Yitzhar

As I wrote in the last post, my last deployment was in the West Bank. We were responsible for guarding the settlement of Yitzhar. Yitzhar is the northern West Bank, Samaria, near Nablus (Shechem) and it is surrounded by Arab villages from all directions. Its residents- practically all are religious- are known for their radically right-wing views. They do not believe in a fence. The vast majority of the settlement’s population is law abiding, however, there is a small kernel of people who take the law into their own hands. These are the people who chop down Palestinian olive trees when they feel that Israel has betrayed them and in some cases refuse to draft to the army.

I had mixed feelings about the deployment. In terms of ease it was a great deployment. Patrols and very small amounts of guard duty were the norm, the food was fairly good, the views were stunning, the base was wonderful and we had many interesting arrests and operations in and around Nablus. Those arrests were satisfying because I knew I was acting to prevent terror and crime. On the other hand, as I mentioned previously, I didn’t love that I was basically an over-glorified policeman there, whose main purpose was to make sure that the Jewish residents and Arab villagers were not at each other’s throats. Our job is to defend the country and it was hard to have that sense of purpose there in Yitzhar. Compounding the problem was the fact that I had hit a mental wall in my last year. I was mentally exhausted from it all and I felt that I had given enough to the army and yet I was still stuck in the army grind.

Luckily for me, I was only on this deployment for half the normal time due to my being in course Nativ and visiting home. Those two things saved me mentally and left me refreshed for when I came back. Another redeeming factor of this last deployment was that our tzevet was back to full strength. All the guys were in command positions or support staff came back in the last two months and we were all together again for the first time since our draft. It was just a ton of fun to be with the guys and have all the jokes and comradery. After I got back from my trip to the States, the time flew by and I have now reached what is called chapshash. It is a three week period before the official discharge date where you are out of the army but still technically considered a soldier. It is basically given to combat soldiers as a gesture and a way for us to slowly acclimate back to civilian life.

Next post I will sum up my thoughts about the army and the crazy experience of the past three years.

Some pictures of army life within the deployment: