Golani soldiers get hot girlfriends?
I've been wanting to post about this one guy in my unit and his girlfriend for, oh I don't know, maybe about four months now. Forever ago we were on a bus heading to a different base to do some training, and he used my cell phone to access an Israeli version of MySpace or Facebook. He wanted to show me pictures of his girlfriend. "OK," I thought. "This'll be interesting." Now, this guy is very nice. He's quiet and kind and well-behaved. He temper doesn't flare over every little thing, and he knows how to talk to people calmly. In short, he's basically un-Israeli. He's a good seed. However, his beauty is, how would you say, found on the inside. Don't get me wrong, he's not ugly by any means. I've seen him shirtless, and he may not be Brad Pitt, but he's in shape. He's an average-looking person. Joining the IDF? Here's some advice
Lately I've been getting an inordinate amount of emails from guys in America looking to join the army before, during, or after college. I suppose they search the net to see what it's like in the IDF, find my blog, and want to ask their questions. I can understand that. If I would have found a blog like mine two years ago, I think the author would've had to end up blocking my emails! I would've driven him crazy. And so, I've been finding myself lately thinking of all the advice I'd like to give to anyone considering the army. Sometimes I think I should tell them to not worry about getting in shape before joining, since you're going to be forced to push yourself past your limits anyway. But to counter that, I then realize that running and pushups and the like might help relieve the stress and anxiety inherent in such an adventure. The non-Jewish protectors of our state
While at a training base for all infantry units, I sat down to eat dinner in the dining hall next to some guys from the Givati Brigade. Givati is one of the few infantry brigades, and on my list of the best brigades, I'd rank it number two. It was my number two choice, but that's like someone saying Yale is their #2. It's an awesome unit. One of the reasons I love Givati is because it is, as far as I can tell, the place that many or most of the Druse and Beduins serving in infantry go. If you don't know, Druse is a religion that branched off from Islam a thousand years ago; Druse speak Arabic, and have an Arab culture. Their ethnic makeup is varied and complex, and I'm certainly no expert. An unknowing observer would, however, probably just classify them as Arab. Religion in the IDF
BlogCentral would like to welcome a new contributor to the Army Life blog: D.B. He was born and raised in Virginia, USA, and graduated from The College of William & Mary in Virginia in '07 with a degree in Government (Political Science). In September of 2007, D.B. made aliyah and is currently serving as a combat soldier in the Israeli Army, Golani infantry brigade. I studied in a Jewish seminary (yeshiva) a few years back, and at the time I was just beginning to consider the idea of serving in the IDF. This particular yeshiva is a "charedi" institution - essentially ultra-orthodox. Charedi yeshivas are generally not very 'Zionistic', and their opinion of young men serving in an army instead of spending all day, every day, studying Torah is fairly low. So, when I volunteered to a rabbi that I was interested in the IDF, the response wasn't warm, to say the least. The rhetoric thrown around was that the IDF is a "bad place for religious Jews." They liked to say that it's hard to be religious there, that it's hard to keep your level of faith, and that there are too many bad influences. At the time, I didn't have any other source of information. I didn't know what it's like to be an Orthodox Jew in the army, so I just took it for what it was worth: hyper-religious Jerusalemites judging what they had no experience in in the first place. I didn't know what to think, but I assumed that they were being slightly dramatic. Dilemmas at checkpoints
My last entry A Moral Army, generated many passionate responses, and I feel it necessary to add some context to the scene that I described at the checkpoint. A moral army
When armies begin to train combat soldiers, the main focus is on providing them with the skills necessary to fight the enemy. Soldiers are taught to shoot, run in formation, and treat wounded comrades. In this respect, the IDF is no different than any other army in the world. What separates this army from the rest is the moral emphasis placed on our training. During my three months in the army, I have sat in multiple classes dealing with the humanitarian and moral aspects of military service. The IDF teaches its soldiers that there are certain orders that must be refused. Needlessly causing lasting physical harm to civilians is one such example. "Just following orders" is an unacceptable answer here. The mental challenges
It took two months, but I finally finished tironut (basic training). If there's anything that this first period in the army has taught me, it's just how much the key to success is mental. You learn to deal with the physical challenges fairly quickly. Eating rations for weeks on end, sleeping with someone else in a ditch, waking up to guard a couple of times a night, long marches with equipment and the many training exercises are all things that most people can handle. |
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