Last night, my IDF Palmar medical evacuation team and I were treating and extracting two soldiers from Lebanon.  One, Lt Maoz (24), tragically, did not make it, and the other did, but will need a lot of surgeries.  Yet, I read that the “ceasefire will be extended for another 45 days.”

There is no ceasefire.

I feel like I am in an Orwellian novel. President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the mainstream media are hawking the ceasefire.  Yet, the reality could not be more different. Nineteen-year-old young men are fighting and dying in this very hot and unfinished war against the terrorist Hezbollah entity, who are hell-bent on completing the slaughter of the seventh of October.

It is not only IDF soldiers being targeted, but also Israeli civilians who are still here in the sparsely inhabited north, where entire cities and kibbutzim are ghostlike in stillness. Whatever our government and the American administration are trying to sell the world, the reality is that the north of Israel has been left to its own fate for almost two and a half years and that we are in a war of attrition with one of the Iranian regime’s terror proxy forces.

I never dreamed when I forced my way back into the IDF, despite being very much aged out, as a combat medic in October 2023, that I would still be serving more than two and a half years later in May 2026!

I spent a lot of time in Lebanon decades ago during my regular service, when I served as a Lone Soldier in the Givati brigade, during the time the IDF maintained a security zone in South Lebanon.  Our mission statement always then ended with the same sentence: “Our mission is to defend the northern communities.”

It is amazing how nothing seems to have changed in over two decades.   The only way for a real and genuine peace to exist between Lebanon and Israel, is to topple the regime that is funding and supporting the terrorist Hizbollah.  As long as they exist, no matter if you declare a “ceasefire “or not, there will never been true peace.   One cannot appease evil.   It must be destroyed for good to triumph.

Israel is fighting three wars currently, against Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.   We must be allowed to win these wars. Because without a conclusive and unconditional victory we will remain in this constant state of tension and will not be able to function psychologically or financially.   The entire multi-billion-dollar tourism industry has been paralyzed for almost three years.

So, why do the reservists, like me, keep on returning to fight this long war?   We recognise that this the right thing to do.  We acknowledge that these are the values we were raised on. We feel it is an honour to serve our people and our country. We cannot say, “let someone else do it” (or nothing would get done).  We realise that there is an existential threat over our very existence.  We understand that this is yet another “we do not have a choice” war.  We know that there are tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.  We are fighting for our family.  We are fighting for our hearth and home.  We are fighting for our people.  We are fighting for our country.  We are fighting for our beliefs and values.  We are fighting for western civilisation.  We are fighting for the forces of light and right.

We need to be able to conclusively defeat our foes and not have endless “ceasefires” that are not even worth the paper they are written on.   Like Nazi Germany, the Iranian terror regime and its proxies must be defeated for the sake of the future of the world.

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My latest book, “Heroes of PALMAR, How One IDF unit Revolutionised Combat Medicine in Gaza” (Gefen:2026), is available on Amazon.com or Gefen.com.

Tuvia Book has a doctorate in education and is the author and illustrator of the internationally acclaimed Israel education curriculum; “For the Sake of Zion; A Curriculum of Israel Studies” (Fifth edition, Koren), “Jewish Journeys, The Second Temple Period to the Bar Kokhba Revolt, 536 BCE-136 CE,” (Koren), “Moral Dilemmas of the Modern Israeli Soldier” (Rama) and “Jewish Journeys, The First Temple Period, 1000 -586 BCE” (Koren).


Dr. Book is a licensed tour guide and has been working in the field of Jewish education, both formal and informal, for many years. Tuvia has lectured throughout North America, Australia, Europe, and South Africa.


Dr Book has served in reserves (Milluim) in the IDF in the current “Swords of Iron” war since October 2023 in a medical combat search and rescue unit (Palmar) and is the recipient of a prestigious IDF battalion award for his outstanding contribution to the unit. He has been featured on “Call me Back” and Times of Israel’s “What Matters Now” podcasts.