FIDF Staff Mission. Day 5.
Well, today it’s time to leave the Hilton. A bittersweet parting.
Anyway, I woke up around 7, got ready and tried to make sure all my stuff is packed. Odds I left things in the room are high. Ari (our COO and trip leader) had said that he didn’t want everyone showing up to the bus at 7:55 having to put their bags in because then we wouldn’t leave by 8, so I had my bags on the bus by 7:35. Pretty good, right? With the 25 minutes I had, I opted to go downstairs for breakfast today. The buffet was beautiful, as expected. Problem is, who’s actually hungry that early. I had some coffee and pastries, and then we were off.
Our first drive was to the North, but not that North, so it took an hour and change. The first stop of the day was at Havat Hashomer. This is a training base for men who need to go through a special type of basic training. It’s targeted for at-risk youth, the most challenging guys. Everyone can be a polished diamond. We heard from Liron, a Lieutenant Colonel who was very pregnant with her 3rd girl, and her oldest is barely 4. The idea behind the base is that the IDF is the army of the people. We know that in Israeli society, army service is a huge deal, so they are trying to give this opportunity to people who may not have been able to go to the army. For many of them, the army didn’t even want them to begin with and they asked to join. Others are told once they go through intake (which I discussed a few days ago) that they must begin their training here. These are guys from a variety of challenging backgrounds, low socioeconomic status, come from bad families, criminal records, lack education, etc. The key is to take their special talents and direct them to the right place. So she gave the example of a drug dealer – in his “work” he needs to be sneaky, smart, a salesman – all qualities that can be useful for a certain type of soldier.
The training here is 10-12 weeks, whereas regular IDF basic training is 3 weeks. They learn about responsibility and discipline. They help them choose their profession in the army and even help them after. What’s notable is that all of the head commanders are female. They think being around females make the guys less combative, and they are also better listeners. Their deputies can be men, but the head commanders are all female. It’s all about building self esteem through small things, building trust. Eighty percent of those who start here graduate from the program, and then 70% of those who graduate finish their army service. 2-3 percent to go elite units. There are 9 cycles each year of 150 soldiers each. We heard from a couple of soldiers. One was a professional soccer player who was told he needed to come here first. He only joined post October 7th. The other was from a Charedi family who fell in with the wrong crowd on the streets and wanted to pull his life together.
We ate lunch there, and this was really our first legitimate base lunch, though we definitely had more variety than the soldiers. But I’ll say, it was definitely army base food. No need to say more.
From there we drove about 45 minutes to the west bank to the Efraim Brigade and visited with the Panther Battalion. They set up so nicely and gave us all hats and keychains, and of course cake and drinks. Anyway, The West Bank is divided into 6 brigades, and each has an Area A city, so this one’s is Qalqilya, which is just steps from Netanya and is where the 2nd intifada started with the Pesach bombing. The Panther Battalion was established in June 2023 and is actually a co-ed Battalion. It was decided that this area needed a permanent Battalion, as opposed to Battalions that came in and out for a few months and then would switch. Having a Battalion that really knows the area well is more worth it.
We heard from the head of Operations in the Panther Battalion. Notable that she is from Gush Katif and was 9 when she was kicked out of her home. The Battalion had 4 months of training, then advanced training, and then urban training. When they started they had lots of attempted fence crossings, but now there are less because they know the Battalion is there. The violence has increased since October 7. People cut the fence, which has indicators but is not electric.
We heard from some of the soldiers there, a few lived in local settlements like Ariel. They showed us some of their gear and I got to try on a vest. It was heavy. And smelly. I gave them letters from HAFTR kids and they were genuinely surprised that people care so much. I told them all HAFTR kids learn is to love the IDF and Israel. I showed them a video HAFTR posted of kids just thanking chayalim. They were really surprised and touched by it. It was nice.
We saw their observation room, the same kind of room we saw yesterday at Nachal Oz that had been burned out. We weren’t allowed to bring our phones in but we literally watched the women just watching the computers. They have 4-hour shifts. This is a female only job because females have better focus and are more likely to notice a small detail change, like if a rock is somewhere one day that wasn’t there the previous day. The woman speaking to us said that some of the people there trained with the women who were in Nachal Oz and it was just random who was sent where. I asked one of them about how she felt hearing that the women of Nachal Oz were ignored when they gave warnings. She said it’s really hard and was really demoralizing, but you have to just pull yourself up and do your job even better.
We stopped at an observation point just to see the local settlements and Arab towns. She said there are Palestinians who just want to live in peace, and many that had work permits. After October 7th those have been severely limited. I asked how the trust is after we know that Gaza workers were some of the terrorists, and she said the trust is broken and it’s a really hard situation now. She thanked us for our work and obviously we thanked her for hers.
Next was on to Jerusalem!! We pulled up at the Nefesh B’Nefesh center, which is in Cinema City and right next to the Waffle Factory (you can imagine how depressing it was to bypass that restaurant). It’s the relatively new building which was gorgeous. We went into a room and got a presentation from the head of the Lone Soldiers at NBN. We had a subpar dinner there (why can’t they just give us some falafel and hummus?). Anyway, we were assigned to tables with lone soldiers. Our two were actually brothers in law. One was from NY and had gone to an Italian private school and then decided to go to Gush to learn. The other was from Portland. They married sisters. I also met a lone soldier who is the daughter of someone I worked with at JNF. Small world.
Then it was finally time to go to the hotel. Now, of course the Hilton Vista Level in Tel Aviv was nice, but you know what’s nicer? The Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem. We pulled up, I walked in the doors, and I felt like I was home. There was a beautiful spread, champagne, and our keys. They swept our luggage away. I don’t know, I mean the Hilton Vista level was really an amazing experience, but you can tell when you walk into a Waldorf that it is just another level of luxury. THIS is why the hotel is the destination for me, and I will die on this hill. The room had wine, pastries, and fruit. Of course, as we know, the bathtubs here are wonderful and the rooms are spacious. I was so happy.
I decided I needed a second dinner, so Sarah and I walked to Mamilla and sat outside at Café Rimon. The café was packed with Israelis, which is a nice contrast to any other time I’m there and all of the Americans are in town. On the flipside it’s depressing because people really aren’t visiting. Sarah got a Caesar with salmon and I got an Asian Noodle Stir fry with peanuts. We also both got Lotus shakes but I really didn’t like mine so I had to stop at Golda for ice cream, where I got White Chocolate Pretzel and Cookieman flavors. It was so delicious.
We got back to the hotel and joined some people hanging out in the lobby. Of course we ordered some tea because God forbid we not continue eating or drinking. Great day.