Hashev Ha-Mefakedet (listen commander), that is what I had to say when I wanted to ask an adult something last week. Where was I you ask? Well, I was at Gadna, Gadna is a program run by the IDF for Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora to encourage Jews to join the army.
There are many things that I liked about the week and there are many things that I found interesting.
One of the most interesting things was the way that the Israelis there related to Gadna, they were much more disrespectful than we were to the commanders. It was interesting to see, because most of them will end up in the army in the next few years, and if they come to the army with the same attitude that they had during Gadna then I don’t want them protecting the future of the Jewish people. However the indifference of the Israelis did have a positive side to it, because the Israelis did not want to do anything we ended up doing things every time that the commanders need someone to do something extra. My team (team 10) ended up setting up the firing range the day before we shot and we also got to clean the guns with the other people from our group after we and everyone else there this week shot them.
Another thing that was interesting this week was our commanders. At first they were very mean then got nicer during the middle of the program then got mean again at the end. It was odd listening to commands from them because we thought they were only 20 years old. Meaning that they were only about 4/3 years older than us. However at the end of the program they told us that they were 18, making them about 1.5 years older than us. It was odd, because mentally they were more like 10 years older than us. I wonder if the army will have the same effect on the Israelis that were also at Gadna that week.
The other major thought going through my head this week was how much I want to join the IDF. This week really helped me realize how important it is to have an army that is there to protect the Jews and the Jewish state. The biggest thing that made me want to join the IDF was when we learned about all of the thing that you can do in the army and how I would be able to do weapons and robotics research in the army.