The war has exposed something that many Israelis have felt for a long time but have avoided thinking about: The state apparatus of Israel is rotten to the core. While the Finance Ministry tells us about the wonders of its budget management, the funds slated for building shelters, buying ambulances, purchasing fire engines, and bomb-proofing hospitals were not transferred as promised. Meanwhile, the generals of the Israel Defense Forces have been spending money on elaborate offices, cars, salaries, and high living. Even worse, funds for the development of the army, for training and equipping troops to meet the dangers facing Israel, and for the development of new weapon systems (such as anti-tank defenses and anti-missile rockets) were reallocated to other projects.

Local government is a joke. Most of the mayors, local council heads, and municipal officials are  political functionaries and appointees with no budgetary power of their own. With their cities under attack, their underpaid, or never paid, employees fled and their cities were left defenseless. The poor, the needy, the new immigrants, and the sick were left to cope on their own, to survive 33 days in a bomb shelter without food, transportation, air conditioning, or toilets.

Israel is seething. The politicians, generals, and government officials are in a frenzy. They are trying once again to spin their way out of the mess they created. Accusations, denials, and secret agendas are being spewed out to the media in a frantic attempt to appease the public.

But, the issue at stake is much more important than finding the culprits. The existence of Israel is at stake. Not immediately. Not tomorrow. But something has snapped - the public's trust in the integrity of their leaders, the ability of the system, and the infrastructure of the state. Something has to be done quickly. It is time for a political earthquake, a landslide, a deep cleansing. It is time for a generation of political and military leaders to go home. If this does not begin to happen soon, the core Israelis - the people who serve in the IDF reserves, the people who care so much that they organize private relief initiatives for the embattled north, doing the job that the government has neglected - will begin to drift away. The unity that is the core of Israeli society will begin to disintegrate. Those who can will begin to drift to greener pastures abroad, while those that stay will fade into the swirling sands of the Arab world around them.

To survive as a country and as the core of the Jewish People, serious soul searching has to be done. If the survival of Israel is important to you, today is the time to do something about it.