And again with you: This week, Operation Protective Edge came to an end, or at least that's what it seems like at the time of writing (and we are not afraid of surprises).
And here are a number of insights that only a return to routine from a 29-day reserve duty can sharpen:
1. It doesn't matter that in war the average reservist sleeps peacefully amidst the loud explosions of artillery shelling, within 24 hours at home he will complain about the neighbor who dragged a chair for a moment at 11:30 PM.
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2. The saying "If there is no bread, you can have cakes" has never been more true than for soldiers in the field.
3. All callers who were answered by you with "I'm on reserve, we'll take care of it when we're done here" and expressed understanding to wait patiently, expect their problems to be resolved by you 5 minutes after the end of the operation.
4. 5 minutes is exactly the time it took for Yatad Ne'eman to return to his war in the IDF, and here you are back to normal.
5. All of Israel's generals, especially those who have never served in the army.
6. If activity in a WhatsApp group were recognized as service in the IDF, the Haredim would be in first place in volunteering for service.
Closing Operation: Some Issues to Remember from This War
Packages from the rear – Of all kinds and sizes, some very generous, and some with quite bizarre combinations like Shalva, a coconut bar, and a razor. Or for example, a clothing package that included a size M item, a size L item, and size 46 socks, which made me wonder how they imagine the average soldier.
Humanitarian ceasefire – happened about once every five minutes, and in most cases it was one-sided, and since it made no impression on the world, sometimes it was not understood why we even bothered. On the other hand, the statement that Israel violated the unilateral ceasefire has never been more true.
Open spaces – In fact, they received almost all the missiles, which is perhaps the reason why there are no open areas in Bnei Brak.
All options on the table – By the way, the table is in the storage room, the door is locked and the key is with the redhead, who no one knows where he is right now.
Tunneling – Not bomb tunnels, not a terrorist act, not a ticking time bomb, let's call it a cute, non-threatening name and everyone will calm down and return to normal. It's called minimization.
Speaking from the field
Like many others, your faithful servant was drafted in Order 8 when the Solid Rock was deployed against us and the entire country in general.
And as someone who has been in the area called the Gaza Envelope, I could understand what the residents of the nearby settlements have been going through for a long time. Forget, for example, 30 seconds to enter a protected area, or the huge indulgence of 60+ in the central area. Here it's more like 5-6 seconds that don't leave too much reaction time. You simply learn to glance and know at any given time where the nearest concrete wall is.
In general, 5 seconds means that if you are not sleeping in a protected space (and most soldiers really are not), don't even bother getting up if there is an alarm, just stay in bed.
Now think about the residents of the area, the elderly, women and children, who live this routine life.
I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the readers and the editor for the columns that were not written due to the time crisis, and for those that were written but were shelved by me.
It happened more than once (after a phone call from the editor) that I started writing and in the middle I was called to fulfill my duties, and when the assignment was over, I tried to get back to writing, but one quick glance revealed that what I had written before suddenly seemed worthless and inappropriate for the situation and the time.
Suddenly everything takes on a different proportion, and there is a different perspective on life.
This is what happens when you deal with space identification.
