Israel Defence Forces

The IDF- Israel Defense Forces, also known as Zahal, is the national army of Israel.

Until 1948 the British had a mandate over Israel- known as Palestine. The Jews in Palestine those days wanted to fight the British and defend their selves so they made underground organizations called Lehi, Hagana, Palmach and IZL- Irgun Zva'i Leumi and fought the British (mostly with terror actions). On May 1948 David Ben Gurion- Israel's first prime minister, declared on the establishment of a Jewish State and on the next day the just established state of Israel was in a war against the Arab states surrounding it. David Ben Gurion knew that Israel would need an army to defend itself so he united the underground organizations into one army that fought for Israel. Until today this army is still called the

Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF is an army of humanitarian. When there are crisis around the world like the earthquakes in Turkey and Haiti or the last occasions in Nepal, the IDF sends extraction units and medical assistance.

The IDF is one of the only armies around the world that requires women to compulsory military service. Since 1948 women have taken a great part of the IDFs' actions. Women serve in the army is usually shorter than the men's- 24 months compared to 36 months. Married women won't serve in the army and so do pregnant women or mothers for a child, the reasons for that are both religious and conscience.

For equal rights, in the year 2000 the Knesset made a law that said that women can take any part in the army- administrative roles and even combat roles.

My grandparents from my mothers' side had a very good friend (they met because of him) called Isaac Ogen. Isaac served in Submarine force, on a Submarine called INS Dakar. INS Dakar was a British submarine that was sold to the Israeli army. In 1968, on its' way to Israel the submarine disappeared. There were no survivors.

My grandparents lost one of their closest friends. They wanted to name their first child after him but it turned out that the child is a girl' so they wanted to name their second child after him but it was also a girl. My grandmother told me that she thought that maybe it just wasn't meant to be. My mom met mu dad a few years later, then she introduced him to her parents. My grandmother told me that she was so thrilled when she heard that my fathers' name is Ogen. I've heard that story a lot, I think that for my grandparents it's a little gift from fate?

Could be.

In about 3 years me and my friends will wear our uniforms and go to the army. For about two years, only at the age of 18, I will go to the IDF to learn how to and to protect Israel.  When I'll go to the army I want to go to a unit called IDF Spokesperson's Unit. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the unit that keeps in touch with the public and the media. The unit gives out all the official announcements and when there is an operation or anything like that the unit needs to speak to the public, calm them down and tell them what to do or not to do. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit basically explains the IDF and its' actions to the world. I don’t want to be the head of the unit and be the official IDF speaker, but I do want to do my serves in that unit. I want to be a part of the Embassy and IDF and Israel advocacy. So this is where I want to be when I go to the army, and why.

I go to the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa. There are a lot of special and different things about my school, one of them is the Military School- kids in between the ages 15-18 chose to move out of their home and go to a school far from home. To get into the school they needed to be at great physical shape and had to do a lot of try-outs. For three years they go to a regular school and regular classes but they have extras: they live in the school, they have a lot of fitness trainings and they learn how to read a map or how to plan military operations. This school is very special and experiential then when they go to regular service, they usually get better jobs because of the studies in a boarding school and the preparations service.