I am Johanna, thirty five and the mother of two girls. My husband Yuri died three years ago in the car accident that put the scar on my forehead. I grieved of course, but I knew I would eventually have to move on. I married David eight months ago and I am six months pregnant with a little girl. Life is looking better for all four of us, soon to be five, than it has been since the accident.

I am an officer in the Israeli Defence Forces and am usually stationed near the kibbutz where I grew up and I live when not needed elsewhere. I love my job, and can never forget the words of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s founding father and our first prime minister, who said “Some say, ‘It is good to die for one’s country.’ I would add it is good to have a country to die for.”

This is my career. I volunteered to make sure we always have a country to die for. I didn’t wait to be called up. David is an archaeologist who is an expert on bible matters and works on our history as a people, finding sites that are only known from the holy texts. I love listening to him talk about his work and telling stories to our daughters. His work is every bit as important as mine and I hope one of my girls will follow in her father’s footsteps. We need a future, but we need our past too.

I would love to see the day come when in the words of Isaiah 2:4 They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But I doubt my girls will see it. I am certain that I shall not, and till that day comes it’s the M4 rather than a sword and the AK47 rather than a spear. The kibbutzim already have enough ploughshares and pruning hooks.