By Dr Haim Shine, ISRAEL HAYOM
I was personally excited when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the latest crop of Armored Corps recruits this week. Exactly 50 years ago, in November, I myself arrived at the induction base, having persuaded myself that I absolutely must serve in the Armored Corps. Even before I enlisted, I could recite entire passages from the canonical book “Exposed in the Turret,” about the Israeli Armored Corps, from memory. The book, which has been translated into 14 languages, described the corps’ battles in Sinai and in the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War. In my graduating high school class in Tel Aviv that year, only a handful of us enlisted to serve in combat units.
In the training tent at the recruits’ base I was the only religious soldier among secular kibbutz dwellers. The field training at the Shivta base was extremely difficult, but the experience of dashing across the Negev desert in a tank and firing the tank gun on the move was so satisfying that it was compensation enough.
We all felt enormous pride in our unit. We earnestly believed that we were fulfilling our national duty and felt that we were making a real contribution to the security of the state.
Serving as an officer in the 188th Armored Brigade was certainly challenging. I spent days and nights fighting the Syrian army in the Golan Heights. There was battle, followed by preparations, followed by training and then back to battle. That was our unrelenting routine. During the Yom Kippur War in 1973 I lost many of my fellow armored corps comrades – it was their courage and dedication that led to our victory.
Years went by, and the Israeli public changed. We have shifted from being a “we” society to a “me” society. The status of the individual is now measured by his income and not his willingness to contribute. Pockets within Israeli society have completely distanced themselves from combat military service and no longer see any value in it. The battlefield has also changed significantly. Face-to-face armored battles have been replaced with terrorist organizations operating behind the backs of their enslaved public. And still, it is clear that without the armored corps and infantry forces, no battle will ever be won.
But the people of Israel have immeasurable strength. Those who have abandoned these values have now been replaced by different ideological groups. The history of the Jewish people is a relay race and in every historical period a different team carries the baton of vision and freedom. It turns out that there are enough wonderful, motivated young people in Israel today that still want to serve in the Armored Corps.
I remember that even before the 1967 Six-Day War that there was talk of the “hedonistic” younger generation. But at the moment of truth, everyone showed up and fought like lions, winning the glorious victory that changed the course of Israel’s history.
The soldiers enlisting today to the Armored Corps will keep this tradition alive. They will wave the black and green flag with pride and lead the people of Israel to victory, should they be called upon to do so. Let’s just hope that they are never called up to do so.
For how long will Israel rely on these patriotic youth while putting them in harm’s way? Israel must care more about her own soldiers and not about Palestinian terrorists, even when they use their women and children as a shield.
This report is overoptimistic. The “best and the brightest” are evading military service and leaving the country in droves. According to the army’s own ombudsman, discipline and combat readiness in the army has collapsed, and the officers are of inferior quality. The army insisted on dismissing thousands of career soldiers whose skills and combat experience were irreplaceable. Worst of all, lawyers whose only concern is protecting Arab civilians have taken over de facto command of the army. If something isn’t done very soon to reverse this state of affairs, the army will collapse completely the next time there is a large-scale Arab attack, and Israel will be finished.
Thank you, Ted, for an inspiring article.
@ Ted Belman:
If you look at it from that angle…O..K. but I was looking to see how the article corresponded with the headline. After all, the “Old Reliable” patriotic speech is given at every graduation, every passing out parade….assemblies too, and not only for the Tank Corps… which I suppose was selected because Shine had been part of it.
I thought it a poorly scraped together effort, just a space filler more than anything.
Every politician and high official must have a collection, a variety of patriotic and pep speeches that are used according to the occasion. After all… how many ways can the same thing be said.
Which is why I thought it not worth printing. Just my opinion only, of course.
@ Edgar G.:
I enjoyed reading it because of its embrace of patiotism.
The article doesn’t even begin to match up to the headline…. I believed that something momentous had just happened. The history I would like to hear about the Armoured Corps is that they had just smashed a terrorist group to oblivion, killed it’s leaders, and virtually wiped it out, in an act that would indeed “make history”……
The usual “blah blah.”. Hard up for something to fill space…