Posted on 05/23/2024 12:12:58 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
I am in Israel for 3 weeks volunteering in logistics for the IDF through “Sar-El”. Many of you asked for regular Situation Reports, and this is my first one for the first week.
Primer
Please see my original post for why I’m here, and the nature of Sar-El:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4237961/posts
Tel Aviv
• Young: Tel Aviv is filled to the gills with young people. The ages on the street appear to be 20-35. If you’re a single Jew below 35 anywhere in the world, I recommend you RUN to Tel Aviv. The girls are extremely good looking, the weather is hot, and the beach is wall to wall bikinis. Oh my!
• Modern: Tel Aviv has all the amenities you could want. Restaurants are great. Shopping, arts, music in the streets, a lively party scene.
• Safe: Tel Aviv is MUCH safer than my hometown of Tacoma, or Seattle.
• Energetic: Everyone seems driven. I’ve met a few entrepreneurs. Everyone seems to employed and working hard.
• Shabbat Dinner: Went to the house of a friend of a friend. Good people. Excellent dinner. Extended family. Lots of agreement on Israel’s security situation. Very curious about the American people’s views on Israel (generally favorable), and whether we would send troops if their existence were at stake (I said unlikely).
• Jewish: I’ve gone to Synagogue several places, in WA, ND, OR etc. I’ve never been around as many Jews as on the El Al fight, which was a 787 with 90% Jews, and more than half being Haredi (Orthodox). They were holding group prayers of men (a minyan) in the aisles. Babies galore, lots crying at any point in time. I’m kind of a hanger-on to Judaism; married into it, practiced for about 30 years, kept kosher, read Torah cover to cover, went to a variety of synagogues regularly, have a very Jewish daughter and granddaughter, believe it thoroughly, etc., but never formally converted. And there just aren’t many Jews on the West Coast. So coming to Israel is wild! Freaking EVERYONE is Jewish, and you see the WIDE variety of practice and belief everywhere.
Base
• Base Mission: Combat training.
• Weapons: Virtually everyone is carrying their weapon all the time. M4s, M16s, SAWs, bullpups, 9mm, etc. Mag removal in the dining hall is observed. But muzzle control is apparently not a thing, which makes us Americans nervous staring down the barrel of a SAW all through lunch. Lots of gunfire on the training ranges nearby.
• Food: Base food is surprisingly good. Mass produced middle eastern fare at a very high quality for the number of people served.
• The Napkin Incident: So I walk into breakfast, load up, set down my food, and notice there are no napkins on any of the tables. I spy a cache of napkin containers in the corner, and start to load up my arms to distribute them. A kitchen orderly comes out and starts hollering at me in Hebrew then English, “What are you doing?” “Helping,” I answer. “Don’t touch!” he exclaims. Then he says, “You take three only!” So I took three, and seeing as there were three long tables, two with IDF combat troops, I slid one down each of the tables to the troops who thanked me, kept one for our Sar-El table, and the orderly comes rocketing back out of the kitchen, “What are you doing?” “Passing out napkins,” I respond. “You don’t do that!” At which point lots of yelling and explaining and intervention by the troops on my behalf to de-escalate the situation. As the situation winds down, one IDF guy with good English asks if I have something to tell the orderly. “Please apologize for me for not understanding.” I guess some folks are protective of their jobs as if someone trying to help might demonstrate that their position is expendable.
• Range Time: We shot real M4s with all functional parts “with frickin laser beams on their” forestocks against a projected range, moving targets and battle simulations. In the range with moving targets and one 30 round mag scenario, I hit 15. Next best was 7. The simulated battle environment was a hoot, with good guys, bad guys, air cover, fully automatic opponent fire, inbound artillery, RPGs, etc.
• Sad to say, base is a mess. Israel is spending a huge proportion of their GDP on the IDF. It is going straight into weapons, training, and food. You can feel the focus on the battle front. The trash can wait.
Sar-El Mission
• The Sar El mission on base was to assemble bunk beds. Lots of nuts, bolts and washers. Relatively heavy lifting, for which I believe they chose participants carefully. We were 10 guys, 9 Americans and one Aussie/Czech dude. All fit. Aged 49 -68. The work required lots of up and down, resulting in about 500 squats per day. My legs are tired. We made about 328 beds for future combat trainees for the Northern Front. Many thousands of young soldiers for decades will sleep in beds we made.
Team
• All 280 Sar-El participants met at the airport. This group is 5+ times as big as their pre-war average of about 50 per week.
• Our base had 10 participants who were 100% “Super Zionists”. Somewhat biased towards American conservatism. But several standard East Coast liberal Jews. No Christians on this team, though I met several at the airport meetup, and my non-Jewish neighbor in Tacoma will be joining up.
• Me, 62, software guy, married into Judaism.
• 49 year old Cochin Jew, who moved out of his ancestral home in India to Connecticut. Cochin Jews broke off at the time of Solomon! There are about 4,000 Cochin Jews in Israel, and only 15 left in India. It’s strange to look at an Indian looking guy with that accent and hear a smattering of Hebrew and strong religiosity come out.
• 55 y.o. U.S. special forces Major, in the process of converting to Judaism. Hooked up with a Jewish Aussie woman who was off graduating her Phd in economics in Barcelona. He’s had some challenges, and is half nuts and funny as hell.
• 68 year old psychologist from Philly. Hard worker, very straight nice guy, standard Jewish liberal.
• 64 year old retired software guy from the Upper East Side.
• 55 year old prototypical bearded Jew from Berkeley who is an out of the closet Zionist doing battle with the pro-ham-ass crowd there. Tough as nails.
• Czech/Aussie former Commie soldier, funny as hell, attached to a Jewish girlfriend, unknown religiosity.
• Ex-Marine with a Texas drawl from Houston. Has been on about 15 Sar-El missions. Retired fed pilot.
• Big bald stoic dude. Didn’t hear him talk for a whole day. When he did, a Florida accent came out. Later, I hear him speaking fluent Hebrew to soldiers. Dude moved to the U.S. at age 11.
• New Jersey guy with 5 kids. Lawyer. Heavily involved in Jewish civic organizations.
Soldiers
• Full cross section of Israeli society.
• 10% black Ethiopian Jews (“falashas”).
• 10-20% identifiably Orthodox. Heavy practice of Judaism around meals, and clothing.
• 5% women. Women are prominent in the IDF, but not at this combat training base. Here, they tended to be instructors of technical disciplines.
• 90% bearded.
• Focused in their training mission. That’s it for this report. I’ll be walking Tel Aviv tonight after the meal I’m seated at. I’ll see what responses are here in a couple of hours.
Two more weeks for me, with the last weekend in Jerusalem!
FReep on!
Uncle Miltie, Since Nov, 1999, Monthly Donor
I missed your original post about your mission. I will try to follow you now, and my prayers out to you and everyone with you, may you find God’s peace and strength and come home safe.
Good work, Uncle Miltie.
I volunteered with Sar El back in the 80’s. Have some great memories and old photos.
Shabbat shalom, my friend.
May G-d protect you.
That’s when they started! Good on ya!
May G-d fulfill your prayers, and protect you on your travels.
Outstanding contribution. Stay safe, tzadik!
Thanks for the response!
God Bless You & Israel!!!
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Fantastic report, thanks for taking time out of your full schedule.
Tel Aviv sounds just as I remember it 25 years ago. Great beaches and beautiful babes. I seriously considered aliyah after that visit, but my US job would have been half the pay with much higher cost-of-living. The math just didn’t work.
All that said I may have to sign up for a mission soon since I just quit my job and don’t have anything better to do yet.
Wonderful report. Shalom and lechaim.
I recall watching a youtube about Oct. 7th, and was surprised to hear muslim IDF soldiers interviewed about it. Things like “I am an Israeli and fight for Israel. Hamas is a disgrace to my faith...”
God bless your service!
Thanks for the sit-rep, Miltie, you’re doing great and are appreciated!
Just catching up here.
Excellent briefing.
Stay strong
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