Day Two - Defending the State with the IDF

Today was another long and interesting day.  At least we did some travelling heading north to both the Syrian and Lebanese borders to visit with the IDF.

We began by observing a military exercise in the Golan with the 188th Tank Brigade.  (USCJ is familiar with this brigade through the experiences of our friend Joel Chernoff and his book The 188th Crybaby Brigade.)  What I found most interesting was the juxtaposition of workers in a vineyard while across the street, literally across the street, 6 tanks and two armored personnel carriers loaded with Nahal special forces attacked and captured a hill.  I suppose it's the perfect metaphor for Israel -- working the land and defending it.  May we see the day when we can simply rest under our vines drinking wine and enjoying peace.

We then traveled to the base and met with the Brigade Commander.  He shared with us the history of the brigade, which is also the history of Israel's wars.  Founded in 1948 the brigade captured Haifa for the new State.  67 saw it capturing the Northern Golan and Sammaria.  73 they were the first to engage the Syrians taking heavy losses -- 112 killed including the commander, deputy commander and other officers.  The brigade was taken out of the fight following those losses, but the soldiers gathered together, rebuilt the brigade and by the end of the war they were the first to reach within 75km of Damascus.

Many questions were asked but the most memorable for me were the main lessons learned from Lebanon II: the importance of clearly articulated goals, directing resources to meet them and practice -- a lot.  The commander also answered, rather matter of fact, that the mission today is to conquer Damascus.  He drew a distinction between Hezbollah which is a well trained force that can cause trouble, but is unable to conquer Israel and Syria which has an army and equipment that is.

I was particularly struck by the commander's comment that the superiority of the IDF is its soldiers, young educated men and women committed to defending their homes.  On this point the commander from the Lebanese border said that his hardest, and most important job, is to take young boys and girls and make them into soldiers and to take soldiers and make them into young adults.  In this way, the IDF truly does defend the State -- from enemies foreign and within.

The soldiers in particular were very happy and moved by our visit.  They told us "you help us to protect the country."

The day concluded at Decks restaurant in Tiberius where we honored and engaged with Israel's forest and fire experts and discussed the recent Carmel forest fires.  We sat with Omri Bonneh who is the head of JNF's Northern Forests.  By way of comparison he told us that the Carmel fires were to Israel what losing Yellowstone would have been to the US.  WOW!  8000 acres.

Interesting elements of the discussion:

*  Did you know that Israel does not have natural fires?  None at all because there are no dry electrical/lighting storms.  Every fire in Israel, then, is started either by negligence or arson.
*  The conference began this year with a trip to Greece that I did not attend.  The Greeks essentially put the fire out.  They were 1 1/2 hours away and arrived just five hours after being called with brigades and planes and other equipment.  By the time others arrived to assist the fires were mostly out.  My colleagues tell me that the Greeks were visibly moved by their experience.  They were very impressed by the courage and tenacity of their Israeli counterparts and totally moved by the reaction of average Israelis who brought them gifts, food and supplies.
*  Much has to be accomplished in learning the lessons from this fire, but the leaders we met with felt that those lessons were being learned.