09-9707900

Target audience: 18+

Lecturer/artist: Ehud Gol — a career spanning more than twenty years in field and management positions in the security service. He currently lectures on society and security.

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The “It’ll Be Fine” Culture and Its Roots in Israel

The expressions “It’ll be fine,” “Trust me,” and “Don’t worry” have long been far more than merely common phrases—they have become an unwritten DNA that has accompanied Israeli society for decades.

This culture, which sanctifies improvisation, “sloppiness,” and excessive self-confidence, often creates enormous gaps between what is planned on paper and what actually happens in the field.

What does this look like in practice?

• Premature abdication of responsibility: The implicit assumption that the system will always somehow work itself out, even without meticulous planning, strict procedures, or thorough inspections.
• Disregard for small details: Viewing strict adherence to the rules as “thinking small” or as unnecessary bureaucracy that hinders Israeli initiative and creativity.
• The operational cost: In the most extreme and painful cases, such as those Ehud Gol examines in his analysis of the Rabin assassination and chronicles of systemic failures, this same approach is expressed through security negligence, breaches of security perimeters, and a sense of “It won’t happen to me” that leads to preventable disasters.

Is it black and white?

Not at all. Alongside its destructive consequences, this same culture also brings positive qualities: the ability to improvise under fire, think outside the box, solve problems creatively, and demonstrate resourcefulness in emergency situations where rigid plans would fail.

The real challenge facing Israeli society is to preserve this brilliance and creativity while drawing a clear line when it comes to safety, procedures, and the management of sensitive systems.