I'm Confident They'll Make It Home
To commemorate the one year anniversary of October 7, I am releasing a series of blogs throughout the month that capture my April Jewish National Fund volunteer mission to Israel.
There are still over 100 hostages in Gaza, and it's day 391 that they are in captivity.
These first appeared on social media.
April 17
Yahalom Base
Yahalom, or diamond in Hebrew, is the special combat engineering unit of the Israel Defense Forces. Their area of expertise is in special engineering missions that include, among many others:
- Accurate demolition through pinpoint planting of explosives
- CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological; Nuclear Defense) consequence management
- Commando-style raid operations
- Counterinsurgency and counterterrorism
- Searching and destroying smuggling tunnels
This was the only time we were not allowed to take pictures, because special forces of this caliber are very wanted men and women by Israel's surrounding enemies, so I'll do my best to paint the picture of what I saw.
You’ll notice there’s a food theme to my posts and the JNF mission, because Jews and food go together like…Jews and food. Cooking and breaking bread are wonderful ways to connect, and this time the army base did the cooking. We met up with the soldiers in a field with picnic tables and a spread of hamburgers (really big hamburgers) salad, Israeli eggplant, and fries.
Elite and humility seem contradictory but not in the context of these soldiers. They wanted us to eat first because of course they did. None of us took them up on their offer, so they gave in, which is the only time you’ll see this group capitulate in battle.
I didn’t bother shaking hands when I met a soldier; I went right in for the hug, because, as I’ve mentioned several times, these young men and women are fighting for the freedom of all Jews. Also, the median age of those in active duty is 20-years-old, and since they could easily be my sons and daughters, my paternal instinct instructs me to physically embrace them. Something happens when I do. The sweat, the coarseness of their rank patches stitched to their shoulders that graze my hand, their funk from having limited time to shower…it’s visceral. There’s a brief transfer of energy, and though I’m certainly not in their shoes, I feel some of their experience and story.
I sat on a blanket on the ground with a commander, and I asked him what it feels like to be in Gaza.
“It’s exciting and scary,” he said.
“Do you have time to process what you’ve seen and experienced? Can you address your emotions?”
“Yes, but you don’t have a lot of time. You do, and then you set it aside.”
I met another Yahalom who’s half English and half Aboriginal.
“I’m easy to talk to, because my English is much better than theirs,” he said, teasing some of his peers.
“How many pushups can you do?” I asked.
“Oh a lot.”
“Like, can you bang out 100?”
“Oh yeah.”
“I bet you’d win in a bar fight.”
“We don’t do much hand-to-hand combat.”
“But you’d win in a bar fight?”
“Yes,” he said with a bashful smile.
There was a guitarist playing and singing Take Me Home, Country Roads, but he modified the chorus for the hostages to:
Country roads, bring them home
To their families where they belong
Then he covered One Day, Matisyahu’s anthem for peace. He played faster songs, and the soldiers danced. They’re goofy as hell, but they established a rhythm and invited us in. We locked arms, held hands, swayed. They ribbed each other in Hebrew, these boyish men or mannish boys. They plead for the shy people to join, which they eventually did. We danced the Hora forming one large circle before the frenetic, concentric circles broke out, as they do whether at a wedding, mitzvah, or here at this remote army base. The music concluded with the Hatikva (the Israeli National Anthem, which translates to “The Hope”), which gets me every time.
But there was a surprise.
It used to be that disabled Israelis could not serve in the IDF, a devastating reality for these men and women who wanted to fulfill their Zionism through military service like their peers. That changed when Jewish National Fund-USA started the Special In Uniform program that integrates young adults with disabilities into the IDF. We were treated to a mini concert by Special In Uniform soldiers from the Music Inclusion Program.
Toward the end of the performance I turned around, and just like that, the Yahalom Unit of soldiers were called into action, loading up in their vehicles. It’s possible they ate their last meal and danced their last dance, and they did it with us.
But I’m confident they’ll all make it home.
About the Author, David Telisman
I am a Writer and Content Creator, and I work with businesses to inspire their customers to buy from them. I believe that my clients deserve to feel proud of how their content marketing looks and what it says, and I deliver by providing expert copywriting and marketing solutions.
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Oct 31, 2024 by
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