'In their death, they commanded us victory:' Valor Forum head lays out war goals

After the shiva mourning period of Capt. Ori Shani, who fell fighting in the South on October 7, his wife found binders full of his writing, his father Yehoshua Shani said.

One of the documents they found led his family to decide that they must continue his way, and eventually led them to found the Valor Forum – a group of bereaved families pushing for more military pressure and for “total victory” against Hamas.

Ori, his father’s youngest son, was married and had a baby who is now a year and a half old. He was a commander serving on the border with Gaza and led his soldiers in the battle against Hamas terrorists on October 7 until he was killed by artillery fire alongside his soldier Reem Betito.

The document that Ori’s family found included a section where he questioned what his nation needed of him.

“He wrote three things – first of all, to start a healthy, big, strong family – and he really did get married relatively young,” his father said. “He had a son; he had a very healthy, very strong family – and it will grow someday.”

Yehoshua said that his son also wrote that he should be part of founding a new community in Israel’s Negev.

‘Total victory’ against Hamas, hostage return, security

Finally, he wrote that he was needed “to be part of the defending force of the people of Israel,” his father said.

“After we saw this, we said we need to make it come true,” Shani said. “He is lying at Mount Herzl [cemetery], but we will continue his vision.”

This led the bereaved father to join with other families who had lost loved ones in the war to found the Valor Forum. The goal of the forum is to continue the mission of their fallen children by keeping Israel’s leaders from caving to international pressure and to push for a total victory against Hamas.

The forum now includes 315 families, all of whom lost loved ones in the Israel-Hamas War.

Around two weeks into the war, the US started pressuring Israel to go to a ceasefire or stop the military actions, said Shani, explaining that this prompted the families to join together.

“That was the point that we got together, a few parents who lost their kids in the war, and we decided at this time, were not going to let the government give up. Our kids got killed for that mission – to destroy Hamas – and we will continue their mission.”

“We will continue on behalf of our kids who got killed, to fight as civilians [to make sure] that the government will keep its promise to destroy Hamas,” he said, adding, “We believe that this is the only way that we can bring back the hostages and bring peace to the Middle East.” He considers fighting against the evil of Hamas “the only way to bring real peace to the Middle East, to Israel, and the whole world.”

THE FORUM’S motto is “In their deaths, they commanded us victory,” a reference to the phrase “in their deaths, they commanded us life.”

“Some of our kids actually wrote this, before they went to [battle]: that they are going to the fight to bring victory – total victory – to Israel, and this is why we feel that this is our mission now. We need to really fulfill their request – their commandment,” Shani explained.

Members of the forum meet with elected officials to advocate for continued military pressure. They also share the stories of their loved ones at the forum’s encampment near the Knesset in Jerusalem.

“We feel that from this place we want to spread the message of our vision,” explained Shani, who said that people from all parts of Israeli society come to the tent to hear stories of the fallen, shared daily by their families.

Ori’s father emphasized that the forum believes the hostages must be brought home and that there is no victory without them, and that the way to bring them back is through more military pressure.

“It is very important to us that they come back safe. I do not doubt that total victory will be with the return of the hostages,” he said.

The forum believes that the war’s end must also include Israeli security control of the Gaza Strip and that any agreement that relinquishes such control cannot be legitimate.

“We learned that we cannot place Israel’s security in the hands of others or the hands of our friends,” he said.

“In the moment of truth, we can only trust ourselves, only [depend on] the IDF,” said Shani, adding that “as a believing man,” he also puts his trust in God.

“I believe that the majority of the government of Israel and the citizens of Israel understand, after what we went through, that the security of our country is only in our hands,” he said, adding he believes that Israel’s leadership and prime minister share this view.

The bereaved father concluded with a call for unity and love between the various parts of the nation. “The enemy forced us to war, the hardest war since the founding of the state. War is a hard thing and takes a painful toll,” he said.

The war also brought about a time when “our nation was revealed as an amazing nation – the strength, the heroism, the unity, the love that there is between the parts of the nation is something that was not in previous years,” Shani said.

“There are cracks here and there now, but we will do anything so that the brotherhood, love, and unity between parts of the nation will continue and increase – because we think it is a strategic and necessary asset to reach total victory.”