Grandma's army

  I believe it was Golda Meir who coined the phrase: “We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs - we have no place to go.” Because Israel MUST fight every battle to the death. When you fight for your home, family, friends and colleagues with your back up against the wall, there is no more dangerous and deadly enemy. Any number of Arab leaders have been quite clear that their intent is to finish what Hitler started. The motivation to fight is extremely strong. The IDF has a very effective feedback mechanism for combat performance. Due to its small size, it learns lessons fast and well, and has serious public discussions when poor military performance happens. Improvements are swift and effective. This comes along with a democratic state that highly values the lives of its soldiers, which is unusual in the region.   The IDF does the best it can with both great tactics in battle, and by avoiding to fight the battles it can win with brains. Jews are resou...

  Since their expulsion from Jordan in 1970, a force of close to 18,000 PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) members were encamped in scores of locations in Lebanon. It was estimated that 5,500 were foreign mercenaries from Libya, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka, Chad and Mozambique. Israel later discovered enough light arms and other weapons to equip five brigades: Katyushka rockets, anti-aircraft network, hundreds of tanks. Syria brought surface-to-air missiles – creating yet another danger for Israel. Israeli strikes and commando raids were unable to stem the growth of this PLO   army. The situation in northern Israel became a living hell. Thousands of residents either had to flee from their homes, or to spend large amounts of time in bomb shelters. Israel was not prepared to wait for more deadly attacks to be launched against its civilian population before acting against the terrorists. Following the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London, Israel att...

                                                                                                           Unfortunately, no country which is surrounded by hostile forces can survive without an army. Sadly, the world has yet to accept the Jewish nation’s full return to their ancient Homeland. Until they are fully accepted by the world, they must be ready to defend their country. The Jews went from being a defenseless people, before modern Israel existed, to now having a state with an amazing capacity to defend itself. The Israeli army can best be described by its contrasts. On one hand, it is a modern army, founded in 1948. On the other hand, it traces its earliest t...

At the end of the War of Independence, the IDF had over 100,000 full-time men and women in uniform, as compared to the mere handful of full-time soldiers at its beginning. In addition to 12 brigades, mostly infantry, it had several regiments of artillery. The first armoured regiments were equipped with light armoured vehicles: some captured, some "requisitioned" from the departing British troops; a few tanks; including two Cromwells "bought" from the withdrawing British, and some reconstituted from American scrap. The Navy consisted, at first, of reconverted illegal immigrant vessels. There were the elements of an Air Force - Spitfires and Messerschmidts, acquired mainly in Czechoslovakia. Also, light civilian planes which the Haganah had used for reconnaissance and communications purposes. Some World War II US war surplus bombers, which had been used as scrap, were bought. These carried out their first "strategic attack" on Cairo, en route to Israel...

  The War of Independence of the Jewish people in the land of Israel began on the 29th of November 1947 -   a result of the Arabs’ objection to the UN resolution regarding the partition of the country into an Arab state, and a Jewish state. The Arab population within Mandatory Palestine immediately rejected the resolution, and declared war on the Jews. The goal of the Arabs was initially to block the Partition Resolution and to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state. The Jews, on the other hand, hoped to gain control over the territory allotted to them under the Partition Plan. Up until 1 April 1948, it was the Arabs in Palestine who took the offensive - with the help of volunteers from neighboring countries. The yishuv suffered severe casualties and disruption of passage along most of the major highways. From April until May 14 th 1948, the Haganah and Etzel forces succeeded in launching attacks against the Arabs, in which, the force of Palestinian Arabs wa...

  “The only reason Israel goes to war is to defend itself. And it has to defend itself because it is surrounded by countries, and armed groups, that want to destroy it”. The above was stated by Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British army officer, who has more experience in war and terrorism than almost anybody. He was Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, and has fought in combat zones around the world, including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Macedonia and Iraq. He was also present throughout the conflict in Gaza in 2014. Among other awards, he was made the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 He stated that, nowhere was the essential morality and decency of the IDF more evident than in the Gaza War. In the first six months of 2014, Hamas (designated as a terror organization by the US State Department) launched hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians. If ever there was a purely defensive war, that was it. After repeated warnings from Israel to stop, the Is...

Although my grandchildren served in different sectors of the army, there was one significant feature of their training which was common to them all. It has been designated with the title “tohar haneshek” Literally translated, it means “Purity of Arms” and is a unique Israeli term. The term was coined by Berl Katznelson, who was one of the intellectual founders of Labor Zionism. It was unanimously   adopted by all leaders of the yishuv (Mandatory Palestine),   irrespective of their political and social orientation. They proclaimed: “we have to learn about weapons, and to carry them, but we do not want those weapons to be stained   with innocent blood.” This has become a guiding motto ever since. The application of “Purity of Arms " appeared for the first time in 1939 upon the growing Arab terror attacks on the Jewish “yishuv” (mandated Palestine).   The main Zionist paramilitary organization at the time was simply called   the “Haganah” (the Defence)...

ARMY NEWS Five of my grandchildren are still serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. Memi, who is a commander in a prestigious commando unit of the IDF, has decided to extend his army service. He  is at present participating in a three month’s course. This includes soldiers from all sections of the army. They will be serving as future commanders  of platoons in their particular field. Some time during the course they will be flown to Poland for a week’s tour,  where they will be learning about the Holocaust. This is part of a project called “Witnesses in Uniform”. One of his trainees is his cousin Ohad, who was the first of my triplet grandsons to join the IDF. He was recruited over two years ago, and has already carried out various undisclosed missions His brother Amitai, serving in an armoured battalion, is now a platoon commander. He has recently been promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Aviad is the last one of the triplets to join the IDF and is serving in th...

Israel's management of the coronavirus epidemic is proving to be one of the most challenging events since the establishment of the state. Meanwhile, IDF recruitment continues as usual, as does combat training, with adjustments made in order to comply with the guidelines of the Health Ministry.  To date, 23 IDF soldiers have contracted the coronavirus, and 5,600 soldiers are in quarantine, of which 240 are “lone soldiers.” With four grandchildren in the IDF, I was interested to hear from them how the coronavirus impacts on their army service: Amitai , who is in the Armoured Corps, began an officer’s course 7 months ago and last week the concluding ceremony was held – for the first time, with no family or friends with whom to share their celebration. The course was carried out as always, beginning with the cadets from all of the ground forces. The subjects they studied were focused mainly on leadership, ethical values, command and basic warfare. The coronavirus ...

In Israel, the boundaries between the home-front and the army are very blurred. My son and family, who live in the south, are constantly being bombarded by   missiles from the Gaza Strip - by air and ground. Two weeks ago, 700 missiles were fired from Gaza to the south of Israel! in which several civilians were killed. One rocket even reached Tel-Aviv.  At the same time, their youngest daughter (Adi) is an army instructor. She belongs to a corps which teaches soldiers, taken from   all the army’s ground forces, how to use the different weapons used to locate and destroy enemies and armament - in order to clear the area.   It’s hard for me to picture Adi, who is an extremely feminine young woman of 20, instructing soldiers on how to use lethal weapons. These include a particular type of rocket called “Gil”, which was developed in Israel. With the means of a special device the “Gil” can follow any target, even a moving one. The shooter can manoeuvre the rocket ...