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The Back Page: �After a Few Seconds, the Garbage Can Blew Up�
Matti Friedman
During their time in the army, the few thousand combat soldiers of the November 2000 draft saw the IDF slowly realize that it had a war on its hands and transplant its tactics from Lebanon to the West Bank and Gaza: armored convoys, ambushes, air strikes. As shattered caf�s and buses and rows of black body bags became routine for the people at home, the soldiers� routine became one of incursions into Palestinian territory, closures, curfews, arrests, and "targeted assassinations" of terrorist leaders. Indeed, in the past three years the line between battlefield and home front became blurred and these soldiers became used to fighting a confusing war on terror while behind them terror wreaked havoc on their families and friends. It was often not clear who should worry about whom.
Gilad Oren, 21, of Jerusalem, was drafted in November 2000 and served in the elite Egoz infantry unit. Now, as he returns to a civilian world that he left when he was 18, Gilad shares his thoughts on the three years that have passed.
The Jerusalem Report: Did you know what you were getting into in November 2000?
Gilad Oren: Like everyone, I�d seen TV and I had some general idea of what was going on. I knew I was going into a combat unit, and I knew that involved risking my life.
When did you go on your first operation?
After 14 months of training we began carrying out operations, mostly going into cities and towns and arresting wanted Palestinians.
Is there one experience that you remember more than others?
There are a few things that I will never forget. There was the time when we were in Tulkarm and they informed us that a guy from another platoon had been killed. His name was Edward Korol. [A medic in Egoz, Korol was hit by a Palestinian sniper on March 8, 2002, during an incursion into the Tulkarm refugee camp.]
How did you react?
This was the first time for me. I knew, in theory, that this kind of thing could happen, but still, we were all completely shocked. The danger was real now. I didn�t know him well, because he had been drafted four months before me and was in an older platoon. But we were in the same company, so of course I knew him, and I couldn�t believe it.
Did you come close to getting killed?
Once, in the middle of the fighting in Nablus during Defensive Shield, we were sent into the city in an APC and the whole platoon was ordered out. There was shooting all around us, we didn�t know what was going on, and there was nowhere to take cover. We scattered, and I took cover behind a garbage can. After a few seconds we moved forward, and the garbage can blew up. It was a bomb.
Later, we got used to that kind of thing. When we first arrived in Nablus it was scary and confusing. People were firing at us from all directions, and it wasn�t target practice. It wasn�t training anymore. But with time, even that becomes routine, and you just get on with your mission -- arresting wanted Palestinians, enforcing curfews, blowing up weapons factories...
In terms of operations, even if the wanted men you�re supposed to arrest are particularly dangerous, it becomes a routine. Go there, get that guy, go somewhere else, get someone else. It becomes normal.
You get used to other things in the army as well. You get used to the uncertainty, which was really out of control in our unit: You never know what�s going to happen, where you�re going to be sent. All of a sudden you can find yourself in the middle of Jenin. Or you�ve showered, put on your dress uniform and you�re on your way home, and then they say, "Get back into combat fatigues, you�re going to Nablus." You never know the future, you can never make plans. Your life is the army.
In November 2000, did you think that this war was going to last for the entire length of your service?
Judging by the way things are going in this country, I still don�t see the end. How can you be optimistic? When we went in, the situation was actually much more calm. It hadn�t really gone crazy yet. But I knew what I was getting into. I said, I�ll give three years of my life to this, and whatever will be will be.
How did your army experiences change you?
The army matures you and makes you an adult. I went in a kid. I didn�t even shave before I was drafted. You grow up in the army, you undergo all kinds of changes, you learn things. You learn the limits of your abilities, and who you can trust. You go from being a child to being a fighter. For me, at least, the experience was critical. None of my friends from home went to combat units; they were all desk jockeys. I was the only one who chose combat. It�s amazing how different from them I am now. I�m more self-reliant, more cynical. I�m older.
November 17, 2003
Middle East
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