Written by Julie Shabto '14
Today, our eight soldiers joined us! We first did ice breaker activities with the soldiers at Mitzudat Coach and then paid our respects to the 19 soldiers buried there, who were killed in a Syrian attack, by leaving stones on the memorial. We continued on to a short hike along the Banyas River, working up an appetite for our lunch in the city of Kiryat Shmona. As we ate, we chatted with the Israeli soldiers—their English is so much better than my Hebrew will ever be—and got to know them on a basic level.
Next, we went jeeping through the Golan Heights. Although it didn’t rain today, some of us managed to get pretty muddy. We stopped at a few points for some beautiful views, and the jeeping guides pointed out the Lebanese and Syrians borders, which we could see from a distance… After jeeping, we saw the Lebanese border up close at the Misgav Am Kibbutz, which literally sits on the border of Israel and Lebanon, where Hezbollah is positioned. We heard a male member of the kibbutz, Joseph, speak about living on the Lebanese border during the past decades, where rockets fired by Hezbollah occasionally land. As we walked back to the bus, we could hear the call to prayer in Lebanon and see cars in the street, possibly driven by members of Hezbollah.
For some reason, it took until today for me to really grasp that the Israelis in the army—like the soldiers that joined us and will be with us for the next 5 days, or those that defended the post at Mitzudat Coach and were killed, or my cousins in Israel who I have visited several times—are our age and are just like us yet their lives are so different. While we have spent the last few years at Dartmouth worrying about what classes to take for our majors and planning our off terms, they have been devoting their lives to defending the state of Israel. They are thinking about their country on a daily basis while I will admit I am mostly thinking about myself. The soldiers joining us changed out of their uniforms and have been hanging out with us like nothing is different. I had a whole conversation with one of the female soldiers about nail polish colors and the silly names they have; I learned they cannot have colored nails while serving. The Israelis have the same interests as we do, they hope to study similar things, and they enjoy plowing through mud in a jeep just as much as we do, but as 19- and 20-year olds living in Israel, the reality is they have to be in the army. Being with the soldiers today has given me a newfound respect for them and understanding of their lives. I am really looking forward to spending the next few days with them.