Lizrael Update

Tag: IDF

  • War time in Israel

    It’s different this time. I guess it’s always different. It’s different this time because I don’t have enough fingers to count how many people I know, by first or second degree, who are called up, serving or waiting to serve in Gaza. And whereas in the past I figured the odds were too out there,…

  • Small town feeding a small army, or: calling all Israeli mothers of Tzur Hadassah

    Welcome to some good ole fashion small town love. Tzur Hadassah’s natural surroundings are a bit of a training ground for Tzahal ground troops. Every so often we’ll spot them midnight marching down our dead end street through the nature preserve, on their way to spend the night doing – whatever it is; the end…

  • Israel Air Force by proxy: swearing-in ceremony, sabras, and planting roots.

    It’s a little surreal reading up on your country’s military air strike operations in real time as you drive back from your brother’s air force swear-in ceremony. But then again, it’s often surreal living here. We made the three-hour trek down to the Ovda Israel Airforce Base to see my brother’s טקס השבעה or swearing-in…

  • Welcome home, Gilad Shalit, our brother soldier.

    There’s no doubt: this is bittersweet. Today we’re proud. We’re relieved. We’re emotional. We’re exhausted. Tomorrow we’re going to continue mourning. We’re going to be extra cautious. We’re going to be angry. We’re going to feel even more pain. Today we can be mothers of lost soldiers. Mothers waking up from a nightmare. Tomorrow we’ll…

  • Don’t be colorblind.

    Doesn’t matter which side of the line you’re on. Or which color: black, white, orange, blue, or a comfortable shade of gray. We might revere the S word or despise it. But we can’t ignore it. For any stripe, it’s important we all watch it happening, to be sure we are seeing with our own…

  • Israel medical aid in Japan. Also, please let go.

    Here’s a feel-good video from the IDF blog featuring the IDF medical team in Japan right now, helping in the damage zones. Apparently Israel’s medical team was the first foreign aid to set up a mobile hospital in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami. It’s really nice to see IDF footage shared in a positive…

  • Giving lone soldiers their post-army profession.

    Lone soldiers. I have no idea if that is just an Israeli concept, but what it means to us is the demographic of soldiers in the IDF who are immigrants and have no immediate family located in Israel to support them throughout their army service. They have no default place to go for weekends off…

  • Get me latkes, woman.

    Here’s (another) חנה זלדה video… Courtesy of some bored (genius) IDF soldiers… Happy Chanukah!