Diary Of A Female Reserve IDF Soldier

By Y. Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Hey Everyone! First of all I apologize to all of you who are sending me emails or requests and not getting an answer. I have been up north for two weeks and my access to internet is very limited. I assure you that you will all get nice long answers when this blows over. I am currently in reserve duty with the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) spokesperson unit. I am back in uniform again and stationed up north (yes – where all the bombings are..yikes). In my position I am working with the foreign press who want to interview soldiers and commanders. Its very very interesting, I get to meet journalists from all over the world, even got to share a bomb shelter with CNN’s Anderson Cooper the other day…

Although it was only been two weeks, it seems like I’ve been through a little part of history. First of all, No matter how much you read about it in the newspaper, or how much of the 12 hour a day news you watch, until you start driving up north u don’t realize that its a freaking WAR, and its only a few bus stops away. Here in the comfort of my home I can drive around freely, go for a jog and then later stand in the long line in front of the nearest bar/night club. An hour north and two days prior however, I was walking around in uniform, and driving through a shower of Hezbollah rockets randomly burning parts of the most beautiful landscape in Israel. I am not a very religious person, but you get the eerie feeling in that area that everything now is between you and G-d. The Katyusha rocket that landed a few yards from you could have landed on your head.

There is not much you can do if you are out of the shelter and the rockets are launched, just look towards the sky to see where they are headed, and to silently pray that god/luck/fate will let you off the hook this time. Today for instance I was crossing the street in Metula when the siren came off. I dont know the area so I just went into the nearest building and hid behind a wall. In my pocket I happened to have a “Thhilim” prayer book that some “Habad” people gave out to all the soldiers yesterday, so I took it out and held it in my hand. You never know… I am working with a team of great reserve soldiers, most of them older and more experienced than me. In our group of spokespeople you can find communications professor, a former advisor to the British parliament, a CEO of a big investment company and even a LA based screenwriter. We all came together to try to improve Israels public image, a tough and rarely rewarding job as you can imagine. So here we are, all looking awkward in our uniforms, on a diet consisting mainly of grilled cheese sandwiches, briefing journalists and trying to look cool when we hear the occasional sound of a katyusha falling, or “a fall” for short. I am getting quite good at telling the difference between the sound of a katyusha and the sound of IDF fire. It’s amazing how fast you can adjust to the new situation. Although some of the pictures from Lebanon even G-d himself couldn’t explain, we still have occasional successes and days when we go to sleep knowing we’ve done something good. The other day we sat for a few hours with the new NY times correspondent to the area and had the opportunity to comfortably and elaborately explain our take on the conflict to the new guy on the block.

A little earlier we sat with a CNN reporter over a bowl of watermelon and watched some footage taken by the IDF in Lebanon. Its hard to describe the rush you feel when you open the television at night and see the fruits of your work. The footage is the one you yourself helped to pick out, and the IDF spokesperson team that is mentioned on the broadcast, is…well, you. Saying that, we still have a lot of hard work to do, so hard that sometimes you get the feeling that perhaps you can never win. It seems that we are held to such high standards by the world (which by the way isn’t a compliment) that we are expected to tip toe our way through a war against such a deadly, dangerous enemy. While literally half of the land and population of Israel is under attack daily by hundreds of missiles launched by those who publicly state that we have no right to exist, it seems many people in the world ignore this fact and in their silent way strengthen Hezbollah. You don’t have to support their cause to make them strong, all you have to do is disregard millions of Israelis under attack or dismiss Hezbollah acts of terror as a romantic “cultural middle eastern thing” that we in the west shouldn’t judge. Just a few hours ago I read an article in the NYtimes about the events today in the mid-east. After describing in detail the Israeli attacks in Lebanon, it stated somewhere in the middle of the article that a woman and her two adult daughters were killed in Israel. It sickened me that they found it important to mention that her daughters were adults (aged 31 & 33) so that G-d forbid you won’t think they were children and accidentally sympathize. The women were Fadia, Samira and Sultana Fugama, may this blog pay them more respect than the times. A cartoon I got in hebrew sums the situation up perfectly. An Israeli officer on the left is screaming an IAF pilot : “There was a whole family there, how could you have shot them?!”. The Hezbollah commander on the right is screaming at his terrorist: “There was a whole family there, how could you have missed them??” Need I say more? Anyway, I need to go, promise I’ll have an update soon.. Take care and love you all! Y.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006 Cease fire?

Hey everyone, I’m almost done with my reserve duty and soon it will be back to reality for me. The best word to describe the situation here the past few weeks is: surreal. On the beautiful hills of the Galilee, tanks are scattered randomly and blend in with the view in an eerie way. On each hillside you can spot a group of soldiers, their green uniform making them appear a natural part of the view. The few residents of the nearby villages that havent fled the area bake the soldiers cakes, offer to charge their cell-phone batteries, and even drive them sometimes to their homes so they can take a decent shower. I know for many people in the world a soldier is a meaningless word, something that is not quite human. In Israel, we are all soldiers and we all have brothers, sisters, sons and daughters in the army. There is rarely any sympathy around the world upon hearing of a soldiers death. Im sure for many people Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers are more or less the same thing armed individuals using violence. But while one army is aimed for the destruction of a state and considers murder of innocent civilians a victory, the other is made out of students, lawyers, farmers, actors and what not, who are fighting for one sole purpose protecting the people of Israel from Hezbollahs deadly attacks. Most of you have probably already heard this phrase: If the radical Islamists laid down their weapons there will be peace, If Israel laid down its weapons it would not survive. The whole area is filled with 2 very different and equally interesting species:Soldiers and Journalists. Anyone else in his right mind would have already run away from the constant katyusha bombings that blindly target anyone in their way. Metula, for instance, a beautiful storybook town just on the Lebanese border, has become quite a strange sight. The green views and European style streets are fairly empty, and most of the residents have packed their things in a hurry and moved to a safer place. Driving through Metula at night is an amazing experience that is fascinating to anyone interested in media affairs – All is dark except for the lights of camera crews on every block like fireflies, and all is silent except for the sound of many correspondents reporting in different languages on the hills.

Streets where people usually live their normal daily lives have become a hotspot for the media. The quiet, sleepy town of Metula has become a little like a local Washington DC. The other day I was sitting in the lobby of a cozy boutique hotel ironically named House of Peace, enjoying the free coffee and internet access that the owner happily provides to the soldiers in the area. I sat on a leather couch for about an hour in the fancy lobby, watching news on a big screen TV and peeking over my shoulder at the famous NBC correspondent typing away on his computer. Only when the sirens came off every 20 minutes was I reminded that Im not in the plaza. As long as NBC isnt running to the shelter, neither will I. Have I already said surreal?? Speaking of journalists, someone has to take care of all these reporters and fulfill their needs and thats where the IDF spokesperson comes in. We get dozens of requests a day to interview soldiers, film tanks and of course every journalists wet dream be embedded with the troops in Lebanon. Every few nights we embed some lucky and brave reporter with the IDF combat soldiers going into battle. Basically, while Israeli soldiers are entering Lebanon with a heavy heart and wouldnt be there if their people werent under attack, journalists from all over the world are standing in line, kicking and screaming for us to get them in. Usually they have already been in places like Iraq and Kosovo, and Lebanon is another notch on the belt for them. The results for us have been very good. When someone spends time with the troops, gets to know the soldiers, see the dangers they face and the cruel enemy they are dealing with he can really learn to sympathize and understand the Israeli point of view. He can see firsthand how careful these young men and women of the IDF are, and how they try to minimize casualties on both sides. Its funny, while a lot of narrow-minded people are labeling us as human right violators; the only ones who truly believe that we are humane and sensitive are Hezbollah. Of course for them this insight is what makes them hide within civilian population centers and store weapons in schools and hospitals, because they know we wont target those places. Perhaps someone should consult the terrorists before writing up a report about the area, they seem to mock our value for human lives and take advantage of our strange western values of cherishing life rather than worshipping death. Anyway, hopefully this is my last blog on this subject, although we are all joking that well probably meet up here again next year, judging by hezbollahs motivation. People are slowly getting used to the ceasefire, starting to crawl out of the bomb shelters and carefully drive back to their homes in the north. A third species is joining the journalists and the soldiers today: regular people. They are returning to their homes, hoping to find them in one piece. Some one pointed out that its the first time in three weeks that he heard the sound of children playing.

Hopefully they will be playing for a long time.

Y. is a 24 years old from Israel. Finishing my BA in government studies and counter-terrorism.