Israeli Troop Morale High

newsmax ^ | Sunday, July 30, 2006 | Kenneth Timmerman

[do the dhue]

HAIFA, Israel -– Now that Israel has pulled back the elite paratroopers who had seized the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, soldiers are beginning to tell their stories. They are harrowing tales of a five-day-long battle, in which eight Israeli soldiers died and 22 more were wounded in a deadly Hezbollah ambush.

Maj. Ro'i Klein, 31, was deputy commander of Battalion 51 of the famed Golani Brigades. He jumped on a grenade in order to save his men.

"First he said the ‘Shema' prayer and then he jumped on a grenade," a family friend from his hometown in Israel told the Jerusalem Post.

"That's why some of the soldiers who were with him survived." On Tuesday, Israel troops secured the outskirts of the Lebanese town, which the Israeli high command has called the "capital of Hezbollah." It was in Bint Jbeil in 2000 that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a victory speech when Israel withdrew its forces after 18 years of occupying a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. the story

[do the dhue]

Die hard HERO: Maj. Ro'i Klein, 31, was deputy commander of Battalion 51 of the famed Golani Brigades. He jumped on a grenade in order to save his men.

Brave HERO:"This was what I was trained to do," he said. "I can't wait to go back in."

Smart HERO: "Imagine how you would feel in the U.K. if someone was shooting missiles on London? We have to stop the terrorists."

Honorable HERO: "I know that I have to continue to fight to save my mother, to save my country."

National HERO: "Asaf came here with the values of the Jew who had to serve his country, the land of the Jews,"

Real lucky HERO: "The shrapnel hit between my legs, but only wounded my thighs, nothing else."

[do the dhue]

ping

[AdvisorB]

Hey dtd!

The problem in this conflict is not the Israeli soldier, it's the timid ones in the Kadima Party. That the Israelis miss the steady hand of Sharon is patently obvious. So far, for his understudy, Olmert, the jury is still out, but it's not looking good. He looks and acts as if he may be over his head.



Thanks for the post.

[do the dhue]

Hey, how you doin'?

I like Olmert at the moment.

Good to hear from you.

[PhillyRepublican]

God Bless the IDF.

[AdvisorB]

I like him. I just believe that they (world community, un, eu etc) aren't going to give Israel the necessary time to roll up the noxious hezbolla. So time is of the utmost. I only wish that Olmert would listen to his Army Generals who want a full scale assualt, storming the castles of hezebola as it were; Instead of depending to a large extent, on the Israeli Airforce. Other than that, he's done a yeoman's job at the helm.

[HockeyPop]

"Omer, 20, is a private. "You don't have time to feel," he said, when asked what he had felt during the battle. "I know that I have to continue to fight to save my mother, to save my country."

Seeing a British reporter, he said, "Imagine how you would feel in the U.K. if someone was shooting missiles on London? We have to stop the terrorists."

Indeed.

[Ninian Dryhope]

"First he said the ‘Shema' prayer and then he jumped on a grenade,"

Must be a short prayer. God bless him and his family.

[roses of sharon]

God Bless them all.

[silverleaf]

If the blood of heroes must be shed, may it help God to save Israel.

[justa-hairyape]

.... Hezbollah fighters ambushed the Israelis in a narrow alleyway between houses with a massive wave of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed almost instantly.

"For the first three days, there was almost constant firing," said 1st Sgt. Shahar S., 21. "No more than 15 seconds went by between Hezbollah missile launches, rocket-propelled grenades, or gunfire," he told NewsMax while on R&R north of Haifa.

That is some heavy fighting going on.

[Salem]

"Shahar said it was only this morning, after eating and sleeping at the R&R facility that he realized the effect of the operation in Bint Jbeil. "We killed more than 100 terrorists. Just to be part of that makes everything worth it –- not just the past five and a half days, the not eating and not drinking, but the past two and a half years.

"This was what I was trained to do," he said. "I can't wait to go back in.""

If this guy isn't a sabra, he was probably born an American.  

---

Zec 12:6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.





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" ... It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world."—FReeper Retief
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[Salem]

Lookee here. More IDF history being made, as these fight in a war they will someday tell their grandchildren and great-grandchildren about, many, many years from now in Israel.  

[Candor7]

Captain Uri Lavie, a company commander in the Golani Brigade briefing his soldiers “ nine months into their military service “ a few minutes before joining the battle against Hizballah terrorists in southern Lebanon ("Ha'aretz, July 27, 2006):

"This is our time to rise to the challenge, put on the helmets and the bullet proof vests and make sure that the northern border is secure.

We shall fulfill any mission in a most effective manner, in face of any challenge.

If we shall not fulfill our mission we shall forfeit the right to exist.

We shall not lose this war, which we did not start.

Our duty is to serve as a defense force of the Jewish People, and to secure the peace of mind of the civilians in northern Israel.

If we shall not do it, no one will do it in our place.

For two thousand years we waited for the establishment of the Jewish State, and we are not going to roll back because a bunch of terrorists assume that they can scare us.

He who cannot defend Liberty does not deserve Liberty.

If we will not be able to fight until our last drop of blood, in order to secure the Liberty of our People on its own soil, our People will not enjoy Liberty.

There is time to talk and there is time to act. At this time, when missiles and Katyushas afflict the North all the way to Haifa, in addition to the two kidnapped soldiers, the ten soldiers killed and the dozens injured, it is time to fight and not to talk. We are the force, which has been chosen to fight, and we shall perform in the most effective manner.

I will be the first one to enter the battle and the last one to come out, and will do everything in my power to get you out alive and well. On Friday, with G-D's help, we will rejoin with our families. However, I cannot do it alone. Once we cross the northern border, you should exercise full alert and full responsibility toward your fellow soldier."

[blasater1960]

"Must be a short prayer"

It is. Very short but the most important to the Jew. It is a part of daily Jewish prayer and is said during times of emergency and impending death.

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohanu, Adonai, Echad.

Here O' Israel, the LORD is our G-D, the LORD is One.

[kenavi]

Sharon divided Israel as never before when he expanded "Peace for Galilee" into a full-scale assault on Beirut, and Israel got tarred by the Christian Phalangist massacre of civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. (Some of those same Phalangist leaders went on to work for Syria.)

It might well be a blessing in disguise that Israel is now led by someone who doesn't bear that legacy.

[kenavi]

"First he said the ‘Shema' prayer and then he jumped on a grenade"

Must be a short prayer. God bless him and his family.

He'd have had time to say only the first word ("Hear!"). That would have been enough.

[managusta]

"First he said the ‘Shema' prayer and then he jumped on a grenade,"

Does that prayer start "One thousand, two thousand,three thousand. Jump."?

If he said the entire prayer, the troops would have had enough time to light cigarrettes and mooch out of the range of the grenade.

Destroys the authors credability.

[AdvisorB]

You make very good points. And you make be entirely correct that Sharon's absence in Israel's moment of need might very well be a blessing in disguise.

That Israel was divided by the "Peace for Galilee" there can be no doubt. However, when looking back, Sharon's mistake was that he was not allowed to pull the trigger when he had arafat and his henchmen bottled up in Beirut. I do believe it was the US that wouldn't allow Sharon to finish the job. Allowing Arafat to "escape" to Tunesia was tantamount to leaving Hitler safely ensconced in his fuhrerbunker. The mistake was the Israelis came away with a half-a-loaf, and it wasn't worth the human loss and drain on the Israeli treasury. Sadly, Arafat would be rehabilitated and brought back by the clintonistas with the resulting death and carnage of the intifada I and II. And the end result, Sharon, the Churchill of Israel was brought back and engineered one of the greatest electoral victories in Israeli political history.

And at the time of his demise, was polling in the upper 60's. Not bad for a guy who was falsely accused by the leftists at CBS of perpetuating a massacre at Sabra and Shatila. Sharon boldly confronted his accusers in a US Court of Law and won.

No, Sharon was a polarizing figure at some points in his long and illustrious career, but in the end he was the kingmaker. Moreover, Sharon was on his way, with the Kadima party that he founded, to a political trouncing of Likud and Labor. In the end, he became the man that Israel looked to for it's salvation and survival. I think his presence would be a positive salve a tonic for the troubled Israeli pysche as she faces her existential threat.

[kenavi]

In a sense, the performance of Israel under Olmert is Sharon's legacy:

Was Israel sleeping at the switch in the face of 6 years of Hezbollah build-up?

Or was the current Israeli offensive the result of 5 (?) years of preparation under Sharon's leadership?

I suspect that both are true.