Reach for the Sky

Although eleven grandchildren so far, including the present four, have served in the IDF I still get a lump in my throat when I see them for the first time in  uniform. These carefree 18/19 year olds who, only yesterday,  were finishing  high school, have been transformed into serious, responsible adults, prepared to defend their country and protect its citizens.

There hasn’t been a regular Jewish army for 1,800 years! Jews were known as the People of the Book and have had to survive without a Homeland all that time by using the only weapons they had – brains and ingenuity.

The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) was formed in 1948.

On the very day that the State of Israel was declared in 1948 the Arabs began to attack the fledgling state - 6 wars and countless terrorist attacks later, they are still  attacking Israeli civilians of every age and gender. Consequently, in order to survive, the Israelis' have had to apply the same brains and ingenuity (plus a good slice of the budget), to the art of warfare. 

Perhaps one of the best examples is the birth of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) which the Israelis developed in the 1980’s. The team which developed the UAV’s included  one of my sons.  After having served for five years in a commando regiment, he became a mechanical engineer in the army for a further twenty years.  Today, we are the leading country in the development and operation of UAV’s and export pilotless planes and knowhow to many countries.

One of my grandsons took the pilot course and is now, after almost nine years in the airforce,  involved in the operation of the UAV’s.The following is a first-hand description of what it can involve:  

                                                    

“You look at the screen and can’t believe your eyes!

That’s the situation  in Israel’s  war against terror.

I  find it utterly incomprehensible  how anyone can endanger his children and family.  That’s what goes through my head when I see a “wanted” Hamas terrorist holding the hand of his son. In the middle of a war! In the headquarters of Hamas!  And myself?  My hands are tied - I can’t do anything. Women and children are out of the picture. Those are the orders of the IDF.   

I took part in the Protective Edge campaign (Iron Dome)  as an operator of a drone, an aircraft manned from afar. During the whole of the fighting, one of our jobs was – to protect the Palestinian population in Gaza. To protect against whom?  From  airstrikes  of the Israeli airforce. You ask  yourself,  why does the airforce blow up houses in Gaza on one hand  and, on the other hand, use all their resources in order to prevent hitting the civilian population? I will try to explain why.

The IDF is a unique army. The only army which allocates  a considerable amount of its resources to prevent harming innocent citizens. Airstrikes which are clever, small and very accurate, via intelligence resources which can pinpoint the “bad guys” within the population, together with trained soldiers. Because the Israeli army is trained not to harm innocent men, women and children.

So how, for all that, do citizens get hurt?   Hamas understands that that is the “legitimate” way to fight us. They know that it is our weak point. So they exploit it by hiding lethal weapons underneath mosques, inside schools, houses and any place which we are prevented from hitting.

Who endangers the Palestinian civilians? Hamas. Not the IDF and not Israel. Hamas are the ones who make their own  people become reluctant participants in  the  war arena. Hamas is responsible for the blood being spilled in the Gaza Strip."