Fill-In

As I promised, I am about to fill you guys in on what happened over the month of March and end of February. Unfortunately, I can't remember everything that I did in chronological order so I will just write about some of the events that stick out in my head as memorable.

Out with the old, in with the new:

                    We started basic training with two commanders, Amir and Lior. About 2/3 rd of the way in to basic training, Amir was sent off to officer's course. In the army, there is a tradition called shvirat distance, literally breaking the distance, where the guys get to beat up the commander who caused them so much grief and get to call him by his first name. Amir was a really chill commander who rarely disciplined us and whom I really enjoyed being under. Lior was a different story. This guy would make us do sprints, push-ups, you name it. He was constantly on our backs and yelling at us and the worst thing was his unpredictability. One moment he would be joking and the next moment we would be running sprints. A lot of the guys hated his guts...I just thought he was an ass. Anyways, he was unexpectedly called back to his unit and I have to hand it to him, he truly got us when he broke distance. He told us that we had 5 minutes to change into krav maga gear (white undershirt, sneakers, army pants, water bottle) and to collect wooden poles and a spare t-shirt for him. Not knowing what to expect, we were taken to a basketball court where we were yelled at and did sprints back and forth for 15 minutes straight. We then placed the spare t-shirts over our heads so we couldn't see and were told to line up. We were instructed that this session was going to be an "absorbing session" where we absorb punches to the gut from the wooden poles to "strengthen us up". We had no idea that this whole thing was fake, and that he whispered in guys' ears to yell when he hit the pole on the ground. We thought our friends were being beat up, but in reality this was just his last way of screwing with us before leaving. When he told us that he was breaking distance, we really beat him up...I mean kicking and punching as months of frustration were let out. After speaking with the guy, I realized that he really had good intentions all along and that he was a great guy. Its very easy to lose sight of the fact that our commanders are really just 20 year old kids who laugh at the same jokes we do and are no more serious than we are.
              Our two new commanders are really chill and so I am hoping that the pressure to maintain strict discipline will drop a lot.


Machine gunner:
                   In the average Israeli combat company, many soldiers receive specialized roles based on what the commanders think they are suited for. The best shooters get trained as sharpshooters and receive guns with advanced scopes. There are guys who get trained on grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles, platoon leaders and heavy and light machine gunners. As I am a big guy, I got trained for a full week on the heavy machine gun. There is no other way to describe the feeling of shooting that monster except that of power. Its truly an humbling feeling to know that you control this weapon of such destructive power. The thing weighs over 20 pounds without any ammunition and it is bulky as hell. It sucks to carry this bad boy around but shooting it makes it worthwhile. I am officially the backup machine gunner but there were two weeks when they decided that I would be the official one, including a week where we did a 28 km march. I carried nearly 30 kilo of weight due to that gun and its ammunition. I think that the harder things get physically, the more I rise to the challenge because although those two weeks left me drained physically, looking back and saying, wow I survived and excelled, gives you a great feeling.

Switching bases:
We moved bases from our old one to our advanced training one. Its pretty unbelievable, but the new base is worse than the old one, yay! Still in tents that leak with every rain, we have unreliable electricity and less outlets. Which means that they are always taken by the time you arrive to charge your own- fun! The base is smaller, though, which means less walking to and from places and the food is much higher quality. This is a huge point in its favor since to be honest, most weeks we are in the field and sleep on the base only two nights a week.

Socially: The army has been interesting socially. It still is hard for me due to the language and cultural gaps, but I am making friends and I really love the guys in my group except for a bunch, 4 or 5 or so rotten apples. This core can really drag down the rest of the company (29 guys in total). It took me a while to cope with this reality until my father gave me a great piece of advice. He said that there is no way for you to be friends with 28 guys. Find two or three guys that you will become super close with and ignore the bad apples. I have started applying this advice and found that I am enjoying the company more than ever and am much more relaxed than I was before.

Relaxation of discipline:
At a certain point, our commanders lowered the discipline. This means they give us more time to do things, we are allowed to address them by their names, and in general they treat us with more respect. As a 23 year old, this was a nice return to sanity. Of course, the company took this treatment as an excuse to lower our standards in meeting missions and tasks, which angered the commanders and as a result we have been getting punished and talked down to. Eventually, the situation got really bad, to the point where we got an talk by the brigade commander who didn't like what he was seeing. We'll see if the company gets back up to standard, I hope it will.

Marching on:
As I have already alluded to, we have been slowly advancing in length and difficulty the marches we do. We just did a 28 km march with 30% body weight. Our next march is 30+4 with 30% weight (the +4 is the number of km you do carrying a soldier on the stretcher), so wish me luck especially as I tend to get blisters from the marches that can be quite debilitating.

I am sorry for the delay in posts! Hope everyone enjoys.
Nate

A Packing List that is Actually Useful

Hey guys. As most of you know, I am in vacation mode right now, enjoying making my own schedule. I will write a post about that soon and what I have been doing in the army until now. But for now, with all my free time, I was thinking of posting information that would have helped me with my integration into the army. Therefore without further ado, here is the insider packing list that I would recommend to lone soldiers and this will give you guys some details and particulars of army life..

Bag: Don't take too many! There is no reason for taking more than one personal backpack to the army-seriously. The only time I can think of for taking two personal bags (on top of the two kit bag bets and one kit bag aleph) is if you are going to visit someone for the upcoming Shabbat and want to keep your Shabbat stuff separate from your gross army stuff.

I prefer taking one big personal bag with me to the army (I use the Garin Tzabar hiking backpack) for two reasons. The first is because backpacks have multiple pockets, allowing me to compartmentalize: valuable stuff such as the choger (army i.d. card), wallet, cellphone, iPod etc, kumta (beret), and keys in one, shoe polish and hygiene (toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shaver if you need it, etc) in another, and so on and so forth. Other people prefer using the big green kitbag aleph. After bakum, they take it home, unload it and then use it for their personal stuff. I don't and this is the second reason- because I am in Nachal and we don't have personal rooms, I have nowhere to store change of clothes, hence my kitbag aleph functions as my shelf.

Clothing: Not including the first week, you really don't need a lot. This is what I bring back and forth as laundry in my bag to the army. Three white undershirts- one for madei aleph (dress uniform), two for madasim (workouts). Three pairs of thick army socks and two pairs of thin white socks for workouts. Two madei bet (normal uniform). One pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, wool cap, neckwarmer, and gloves- for sleep in winter and indispensable for guard duty. One green thermal undershirt.

Hygiene: Deodorant, shower gel/shampoo, anti-fungal powder for the feet-believe me you don't want athletes foot, GoldBond-every guy will understand, toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss-extremely important.

Misc.: Any snacks or books that I have room for and my Tefillin (that I need for Friday and Sunday morning prayers).

Its not a lot, my bag is always fairly lightweight. The general principle is to pack as little as possible. Hope this helps to any future lone soldiers.

Reflection

           This past Shabbat, I was walking to the synagogue with my adopted family. We were talking about the fact that I am going home (tonight!) and my adopted father turned to me and said that aside from making sure I relax, this trip home would be a great time for me to reflect on my journey so far.

           I have thought about his statement, and its true, this is the perfect time to reflect on what I have gone through the past 7 months because yesterday I officially finished with my basic training and am about to have a two week leave in the U.S.

          I have left the country of my birth where I had a perfect life to a kibbutz in Israel's beautiful but embattled southern region, joined the IDF as a combat soldier in an intense unit and slowly begin to integrate myself into Israeli society.

          Here are my reflections so far:
          1. Strengths/Weaknesses: I love rising to the challenge. The physical workouts, sprints, living in the field, e.t.c spur me to work hard. The more shitty the conditions are, the more I am pushed to give my all and I have found that I have reservoirs of strength I never knew about. I am competitive and I view the hard times simply as a competition; this gives me the strength to overcome whatever we are going through. What gets me down is the social aspect of the army- the complaining, the unmotivated soldiers, the childish/selfish behavior of my fellow soldiers. This, therefore, is my challenge: finding a way to take my strength when it comes to the physical aspects of the army and applying it to the social side.

         2. Zionism/Motivation: Every lone soldier blog I read and everyone I talked with before doing the army told me that I would lose my motivation, that once in the army I would be "Shavuz:, an Israeli slang term for army depression, that my starry-eyed Zionism wouldn't last. I have not found that to be the case. I am still motivated and love this country with every fiber of my being. What is true is that I have been exposed to the reality of life in this country and in the IDF. Like any normal relationship, my expectations have been tempered by reality. But after moving here and being in the IDF, and seeing the valleys of life here, I am more convinced than ever of how right my decision was. I have no regrets and am proud of my decision.

        3. Time: Easily the greatest enemy of every soldier. The hardest aspect of the army BY FAR to adjust to. The fact of someone else controlling your life down to the second, and I literally mean to the second, is not easy for a college graduate to get used to. The other aspect of time that is so hard to deal with is just how slowly or quickly it goes by. A four hour shift of guard duty. Ten minutes to set up an entire shooting range with full gear on. Eight hours of sitting in classrooms and being expected to remember all the material. Four minutes to change from dress uniform to normal uniform. Failing to meet the order and so three and a half minutes to get back into dress uniform and then do it all over again. 35 minutes for meals, only an hour each day to shower, organize your stuff, call people, and eat non-army food. Time that is not yours, but the army's- this is the hardest part of the army. But I will say this. After being in the army, you truly value just how precious time is. When I have free time to relax on the kibbutz on Shabbat, I savor every moment. Without being too cheesy, I love G-d that much more for His gift of Shabbat after starting the army, really. For all those who make their own schedule, realize how much it is a luxury and not a given.


      4. Garin/Family: Of course there is no substitute for my family and I can not describe how happy I am that I get to see them in less than 24 hours! But there is no way I could do what I am doing without my Garin and adopted family. Knowing that I have 19 friends who I can call at any time and who will help me without a second thought is such a resource to rely upon. When I have had a long week filled with 18 year old Israelis, to be able to chill with my fellow Americans over beer and junk food, well, its just perfect. I really don't know how lone soldiers deal with the army without the Garin Tzabar framework.

Look out for more updates soon, I have plenty of free time all of a sudden to write.

Quick update

Hey guys, so I am about to have my break from the army that soldiers receive every 4 months or so and I will fly home to see my family in the States!!

During that time, I will fill you in on all the details and processes that I have done in the army when I have time to write. But basically, in the past few weeks, we have done a lot of shooting, I learnt how to shoot a machine gun, more marches and lots and lots of guard duty. Like I said, I will fill you in on all the details when I have a whole bunch of free time.

One last funny tragic note. I received a religious exemption to grow a beard during my army service. There was an accident in trimming my beard this past Thursday night and to fix it I had to reduce my beard to stubble. So please pray hard that I manage to keep my beard because after looking into the mirror I don't like my chances....

Fill you in soon and have a peaceful week.

A long overdue update

Hey everyone.
It has been over a month since I have written an update and as you can imagine, there is a ton of information to fill you in on. I am sorry that it has taken so long. Long story short: the charger to my computer died so I couldn't use it for about two to three weeks and then I have been busy during the weekends and I simply put the post on the backburner.

So this is what I did for the past month. The first week was spent in the field during field week, the second was also in the field and the theme was tzemed chulia (which I will explain). The third week was classes about first aid and the countries surrounding us; their political situations and military capabilities. And this past week I was sent to a driver's course. Let me go into a little detail.

The first week was called shavua sauduat (field week). This week is meant to try us to our limits and give us an idea of what it means to be an infantry soldier. You spend the week living in two-man tents that do little to stop the freezing cold. You eat combat rations on limited time for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Your commanders wake you up every night for all kinds of surprise wakeups: packing up camp and moving to another location at 3 AM, simulating a surprise enemy attack replete with tear gas, putting on gear, carrying your fellow soliders in fireman carry etc. Your nights are also spent guarding. Your days are spent on classes: camouflage, how to walk operationally, signals, how to build defensive positions, how to observe the field and what not to do. You are completely wiped and at wit's end and the commanders are down your throats at all moments. Even with all the added stress, you are expected to do the same things that you do every week: shine your shoes, workout etc. This was easily the hardest week that I have done in the army....but I loved every moment of it. I love challenges and this week of intense physical and mental challenges was just the kind of the experience I was expecting from the IDF. Whenever I had to carry another fellow soldier (and because I am a big guy, I was given all the other big guys to carry, including one guy who is easily 200 pounds/90kilos) or do other tasks, I was reminded of advice that our commander gave us that I really identified with. He said that in the army, you have to switch on a switch in your brain where you disconnect your mind from your body. If your mind says that you have to achieve this task, for example carrying your fellow soldier who represents a wounded soldier to an evacuation point, then your body will find a way no matter how much pain you are in. I was astounded by how much my company was able to achieve during this trying week. The army is a great laboratory for turning these boys into men.
       

At the end of this week there was a competition in my pluga between the different classes on all the stuff we learned. The competition consisted of a bunch of timed physical and mental challenges: such as crawling, stretcher runs, building positions, answering questions about the classes we took during the week. My class out of all the pluga won the competition and even though I fell on my elbow and got a spectacular bruise it was a fitting end to the week especially because it meant we got to leave early the following week!

We spent the Shabbat following field week in the mud and then were in the field again for tzemed chulia. Tzemed chulia is basically learning how the positions of how to fight and advance in two man and four man groups. This was a really cool week as we moved past stupid discipline and started the long process of becoming real soldiers. As I wrote, we got off early which was awesome.

The third week was a nice relaxing week after being in the field. Its amazing how much people take running water, hot showers, change of clothes, and cooked food for granted!! We spent the first few days in classrooms learning basic first aid and how to apply bandages and tourniquets. The last days of the week were spent learning about our enemies and their history and current situations. I won't lie- its scary knowing that our enemies are also working and organizing against us but although the classes were sobering, it also gave me motivation to know that our time spent as soldiers is not a waste, but a service that ensures our continued existence as the Jewish state. We spent the weekend on the base during guard duty and I must say that I have never seen such beautiful sunsets/sunrises than in the desert.

This past week was probably the most fun week I have had yet in the army. I was sent to a driver's course for an armored personnel carrier in a massive army base in the South. This base is amazing- it has gyms, incredible food, all kinds of courses, (girls :) and it was just a pleasure to be there. The course itself was fun. The vehicle I drove is really old and not really operational but it is used for training exercises and evacuating the wounded so it is still useful. Driving this monster up and down the desert was awesome and surprisingly easy.

And now here I am back on the kibbutz after another relaxing Shabbat writing this post to you in the late hours of the night/morning before going back to the army. I personally am doing great and really appreciating the support I get/give from the Garin, just being with everyone again is a balm to frayed nerves and stress. I definitely could not do without the framework it gives me.

Finally, my company is looking for help to raise some money to help out with gear that we need/desire for our training. Check out our donation page, written by another lone soldier in my class (shout-out to Shaul!) http://shaularmony.wordpress.com/donate/ . I would like to stress that we are not here to beg for money. If we don't receive a cent, we will survive albeit without the gear that we would like. We are looking for people who identify with and support our cause and are willing to donate. Have a great week everyone!

Seven, GO!

Hey everyone,

Here is the latest installment. Life continues in the crazy IDF. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of army life. We have shot a lot in the shooting range. We have progressed into shooting under time limits, night conditions, and a lot of practice. We have had additional krav maga sessions, learning and practicing for the army's fitness test, called the bochan maslul which includes jumping over walls, climbing up ropes, and crawling. Because I am a big guy, its really hard for me so I hope I will pass it.

We also have to constantly be checked on our preparedness for real time situations. This means that our magazines have to be filled with bullets, full canteens of water, etc. We are given an order called Seven, go! This means we have to put on helmets, knee pads, vest, unfold a stretcher, make a list of everything that is missing, clean our weapons, and do this all in seven minutes.

We have done two more marches, 6 KM and and 7 KM+1. The +1 means how many kilometers we do with the stretcher. Since I am the heaviest guy, I was carried on this march for the last kilometer. It was fun to be on the stretcher and watch the stars as my guys huffed and puffed carrying me!

In the past two weeks, we also had our swearing in ceremony at the Kotel. This is where you swear to defend the country. I had the best surprise of my life because the Sunday before the ceremony my father surprised me by buying a last minute ticket and coming. The army gave me a couple of of days off and I was able to show my dad around my kibbutz and tour with him. The visit recharged me and also reminded me of just how much I miss my family.

Well, army life continues and we slowly continue to get educated and transformed from boys into soldiers. The guys in my company are incredible except for a couple of idiots and I am enjoying my time there.

I am sorry I don't get to post too often, its just that i have such little free time. I will do my best to keep updating you.

N

A month in

Hello all,
Here is the quick update. I got accepted into the special brigade. I am still debating about whether to stay or not. The problem is that to do the special brigade requires more time and at 23 the question is it worth it. The tradeoff is between the specialized training and the time. I will let you know more as I go along.

That being said, I love the guys in my group. We are 14, 6 of whom are religious which is a big help to me, since I was worried that I would be the only religious guy in my group and feel isolated because of that. The guys are motivated and hard working, but also love to have fun. They come from all over Israel and a large number of them are kibbutzniks. Its nice to see that the secular ethos of serving the country is still around. I feel fairly confident in my Hebrew when I speak with them, though I sound like an idiot with my accent, but that should hopefully only improve.

So what have I been up to? I signed off on my gun and now have to carry it around everywhere, including when I sleep and go to the bathroom. Having a gun is a weird feeling. Coming from my suburban American background I thought it would be shocking to carry a gun, but to be honest, the gun is ANNOYING. It just gets in the way of everything and is just another thing to worry about not losing. If people lose their guns, they are in for a world of trouble as you can imagine.

Aside from that, the discipline has really kicked in. The commanders are really on top of us, most of our time is spent on stupid discipline, such as formations, morning inspections, and timed activities. Though they often yell at us, our commanders actually have great senses of humor and we try our best to make them laugh as much as possible. Throughout the day there are always plenty of moments when everyone is laughing which is a nice stress releaser.

This week was mostly spent in the shooting range. Our task was to be able to put three bullets in a target 25 meters away within 4 centimeters of each other. It took me a while but I accomplished it. Shooting is cool, though it is uncomfortable knowing that you are only learning how to shoot so that if it comes down to it you can harm or kill another human being. But that is what is required of us so that Israel survives, there is no other choice.

Aside from shooting, we also had classes on communications, improving and using our gear (straps for the gun, ropes on our canteens so that they don't fall out of the vest, etc), our first march- only 4 km and quite easy-, physical exercises: sit-ups, pushups, pull-ups, ropes, and krav maga. Krav Maga is quite insane. Its an hour of sprints, being in pushup position and pushing and shoving against opponents. The idea is to change us from civilians to aggressive, quick soldiers. While the first lesson was just sprints, the second lesson had us lining up against an opponent and trying to shove him to the opposite end of the court. I got paired with a  massive Israeli who is even bigger than I am. We had an epic battle and I think I won. By the end of the lesson we were all wiped. Unfortunately, a person in my group hurt his shoulder during this activity just to give you an idea of how physical the action was.

On Wednesday, an massive storm hit Israel. There was snow in the North and torrential downpours in the South (see below for pictures). Our tents were destroyed, flying in the air or being torn up by the massive winds and rain. The electricity on the base went out and we were forced to sleep in an auditorium between the seats. To be honest, it was a fun experience seeing the force of Nature in all her power. Anyways, on Thursday I was given a day off to deal with bureaucracy. I got a document which will let me leave the country even if I don't have an Israeli passport, and other little details pertaining to lone soldiers that I had to deal with. Then I got home.

Its only since I have been in the army that I began to truly appreciate how nice the kibbutz is. The laundry, the food, and of course the people in my garin and adoptive family make my life so much easier, though of course they are no match for my real family who I miss so much.

Today we went on a tiyul to see the flash floods that have sprung up all over the Negev due to the rains. It was stunningly beautiful. One of the rivers was called Nahal Gerar. This is of course from the Bible, Genesis 20:1. These rare moments when you realize that only in this country could you be in the same place where your forefathers lived and walked makes this whole experience worth it.

Shabbat Shalom!

In the Army

I finally started. On Wednesday the 20th, I spent a interminably long day at the induction center getting vaccinations, pictures taken, and generally poked and prodded as well as getting my uniform for the first time. I have to say it was a great feeling to put on the olive green uniform of the IDF. For the first time, I was a soldier protecting my country and it felt wonderful.

Wednesday night we drove to our base in Arad. There I had a interview with a social worker and was directed to the tent that I will call home for the next 4 months. I won't bore you with details about army life. Its enough to know that it is and isn't what you would think it is. The little stupid rules and regulations of every army about time, polishing your boots etc are true. But what I have found is that individual soldiers can really turn to their commanders about anything without feeling like they are going above their station. Maybe its an Israeli thing, but the flippant way soldiers talk to their superiors is funny and incredible.

Anyways, about me. I went to an intensive three day tryout last weekend for the special brigade of my division. I did this because the soldiers in this brigade are more motivated, more professional, receive better assignments and gear and on the whole it is a more interesting service. The companies in this brigade are specialized in things like communications, missiles, and recon so I am interested to see if I made the tryout and where I will be placed.

If you want to hear details about the tryout, message me and I will tell you but suffice it to say that it melded into a three day nightmare that consisted of army crawling over rocks and thorns, sprints, marches with 75 kg stretchers, group activities, digging trenches, eating combat rations (lots and lots of tuna) and drinking incredible amounts of warm water.

I am about to head off to the army tomorrow and its late but hope you guys enjoy the image:

Drafting on Wednesday!

Well, I have not written in a long time and so much has happened, I don't know where to begin.

Our Garin presentation to the kibbutz went quite well. Here is the video that we made (its in Hebrew however): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHa8fsEB8ts

On the Friday, November 8th, the news finally came in. I am drafting into the Nachal infantry division of the IDF. I am very happy because this division is known for having very good conditions for lone soldiers and in general having a high quality soldier. I was-and am- very nervous and excited.

Anyways, after the weekend where we presented our name, גרעין אית"י, which stands for the Land of Israel, Torat Israel, on Sunday, we went to the Palmach museum in Tel Aviv which, though I have been there already, was always interesting. We then had another interminable ceremony with Garin Tzabar and an Israeli politician, Danny Dayon. I don't know what the organization's obsession is with ceremonies, but what can you do.

That night, we were woken up in the middle of the night by our staff and were forced to do a stretcher run (where we run with people on stretchers while carrying them on our shoulders) to mark the end of the absorption period. They had an officer who was in an elite unit of the IDF run the exercise. The guy even brought a smoke grenade to make us run through. The guys carried the girls for 2k+, needless to say people were upset since we weren't in the army yet and it was the middle of the night.

Tto top it all off, the next day, that Monday was a day long competition with the organization called Acharai. This organization was the one that ran workouts for us and this day was a competition versus other Garinim. Due to certain factors, the girls of our Garin were not there so it was just guys and we had a blast. For example, one activity was to pad an egg, throw it as far as possible and hope that it wouldn't break. One of the guys in our group had a hard-boiled egg for lunch and so when they weren't looking we swapped the eggs and threw the hard-boiled one. At the end of the day, we found out that we won and we all celebrated by going crazy.

The next day, we went on our 3 day tiyul up to the Golan. We visited Caesara on the way up, and then did hikes through the Golan as well as going to a chocolate factory. It was a great time and now we are here, a few days before my draft!

I plan on visiting people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and then packing before the big day.

Nate

Quick update

I left off about whether or not I would decide to get the combat envelope or not. I decided on combat, and will post my reasons why below. I am still waiting on the army to get back to me for my job and so I am frustrated because I don't know exactly where they will place me.

Aside from that, life is GREAT. The past two weeks have been some of the best in my life. I love the group of people in my Garin, we have a great blend of serious, funny, nerdy, and all-around good people. We are making a movie to present to the kibbutz what we decided to be our name. Stay tuned, when it is done, I will post it here. I love my adoptive family, we are slowly getting closer and they let me do my laundry by them which is a huge favor. Apart from that, I am working on my Hebrew and working out. I feel good and excited for the army. Our staff has calmed down a lot and gives us much more free time and leeway and so everyone is super happy. In other news, I started on the process of getting my Israeli license and already took a few lessons. Aside from parallel parking which makes no sense, I felt confident on the roads.

Miss you guys. Stay in touch.

Here is what I wrote to my family explaining my decision to go combat:

Hey guys,

            I am writing to explain my decision to accept the combat envelope and become a combat soldier. On the most basic level, I am 23 years old and I am the age where I make my own decisions such as this one. Nonetheless, I want to explain myself so that you understand my motives and goals and maybe one day even come to support this.

            I don’t need to explain the religious and Zionist reasons that caused me to make aliyah, after all I learnt and imbibed them in our house. In regards to combat or not, looking at the decision dispassionately, why do it if the country is not requiring me to do it by law? After all, there are non-combat roles where I can contribute to the country.

While this is true, the simple fact is that Israel DOES need combat soldiers. There needs to be someone manning the borders 24/7, there needs to be someone who is trained to deal with all eventualities. I know that the country by law doesn’t require me to do combat, but I personally could not live with myself knowing that I had the capabilities and motivation to protect the country but did not. My degree and schooling are not going anywhere, but this is the only opportunity I have to do this. I feel that if I am going to live here, then as my blood is no redder than any other Israeli, I have the responsibility to give my best to the IDF. I also think that in opposition to what you guys have been saying, the IDF is best served by my serving as a combat soldier. The non-combat roles are given to those with medical issues or incredible intellects; my biology degree is perhaps only useful as a doctor which I do not want to do in the first place. I want to serve, I am highly motivated and physically fit, as such I think that I have a responsibility to do this and furthermore I think that my being a religious oleh can serve as an example to the other Israelis in my unit.

I know that I will be putting myself in harm’s way and causing you guys worry. Combat soldiers are the price Jewish independence demands, however, there is simply no way around it. I am no better or worse than the average Israeli who causes the same reaction in his own family.

I am also not an idiot, I am not doing this to be a hero or think that the service will somehow be “fun”…it will be long, painful at times, boring and full of unmotivated Israelis. But this is for me to do because I feel that I have to do this and as such, I will deal with it.

I am not asking you for to be happy with this decision or even understand it. All I can ask is that you respect my decision and know that it has been in the making for over five years, it is not a spur of the moment thing.