growing up in a safer environment and have normal daily lives because of the agreements that followed the war in the summer of 2006," Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, outgoing OC Northern Commander, said. Eisenkot is set to hand over command of the northern front to Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan on Wednesday. "This reality was achieved using military force, even if that force was not always used in the most efficient and professional way," Eisenkot said. Eisenkot emphasized though that the border situation with Lebanon is still "complex." "Even as we speak, thousands of IDF soldiers are operating along the border to deter the enemy, protect the northern region, and ensure a peaceful existence for citizens living in the north," Eisenkot said. "The north still faces dangers. We know that only a strong and ready IDF will maintain the quiet along the border," he added. Yoav Tsur, father of 19-year-old Sgt. Itamar Tsur, who was killed along with three of his friends in the Lebanese village of Rajmin when their tank was hit by an anti-tank missile, addressed the bereaved families. "When this justified war ended and we began to understand how it was conducted, it became clear to us that someone needed to be laid off," Tsur said. "The struggle for that to happen was long and difficult, but in the end it was achieved," Tsur said. Tsur continued, "The public expects the military decision-makers to run their organization smoothly and make clear decisions, and to do that while weighing all the options first. The decision-makers need to be worthy leaders and role models. The Israeli public knows that it has no other country, and it is quite willing to fight for this one. The latest publicized war in this country was over the price of cottage cheese; but the issue in that war was not really the extra shekel per cup of cottage cheese we were asked to pay. It was rather a war of symbols, in which the cottage cheese represented our homes, our military, and our country," Tsur said.
