אד מתי Ad mati?! Until when?
כמה עוד Cama ode?! How much more?
איפה כולם Eifo kulam?! Where is everyone?
You read these phrases, in Hebrew, transliterated English, or English? Good. You are now unofficially an IDF soldier. These three phrases, for better or worse, encapsulate the psyche of the Israeli soldier. It is forbidden for new recruits to say these words. I'm serious; the ability to shout them becomes a rite of passage. Whether unfortunate or not, the teenagers who grow to be young adults in the service of their country are obsessed with something known as פז''מ pazam or the time a soldier has to serve in the army (surprising kudos to
Urban Dictionary). A soldier with more "pazam" has more experience.
Time becomes the best friend and the worst enemy of each soldier. It walks with him on long nighttime marches. Sleeps with him in foxholes dug in the middle of the night during a shetach week. Stays by his side during eight hours of guarding in Hebron. And finds his way onto his iPhone to become an ever-constant presence.
This post is about the Israelis' service in defense of their country. You've read, and I hope, learned about the IDF through my perspective. The army is much more diverse and complex than what I have experienced during my year and a half. I hope to educate you more about the IDF as a whole, its relationship with Israel, and the Israelis relationship with it.
Enjoy...
In case this is news to you, Israel is a small country. 7.6 million people live in an area roughly the same geographical size as New Jersey. Of these people, about 75% (5.8 million) are Jewish, 20% (1.6 million) are Arabs, and 4% are undefined specific social groups (such as non-Arab Christian, residents without religious classification, etc.).
The IDF's strength is numbered at about 175,000 active troops. Only 20%, or about 35,000, are in a kravi (combat) role. The main strength of the IDF is its reserve soldiers. Soldiers in the IDF reserves serve a month every year until their early 50s. They were the main force in Israel's wars in 2006 in Lebanon and 2008-09 in Gaza.
Israel has compulsory military service: boys are required to serve for three years and girls for two. The IDF is not made up of grizzly mid-twenty or thirty-year olds. Instead, Israel's children serve in her armed forces. Instead of studying for the ACTs or SATs during their junior year in high school, Israeli boys and girls receive a notice in the mail informing them of their "
tzav rishon." This is the first time they have a formal relationship with the military. At the tzav rishon, they are given a health profile and can narrow down which units, combat or jobnik, they will enter.
During their senior year in high school, instead of visiting colleges, Israelis attend
gibbushim. These are physical tryouts, often lasting days, for a spot in special units (such as Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet, Shaldag, Tzanchanim, etc.). By the end of their senior year, Israelis will attend their prom knowing where and when they will draft into the military.
Combat soldiers draft in March, August and November. Some want to draft early in August so they can start and end their service. Others try for an exemption to work for a year and draft in March. Regardless, before they draft, most Israelis take a short pre-army trip to somewhere in south or southeastern Europe with their high school buddies. It is likely the last time they will leave the country for at least the next three years.
When these kids finally make it into their units, they will be serving with people from all over the country, much like in the US military. It surprised me how Israelis from different parts of this tiny place could be so diverse. These kids seemingly know every city, town, kibbutz or moshav in this country, yet they haven't always met many people outside of their own area. It at times is a shock as much for them as it is for me.
In addition, these guys will be led by other kids barely a year older than them. What do I mean? Take my draft into Tzanchanim, in March '11. My commander drafted into Tzanchanim in March '10. He had his
masa kumtah in October 2010 and then went to commanders course in October or November. He was there for four months and was assigned to be a commander of basic training for my draft in March '11. My commander could have been at the same school of his soldiers. As it turned out, a commander in Adam's machlekah (platoon) played soccer and was great friends with a kid in my kitah (squad). Within weeks, every Israeli soldier will know the first and last name, where he lives and his phone number of every commander and officer in his company. What is more, every soldiers' mother will know as well. This army, for better or for worse, is one big family.
Israelis in combat units have a lot of enthusiasm and energy their first few months in the army. Unfortunately, this dwindles quite rapidly. Tzanchanim requires soldiers to voluntarily submit to a gibbush. In addition, once in Tzanchanim, there is the opportunity to take another gibbush that lead to some of the IDF's most elite special forces units (Maglan, Duvdevan). Some of my friends explained it to me in the following way: "we all were here because we wanted to get into a sayeret (special forces). We come to Tzanchanim not necessarily for Tzanchanim itself, but because of where it can lead. And since we did the second gibbush and were not accepted, its like the army saying 'thanks but no thanks, you're not good enough, you're gonna' stay in the gdud (battalions).'" This contrasts to the other four infantry units (Nahal, Golani, Kfir, and Givati) which do not require a gibbush. True this train of thought is a bit defeatist, but that's the way many of them view their service...as discarded soldiers. It's unfortunate because for most of its history, Tzanchanim was very much an elite unit. When talking with other friends in different units, I still believe we do train harder and more is asked of us, yet that is often lost on the Israelis.
Thus, Israelis ask "ad mati?"
Whether I've painted a clear picture for you or not in my previous posts, I want to describe a soldier's tour after his masa kumtah. (Don't be nervous that I'm spilling classified military secrets. Because, well...I'm not.) After leaving the training base, the soldier and his company go up to the gdud. They are now a fighter ready for combat. The chativah (brigade; Tzanchanim, Nahal, Golani, Kfir and Givati) cycle through segments of kav or imun (combat ready or training). When I finished my masa kumtah, Tzanchanim was in
Kav Shechem. We joined in the middle of the six month tour. In January, we cycled into
imun in the Golan Heights, and Golani took Tzanchanim's place in the West Bank. We trained for three months, Nahal, previously in Gaza, replaced us, and we moved to
Kav Lebanon, where we replaced Givati. Six months kav, three months imun.
And that is the service of soldiers who choose to be "chapash," chayal pashute, simple soldier. These are guys who do not go to commanders course or officers course, they do not go to course chovshim to be a medic, they may learn a special weapon, but largely add nothing to their military resumes. Guys who become chapashim do so because they want to. It is their choice. They are not necessarily poor soldiers (although certainly most of them are lazy, unmotivated and often problems), but simply want to do their three years without anything extraordinary asked of them. Israel asks for three years of their life, and they will oblige, but nothing more.
(There's a saying in English: One life, To live, Three years, For what?)
The IDF, on the other hand, wants every soldier to become a commander. After the masa kumtah, a soldier has five opportunities to go to commanders course. After the course, these new commanders are assigned to basic or advanced training, maslul (the company after masa kumtah) or vaticah (veteran companies, such as mivtzayit [my company after maslul]). From here, the IDF wants its commanders to become officers, which requires signing more time in the military. Israel wants to make each of its soldiers as trained and experienced in leadership as possible. Soldiers can go to commanders course, be a commander for a few months, and return to their company as a chapash. That's alright, because that soldier still has skills and experience gained from passing the course and leading soldiers, even if for a short while, that will prove invaluable. Indeed, these commanders often become officers who will serve for at least five years command a hundred soldiers and become the leaders of Israel.
There are other roles or positions soldiers can advance to, including sergeant's course (which is a very difficult course but the sergeant becomes the backbone of every platoon) snipers course, interrogation course, and many others.
In addition, certain soldiers are selected to be in charge of the kitchen or base maintenance. These are the worst positions, but always seem to attract the same kind of soldier. Everyday, soldiers from each machlekah (platoon) are picked to help out in the kitchen or with the maintenance. Honestly, it is a demeaning and shitty job to do for the day. Everyone dreads being called for the day.
And this transitions nicely into the differences between kravi and job, combat and non-combat.
Of the 175,000 soldiers I mentioned earlier, most are in a non-combat role. In the US military, they are known as POGs, Personnel Other than Grunt. In the IDF, they are known as jobniks, because their service is like a 'job.' These soldiers often only work during the day, sleep at home, not spend weekends on base, work in air conditioning, are first in line for meals, and, above all, exude a tangible feeling of superiority over us. I personally would hate my life if I were a jobnik. But it often sucks to be kravi: because discipline has to be maintained among kravi units, oftentimes jobniks treat us like scum if they are in charge of us when helping them clean a base or work in the kitchens. For that day, we have to swallow our pride and know that we are the ones truly keeping Israel safe and secure, not some jobnik.
Yet, it is difficult for Israelis to view it this way. They look at a jobnik and they see an easier life, more trips home, more free time to play on their iPhone, and not doing crap things like waking up in the middle of the night to stand guard for twenty minutes. Personally, I think there should be a separate jobnik uniform. There are some guys who go through training, jump out of planes, complete the masa kumtah, maybe even make it all the way through maslul and receive the
fighter's pin, then begin to complain about injuries, create problems or excuses, and eventually get sent down to job. Yes they did all the training we did, but if Israel goes to war, they stay behind at a desk. We are the ones who go into the field to be shot at.
This is, unfortunately, one of the negatives about the IDF. Because it is an army full of kids, they feel the incessant immature desire to always prove themselves better than others. Because they have an incredible lack of experience and knowledge, they take any difference between themselves and another, often younger, soldier, plant dynamite in that difference, and blast it wide open. No matter how much experience you acquire during your service, you will always be 'tzair', young/rookie, to someone else looking to pull rank. I don't mind it so much because, being twenty-three or twenty-four, I don't fall for that shit. But still it leads to other things in daily life that make the service just that much less pleasant and unenjoyable. A minor one of these is the time-earned ability to say the phrases at the beginning of this post.
At the end of their three years, Israelis prepare for their release. At the beginning of their thirty-sixth month in service they leave for their
chofshash. It is a vacation before their final release date where they have a weeklong course to learn about their rights (with money, taxes, school) as released soldiers and begin to transition into civilian life. The Israeli mindset after the army is summed up in one word: travel. After spending their entire lives cooped up in a tiny country, and the last three of it with no chance of leaving for vacation, Israelis will often work for a few months to a couple years, then travel the world. My best friend Sam, who I'm going to visit in Eilat, finished his service in the spring of 2010. He worked at a summer camp in Maryland then returned to Israel and tried out for a security organization that works at Israel's airports. He passed the grueling physical tests and signed a contract for a year and a half. He will finish sometime this fall then go to South America, India, Thailand, or elsewhere for at least a year. Only then will he start school.
One thing I must mention is that the Israel Defense Force, the only military force that is tasked with protecting Jews, is comprised not solely of Israeli Jewish men and women. In this army,
Druze and
Circassians are also conscripted (two of my three commanders were Druze, and one of my medics was Circassian). However, Israel also has a long-standing policy of not forcing certain minority groups to enlist. Bedouins in particular are under-represented in the IDF. However, they are often invaluable as trackers along the Lebanese border and in the deserts.
Arabs are the largest minority group in Israel who are not required. I had an Arab Israeli in my squad and then machlekah during my entire service. He's from Abu Ghosh, a town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. During the Mandate Era, the town was on friendly terms with local Jews, and during the War of Independence, it was the only Arab village in the area that stayed neutral, which allowed the Jews to truck supplies through siege lines and sustain Jerusalem. I asked my friend how feels to serve for a country with a Jewish Star on its flag, which talks about the Jewish hope in its national anthem, and has Judaism as its official religion. He responded that this is his home, too. He wants to fight Israel's enemies as much as his Jewish friends.
The last under-represented group of Israeli society are the haredim. Haredim are ultra-orthodox Jews. If you come to Israel (or New York and parts of Chicago) and see Jews in black suits, white shirts, and wide brimmed black hats, those are haredim. The haredim in Israel have a very particular, complicated and vexing relationship with the government and the state. The bottom line is that most do not serve in the army. They have exemptions to study in yeshivah instead. Or, they can do a two year National Service program where they volunteer around the country. This angers many Israelis and there has been a lot of nation-wide
discussion on how to address the growing number of haredim who do not serve.
One thing I neglected to mention during the past year and a half are the Banishim. Banish is a Hebrew word that stands for Bnei Yeshiva, a program whereby religious Israelis commit five years to both the army and yeshiva. They start at yeshivah, serve sixteen months in the army, then return to yeshiva. Yes, they only serve sixteen months, less than the amount of time I served. Many of my friends, American and Israelis, don't like the Banishim. They don't think its fair for them, being Israeli, to not serve the required three years. Personally, I'm going to stay out of this one. But let me quickly relate a story I may have told once before. A few days before I left home in 2010, as I stayed Shabbat with Rabbi Alter, my religious guide in Chicago, he introduced me to his father, who told me of how after leaving Egypt, as the Israelites believed in G-d, Moses would raise his hands and the Israelites would be safe from their enemies. But when they lost faith in Hashem, Moses' hands would drop and the wandering Israelites would be attacked. Studying Torah in yeshivah is very important. But is it the same as standing between Hezbollah and Israel? Just food for thought.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller
Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle makes a lot of the IDF. The experience that Israel's youth gain from the military prepares them in a uniquely different way than other nations' young generations for work in business, politics, medicine, etc. Israel wants all of its soldiers to become commanders so they can translate that experience of responsibility and leadership into careers to benefit the state. They want those commanders to sign on just a couple extra years, be put in command of one hundred soldiers, achieve a comparable rank and position that would take years in the US military, and then discharge with an entire world of training and experience more than veteran young adults in the US and Europe.
Perhaps the most acute description of the IDF that Start-Up Nation provides is that it creates and defines Israel and Israeli culture. What these kids do now during their two or three year service will resonate with them for the rest of their lives. My cousin David is constantly telling me stories from his years in the navy. Schools and employers will look at what these Israelis did during their service.
Every Israeli feels a part of the history of Israel. Every person knows someone who fought, was wounded, or died fighting for Israel. Children grow up in this country understanding that they, too, will serve two or three years in the IDF. They learn to respect and honor, not worship, Israel's warriors. They are not thirsty for Arab blood or just want to shoot guns; instead, many of the kids who become the centerpiece of Israel's military want to serve to defend their homes.
I continued to Eilat and finally arrived at the last major destination I was yet to visit in Israel.
And Eilat is hot! But it's a semi-enjoyable heat because it's dry. Tel Aviv and the rest of israel is very humid. Eilat, at the far end of the desert and at the tip of the Red Sea, is very hot but very dry. Temperatures often exceed 100 degrees, but the sun feels good and it's easy to breathe. The city itself is very small; everything is concentrated along the beach front and does not extend into the desert. It reminds me at the same time of Las Vegas and Venice Beach. Enormous, luxurious hotels are sprouting up everywhere, yet with the heat and Israeli small-town feel to every city, it feels very much like Los Angeles.
And the next day, David, Amy and the girls flew to Madrid. It was weird saying goodbye to them. It was just as if they were leaving for the army instead of me. It also helps to know that I'm going to see them in a few days when David, Lena and I go to an Iron Maiden concert in New Jersey!
