Yoel Zilberman, 25, the founder and leader of the New Guardsmen, was born and raised in Moshav Tzipori in Lower Galilee. The son of a third-generation cattle breeder, he grew up witnessing the escalating struggles between the region's farmers and herders and local criminal gangs who invaded their grazing lands, sabotaged their equipment and ran a protection racket. At 20, while still a soldier on active duty, Zilberman learned that his father was on the verge of going out of business, unable to maintain the ever-rising cost of securing his property.
