We are all soldiers at checkpoints

The terminology used to be routine and clear: Whenever a unit of the Israel Defense Forces completed a mission - be it the aerial bombing of refugee camps in Lebanon, shelling terrorist headquarters in Syria or attacking missile sites in Egypt - the media would report that "our forces returned safely to their bases."

The missions were part of a universal consensus and their success - they were always considered successful - was our collective success. The term "our forces" encapsulated the spirit of the time - the broad consensus, the concept of the IDF as "the people's army," the shared national pride and concern.

Rivers of blood have flowed since then - mostly for no good reason; and the attitude toward the IDF has become more cautious and suspicious. Not all its operations have been automatically sanctified, and Israeli society has become more skeptical. These are all positive developments; and their result - the term, "our forces," was eliminated from the public agenda.

A capricious attempt some two years ago by the former director of Israel Radio, Amnon Nadav, to restore the glory of yesteryear by ordering radio announcers to use the term, "our forces," in newscasts failed. The term did not catch on again, perhaps because it's something of a problem to say: "Our forces killed three Palestinian children this morning."

Haaretz