Remembering After the War: The Children of the Winter of 73

"We are the children of the winter of 73 ...

"You promised a dove, an olive branch, 

"You promised peace, at home, you promised spring, blooms  "

This controversial song is raising old memories and complaints about the balance between hope and reality. When the two clash, like during and after the Yom Kippur war, idealism about peace and promises to children, seem like something cruel or at least out of touch with reality. Then there are the voices who claim to never believe the naive view of "peace next year" propaganda songs (especially from IDF musical groups). Regardless of your views or beliefs, the wars in Israel, hard and painful, Israeli military bands perform incredibly nice, to the point of "too nice" (syrupy sweet some would describe them) for a band that suppose to motivate troops to the front. Here in Israel you will not find anything close to a Russian army chorus belting out propaganda songs a-la-World War II. You will also not find the European or American brass bands leading a long march of well heeded marching units. So what is this Israeli style army bands suppose to do?

More than anything, Israeli army bands, small, almost cute, and versatile, were designed to entertain. In the case of the "Winter of 73" style songs, they are also somewhat a soothing and recovery function. This role is something that the '73 Yom Kippur war really made obvious. The war spun dozens of new songs and performances by many small groups. While the country was bleeding and crying, the soldiers were singing. The controversy over what songs IDF bands should sing reflects the obvious need for recovery from the shock of the war. It is obvious to Israelis that once the war was over, there will be a period of grief. It was not obvious that the young, and seemingly naive soldiers, in freshly pressed uniforms, would take the lead in getting the country back on its feet again. Like other wars we saw around the world (i.e. Vietnam, Afghanistan: for Russia) the soldiers did not want to tell their stories and it was hard on them to receive help from the general population. Citizens who think of their armies as losers don't tend to help the same soldiers when they come back from the battle. So Israelis also stayed quiet and did not exactly jump to help grieving, hurt (mentally) soldiers. So these soldiers were quiet about their losses and even their heroism. The good news is that the silence is slowly dying after forty years. It's not that great to hear about the losses and the pain, the heroism we can certainly take!