Operation Protective Edge

Hey everyone,

Since I wrote you last, an incredible amount of events have happened, both personally and nationally. Army-wise: After doing a week of navigation, we got to our final week of advanced training. After handing in our gear, we got ready for our masa kumta, the final march to get our distinctive green Nachal beret.

I wont go into too much detail about the 60 km march. It was long and sweaty and sandy and hot. Your body isn't meant to walk that long in one night. Not pleasant but eventually we made it to Masada by the morning. Birthright girls blew us kisses and took pictures with us; we just wanted to go to sleep and I was so dehydrated I almost passed out. Two days later after sleep and hydration, however, we had our tekes cumta, the ceremony with our division commander on our dress uniforms where our berets were switched from the dull green of the induction center to the bright green of Nachal combat soldiers.

The day had incredible significance for me. For one, my sister arrived from the States to spend a week with me. Second, unbeknownst to me, the commanders of my battalion had decided to bestow a huge honor upon me. They gave me the "mofet plugati", which is an award for the soldier who shows the best example to the plugah. I didn't know about this until the day of the ceremony so it came as quite a surprise. In front of the entire division, I ran to the front and the commander of the entire division of Nachal gave me the green beret.

The great significance of the day, however, came with the knowledge that I had finished combat training and was now considered trained and ready to be used in the defense of the country. That if, and most likely when, the country needed soldiers to protect it, I too was ready to join in the effort. After two thousand years of exile, to officially be part of the first Jewish army protecting our freedom was a wonderful feeling.  Celebrating with my fellow soldiers, friends, and family who came in the sweltering heat was the icing on the cake afterwards.

Well, after the ceremony, I had a week off to spend with my sister which was awesome. We toured, saw my kibbutz, friends in the Golan, Tel Aviv beach, Jerusalem. Unfortunately, her trip was overshadowed by the sequence of events that overtook Israel recently. I am sure you know of the deaths of the three yeshiva students by a Hamas terror cell in Hebron, the revenge killing of an east Jerusalem Arab teenager (disgusting), and then the massive rocketing of Israel by the terror group. As I write this, I can hear artillery forces shelling Gaza from my kibbutz and the army is inside the strip, eliminating terrorists, finding and demolishing tunnels, and other efforts.

Going back to my personal experience. After my sister left, I returned to the army as a soldier in the Gadsar (Special Brigade) (we did yet another, very difficult, hike to the Gadsar base to start our training in the Gadsar school). The new base is great as we have air conditioned rooms, but it is a huge and confusing place, with forests, empty buildings and in general I dont really like it. I was only on this base for a short period of time however. We were supposed to go to a week of navigations in the North, but the entire situation erupted.

I can't go into details for obvious reasons, but I was sent down to the border as part of a drivers' group that was responsible for transporting supplies and evacuating wounded in the case of a ground operation. Mainly we were sitting in the hot sun, loading and unloading heavy machinery and gear from vehicle to vehicle, pausing to take cover from the rockets and mortars that Hamas was firing on us. Every night our commanders would come and tell us, that this was it, tonight we are going in, be ready. This went on for about a week until we were taken out. It turns out that our company has a course to go to that can't be pushed off. Here are my thoughts about I went through:

1. The unity of Israel: It has been incredible to see the support given to the soldiers by the citizens here. Whether its the incredible amounts of free food given to us, prayer booklets, Chabad coming to the fields with cold popiscles and tefillin, and more, its truly special to be a soldier in this country.

2. Uncertainty and fear- I won't lie. I was terrified and the uncertainty really affected me. My fellow soldiers seemed impervious to it, but though I was, and still am, ready to fulfill whatever mission is given to me, there is no escaping the fact that underneath our tough guy exteriors, soldiers are still people with emotions. The fact that so many people around the world are praying for the safety of our soldiers helped me a lot as well as the acceptance that when things are out of your control, trust to G-d and your own efforts, and hopefully everything will work out for the best.

3. Guilt- Now that we are not helping out with the efforts in the operation, my company and I feel guilty that we are not helping out. Of course rationally this is ludicrous as the army decided that it did not need us and that our course is more important but on an emotional level that is the response.
I have been feeling better about it by thinking about it in this way. As more trained soldiers, in the next round or mission we will be better equipped to help the country. Of course, if the situation demands it they could always call us back.

Finally, as I write this 18 soldiers are dead and hundreds wounded. Lets hope for the speedy fulfillment of our mission and only good news from here on out.