Fighter pilot Shai Kalach takes his battle from Israel’s skies to its soul
IT was the Friday night after October 7.
On army bases across the country, thousands of reservists were still streaming through the gates in a great wave of volunteerism — but former F-16 pilot Shai Kalach discovered that not all reservists were welcome.
Like many Israelis, within hours of the Simchas Torah slaughter Kalach had shown up to offer his services. At the ‘Bor’ — the air force’s cavernous war room deep beneath the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv — Kalach stood out.
Not just because of the kippah that the kibbutznik-turned-baal teshuvah wore in the uber-secular air force environment.
Shai Kalach was something of a bête noir to his fellow pilots. Over the previous year — as his colleagues threatened not to show up for reserve duty in protest of the Netanyahu government’s justice reform plans — Kalach went on the offensive. He accused them of running a protection racket to bully the government into changing course. He was the public face of the “Mechanics’ Letter” — a response from the air force’s lowly ranks who wanted nothing to do with the politicking of the pilots.
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