‘Charbu Darbu’

Have the cries “From the River to the Sea” put you on edge? Do the allegations against Israel over the war in Gaza have you doubting Israel’s future? Do the threats in America from partisans of Hamas leave you fearful to walk across campus? Tune in, we say, to what is happening in Israel. It turns out that the whole country is one — young and old, right wing and left, Labor and Likud — in the war it is fighting against Hamas.This spirit is evident among even — or especially — the restless youths who, or whose friends or families, are now levying the fight. Feature what the Times of Israel reports has already become the number-one hit in Israel. It’s by an Israeli duo called Ness and Stilla. Its title — “Charbu Darbu” — means, in Syrian Arabic, “swords and strikes,” says the Times of Israel. It connotes “raining hell on one’s opponent.” It’s not, let us just say, for the dainty.Lyrically, though, the Times of Israel adds, the Hebrew lyrics “encapsulate a feeling of righteous fury that has been prevalent in Israel” since October 7. “Left, right, left, how is it that the whole country is in uniform from Galilee to Eilat… We’ve brought the entire army against you and we swear there won’t be forgiveness, sons of Amalek,” Stilla raps, comparing Hamas to, in Amalek, the Biblical enemy of the Israelites.The chorus, not so incidentally, comprises a roll call of the IDF’s most storied combat units — “Nahal, Golani, Givati, Tanks, Air Force, Navy, Artillery, Commandos!” — and ends with the phrase “All the IDF units are coming to ‘Charbu Darbu’ on your heads, oy oy.” At one point, the lyrics say: “For mom and dad, all my friends are at the front, for grandma and grandma, let’s write names on the bombs, for the children of the Gaza envelope.”Times of Israel notes the song calls out Israel’s foes, including, by name, the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. “Every dog has its day,” it says, including Western celebrities who have expressed support for Israel’s enemies. It’s not for the faint hearted. All the more remarkable is the glimpse it gives of the esprit in a country that called up 360,000 reservists almost overnight — the equivalent, we’ve already noted, of America calling up 18 million.This is the kind of esprit one gets when everyone has family and friends and top brass in peril. Just this week, Israel buried Sergeant Gal Meir Eisenkot, the son of Gadi Eisenkot, an erstwhile lieutenant general who now serves in the war cabinet that has brought Israel together during the hostilities. The top Israelis are leading from the front. What a contrast with the camarilla that runs Hamas and is living the high life in Qatar.We are not suggesting it’s time to declare victory. There are months of difficult fighting ahead. Much could go wrong. Yet the war, as our Benny Avni reports, is entering a new phase as the IDF is killing Hamas’s commanders and closing in on their lairs, where it is finding arms, intelligence, and evidence of corruption in Hamas that are vindicating Israel’s choice to go in. They are inspiring Israel’s citizens at home and admirers the world over.

‘Charbu Darbu’

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