Soldiers with ponytails

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As our town's touring group was leaving the Jordan River baptism site, these two soldiers asked if they could ask our guide (on the right) a question.
I think it was something about the big Christian significance of the Kasr al Yahud site.
Sorry I couldn't hang around and listen but I had to hurry and get some photos before 4 pm closing time.

These soldiers on guard there at the Jordanian border (the river is the border there) belong to the IDF's Nahal Brigade.
You can tell by the color of their beret, "glow stick green."

Such nice girls!

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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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Our new place to pause on the Israel Trail

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And now about the February 10 dedication of Mitzpe Noam that I started to tell you about in the previous post.

Many, I think more than a hundred, came to honor Noam Rosenthal and his family.
Noam was a son of Meitar, our town.

Noam was only 20 when mortars killed him along with four other soldiers on July 31, 2014 during the 50-day fight with Gaza.

His mother, father, brother, friend, and his commander,  the mayor, and a representative from Keren Kayemet gave moving speeches.
There was hardly a dry eye in the audience.
Then the red ribbon was ceremoniously cut above the stone compass which shows one of Noam's favorite sayings: "Live always says northward."

His chevreh, a tight-knit group of  fine young men (seen in the photo) who every Friday evening would get together on this hilltop and make music, wrote moving things on the rock about Noam's legacy, how they would always think of him and miss him.

His family wrote these words about memory and memories.

Noam's favorite instrument was the piano; he played mainly classical music.
And so they designed this meeting place in the shape of a grand piano.

I hiked back to the Noam Overlook a few days ago and found it being enjoyed by a few families.

This is the view from the edge of town.
Mitzpe Noam is on top of the hill.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday, hoping wars will someday not be a part of our world.
And for ABC Wednesday, the letter G is for a grieving family and a good boy, gone from us.)

UPDATE Jan. 2019:  The place now has a sign:

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Some soldiers head home today

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Thursday, when some soldiers, the lucky ones, get to go home for the weekend.
Sunday morning comes quickly, and then back to base.

Yesterday, however, IDF presence was beefed up along our border with Sinai and the Gaza Strip after Islamic militants on Wednesday unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks on Egyptian forces in Sheikh Zuweid.
No one knows what is going to happen next.
See this map with Sheikh Zuweid marked; see how close it is?
Some analysts even think the jihadists linked to Islamic State might try to conquer Gaza and that the Egyptian air force would bomb them in Gaza.
The Caliphate is getting way too close, both in the north in the Golan and now here in the south.
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Six Day War started 48 years ago today

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Today's soldiers at the Western Wall.

On this date, June 5, the Six Day War started, back in 1967.
(I still lived in Chicago then; I made aliyah to Israel nine months after.)
On the national level so much has changed in those 48 years -- and yet so little.
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Yom HaZikaron ceremony at our cemetery

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At 11:00 a.m. sharp the siren sounded and at Meitar's cemetery  all of us stood in a collective remembering of our defense forces dead and of the victims of hostile actions [terrorism].

Speeches and Psalms and prayers, all very moving.

Wreaths were laid at the Yizkor memorial wall of the small military section of our cemetery.
The quotation from Jeremiah 31:19 says, "For as often as I speak of him, I do earnestly remember him still."
 

Two graves were added to the military section during last summer's fighting.

Just last July I shared with you Captain Liad Lavi's funeral.
May he now rest in peace.

Please give a thought to the thousands of bereaved families for whom every day is a Day of Remembrance.
And remember that about 600 fallen soldiers and terror victims are from the Druze, Bedouin, Circassian, and Arab (both Christian and Muslim)  communities.
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At sunset tonight we will make the sudden transition from the agony of memorial day  into the festivities and fireworks of Independence Day.
You can't have one day without the other.
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Better to be in the bus station than in battle

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Beer Sheva's Central Bus Station was packed with soldiers this morning!
I felt like hugging each of them and saying a big thank-you!
The whole country feels the same way.

Some 30,000 IDF reserve soldiers who were mobilized for Operation Protective Shield are gradually being released.
I think I could tell by the dust on their boots which ones were  going home and which ones were coming in to take their place.
The ceasefire has held for the last two days and we have withdrawn from Gaza.
But  many thousands of our boys will remain deployed along the border as we wait and see what happens next.
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Going through some 2008 photos I came across this one.
Just an innocent Jerusalem street getting some innocent below-surface work, a bulldozer, and men digging inside a trench in the earth.

But now of course it reminds me of the Gaza terror tunnels network.
Don't want to think about it; too awful.
Especially after this morning when one of our soldiers, Hadar Goldin,  was most probably dragged down into one by terrorists during what was supposed to be a ceasefire.
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UPDATE Aug. 3:  Late last night the IDF rabbi declared the officer dead, based on "findings from the battlefield," or "forensic evidence."   There will be a funeral this afternoon.
As the Jerusalem Post reports, " Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Brigadier Gen. Rafi Peretz, declared Goldin dead.  The decision was made according to the findings of a special board, headed by Peretz, who considered medical, halachic and other relevant considerations." 
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Meitar buries a soldier son

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Today I let myself cry, for the first time this war.
It was inevitable when the command car  drove by carrying a native son of Meitar  in a coffin with a wreath on it.

Residents lined the streets along the funeral route from the entrance of Meitar all the way to the outlying  cemetery.
A human chain of solidarity to show our respect to the mourning family.

Our small town has a small cemetery with no actual parking lot.
So people trekked on foot in the hot afternoon sun all the way to the cemetery.
Soldiers came.

And Scouts came.
All Meitar's youth movements came walking.

A staggering total of 20,000 people attended the funeral, despite the threat of being exposed to possible rocket fire.

Captain Liad Lavi, 22, was shot during a firefight between a Hamas cell and Liad's Paratroopers  unit.

He leaves parents and six brothers.

The Times of Israel liveblog reports his mother's parting words:

“In our last conversations, you said you didn’t want to stay in the army, because the higher you’re promoted, the more the connection with soldiers lessens, and this you didn’t want,” his mother, Drora, says in the eulogy.
“I have so much to tell the world about you, and to you personally. All of your actions were done modestly. You took on responsibility beyond what is required, but you didn’t forget that you must take care of your mother, and you were willing to fight the world for me.”

There is also a photo of Liad there, at timestamp 18:52.

The Jerusalem Post also has a report.
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And so it continues.
Just this afternoon four soldiers were killed in a mortar attack inside Israel, just across the border with Gaza; and five soldiers died defending Kibbutz Nahal Oz against terrorists who infiltrated Israel through their accursed attack tunnels. 
The total of fallen soldiers has jumped to 53. 
You can see there is a lot to cry about.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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Two teens

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The military section of Meitar's small cemetery has "only" four graves.
We are just a small community, begun in 1984, with a present population of about 7,500.

But then, perhaps other sons and daughters of Meitar are buried on Mount Herzl, the national military cemetery in Jerusalem.   I don't know.   I hope not.
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Yesterday a young soldier, Private Eden Attias, was buried in Upper Nazareth, his home town.
He was only 18 or 19  and the teenager who stabbed him was even younger.
Eden was asleep in the bus when the bus made a pit  stop at Afula when fellow bus passenger  Hussein Rawarda from Jenin knifed him.

 http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.557753
 and
 http://www.idfblog.com/2013/11/13/terrorist-stabs-idf-soldier-to-death-on-israeli-bus/
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Australian Light Horse annual commemoration in Beer Sheva

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Yesterday I found my way through the streets of Beer Sheva  to the Park of the Australian Soldier.
My first time to see the annual commemoration and to see the new park, and both were very impressive.

The e-mail read "The Pratt Foundation and the Municipality of Be’er Sheva invite you to the commemoration of the 96th anniversary of the Battle of Be’er Sheva, marking the fall of the Ottoman controlled city of Be’er Sheva to ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and British troops on 31 October 1917."

After morning tea the many guests took their seats and the ceremony opened with a long blast of a long and curling shofar.
The nice new Ambassador to Israel, H.E. Dave Sharma, gave a good speech about the great importance of the Battle of Beersheva.
BTW, he is Australia's youngest ambassador anywhere in the world.

Military representatives  of Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and the United Nations were there.
Many Zionist youth movements attended, as did classes of high school students.

Dr. Apple, Rabbi Emeritus of Sydney's Great Synagogue, was expected to give a memorial prayer but he spoke instead about the recent attack on five Jews at Bondi beach.

The Australian youth groups joined in singing Advance Australia Fair and Hatikva.

Please enlarge the sign to read the story of the famous battle, history's last great cavalry charge. 

The U.N. men from UNTSO and MFO  were happy to pose for anyone with a camera.
Israelis are not used to seeing fancy dress uniforms and medals.

Everyone then went across town to the Beersheba War Cemetery.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission says their cemetery contains 1,241 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 67 of them unidentified.

In the Light Horse charge on Beersheva, 31 Australians were killed.
At least 70 horses were also killed in the audacious battle. 

 Again there was the laying of wreaths.

I asked for a poppy and the digger asked  to put it by a soldier's grave.

I found a Jewish grave.
There are many more at the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mt. Scopus.

 The morning's ceremonies concluded a block away, at Atatürk Plaza, at the obelisk.
Carved in its stone:

1914-1918

THIS MONUMENT IS DEDICATED TO 298 HONOURABLE TURKISH ARMY SOLDIERS FALLEN AT THE BE'ER SHEVA FRONT FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR COUNTRY

The distinguished representative of Turkey spoke (in English) about the martyrs who died defending the then-Ottoman town of Beer Sheva.
He was proud to see the old Turkish train station behind him, part of the famous Hijaz Railway,  being carefully restored as he spoke.

We stood for the Turkish and the Israeli national anthems. 

Wreaths were placed at the foot of the tall obelisk, which was built in 2002.

With the strained Israel-Turkey  relations in the last few years, it was very special to see the two flags flying side by side.

Let's hope Atatürk's motto, "Peace at home, peace in the world," will someday be true for all countries in the Middle East. 
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For more see Australian blogger-teacher Hels' post http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/australian-and-new-zealand-light.html
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U is for uniform(s)

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You can put our kids into army uniforms when they are 18, but you can never make them uniform.

Even from the back you can tell that each one is unique. 
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Their guide was explaining the wide expanse of Jerusalem far below as we stood atop Phasael tower inside the Tower of David museum.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday.)
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Soldiers and sandwiches

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S is for soldiers and sandwiches (or in Hebrew, sandvitchim). 
They were sitting just outside the Old City wall.
I think they were getting a head start while  "guarding" their comrades' lunchboxes.

I took the photo from across the street so you will have to click once or twice to see the boys better. 

Once inside Jaffa Gate they started trekking like Sherpas down the narrow pedestrian-only lanes of the Old City.
The whole group of young soldiers was probably waiting for them at the open square in the Jewish Quarter, where there is room to picnic.

Walking around with a knowledgeable guide, learning about our national heritage  is part of soldiers' training in the Israel Defense Forces.

And as Napoleon reportedly said, "C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat," meaning "An army travels [or marches] on its stomach," meaning  "a group of soldiers or workers can only fight or function effectively if they have been well fed."

Bon appetit, dear soldiers!  
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(A post for ABC Wednesday meme.)
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